The Season of Advent
Calendar, Colors, and Icon
Dates: Sunday, November 30th - Wednesday, December 24th, 2025
Colors: Dark Blue and Pink (for Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent)
Icon: The seasonal icon for Advent contains the Greek letters Alpha and Omega but slightly alters the Alpha to evoke the hands of a clock. This calls to mind Revelation 1:8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come….”
About The Season
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
- Isaiah 9:1
There is a 1500-year-old tradition of celebrating Advent in the Christian church as a season of preparation for the feast of Christmas. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical calendar, which takes us through the drama of the story of Scripture and calls us out of our cultural rhythms to find ourselves in light of God’s time and story. Though it falls at the end of our calendar year, Advent is just the beginning.
“The liturgical year does not begin at the heart of the Christian enterprise. It does not immediately plunge us into the chaos of the Crucifixion or the giddy confusion of the Resurrection. Instead, the year opens with Advent, the season that teaches us to wait for what is beyond the obvious. It trains us to see what is behind the apparent. Advent makes us look for God in all those places we have until now, ignored.” - Joan Chittister
Every day of the Christian life, we are called to repent and seek the Lord. The liturgical calendar helps us to approach repentance in different ways. For instance, the repentance in Lent is one of mourning and lament, remembering we are dust, while the repentance in Advent has an orientation of joy and hopeful anticipation. Yes, the joy of Christmas, but also so much more.
In Advent, we are not merely waiting for the birth of Jesus. On this side of the story, we already know that Christ was born as a meek infant to a lowly virgin. And yet, we still find ourselves waiting in the darkness, like those of his time who awaited their Messiah, with news headlines that break our hearts, and our own sinful tendencies and patterns of brokenness overshadowing Christ in us and in our lives.
We are not meant to stay in the nativity story, and Advent doesn’t ask us to pretend as if we don’t already know about the incarnation. Yes, we remember and meditate upon our Lord’s humble birth, but there is more that Christ came to show us; there is more Advent invites us to see. This season of preparation, of prayerful watching and waiting, calls to mind another coming of Christ: the Parousia, the “Presence” or “Arrival” of Christ again in his Second Coming.
This Advent, our sermon series is titled “His Name Shall Be Called” and is grounded in Isaiah 9:
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
- Isaiah 9:6-7
This is a season of remembering God’s promises to us in Scripture. We are watching and waiting for the comings of Christ, anticipated from old. God’s coming in the incarnation as a meek infant born to peasants, His coming into our lives, turning our world around and gifting us His Holy Spirit, and His coming again, which Scripture tells us is at hand. In Advent, we pray, Maranatha, or "the Lord has come," and come, Lord Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us!
Practices for the Season
Pray. Use the season of Advent and beginning of the Christian Year as a time to renew and reimagine rhythms of prayer in your life and in the life of your household. Consider establishing a steady rhythm of 20-30 minutes of prayer each morning and evening. Consider setting alarms on your clock for morning, noon, evening, and bedtime that will remind you to pause and pray.
Fast before you feast. One traditional way to embody the preparatory waiting of the season of Advent is by holding off on major feasting and gifts until the 12 days of Christmas. Consider fasting from food throughout the weeks of Advent, choosing days or mealtimes to skip. During these times of emptiness, seek the fullness of God’s presence through prayer and serving others. Channel your desire for food towards the love of your Maker and neighbor.
Give your money, food, possessions, and time away. Take money that you would often spend on yourself or your family and give it to the poor. Consider restraining your household budget during this spending-heavy season when many of us will be tempted to go into debt paying for things we really do not need. Instead, choose to spend less on yourself and more on others who are in greater material need.
Serve those in your neighborhood and community. The holy days of Advent and Christmas can be a painfully lonely time for people in your congregation and neighborhood, especially this year. Consider baking and cooking food to deliver to your neighbors. Create gift baskets that can be given with ease to people in need.
Establish and nurture rituals and traditions. Keeping time through formative rituals and practices has always been at the life of the people of God (see our article on the Christian Year here). As we prepare to enter into the Christian Year, renew your commitment to the Church by first attending its services and events throughout the year. Additionally, consider establishing meaningful rituals and traditions in the life of your home. Keep an Advent Wreath (see below), establish a day where you serve other people, plan annual outings, etc. Use your imagination.
Resources for the Season
Seasonal Prayer Guide
The GMo staff compiled candle liturgies, devotional reflections, and daily readings for the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Our prayer is that these materials would help you to more deeply experience the beauty of the seasons. We hope you will engage these pages prayerfully, with an attunement to the Lord’s grace, mercy, and glory. Paper copies can be found in the church lobby.
Advent Wreath
It is a beautiful tradition of Western Christianity to keep an Advent wreath on the center of the table and light the candles consecutively on the Sundays of Advent (the pink is for the third Sunday of Advent). In the middle of the wreath sits the Christ Candle, which is lit during the 12 days of Christmas all the way up until Epiphany on January 6th. We recommend buying a wreath from a local supplier and then arranging the five candles around it. Here are a few options:
Music for the Season
Podcasts for the Season
Advent: The Season of Hope (Podcast) with Tish Harrison Warren (On the Trinity Forum)
Advent with Word & Table
Books for the Season
Advent: The Season of Hope by Tish Harrison Warren
We tend to think of Advent as the season of anticipation before Christmas―and while it is that, it’s also much more. Throughout its history, the church has observed Advent as a preparation not only for the first coming of Christ in his incarnation but also for his second coming at the last day. It's also about a third coming: the coming of Christ to meet us in our present moment, to make us holy by his Word and Sacrament. In this short volume, priest and writer Tish Harrison Warren explores all three of these "comings" of Christ and invites us into a deeper experience of the first season of the Christian year.
Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent by Enuma Okoro
Usually when we think of the Advent story, Mary, Joseph, and the angel Gabriel come to mind. Okoro approaches Advent a little differently, inviting us to sit for a while with Zechariah and Elizabeth and the story of how they came to bear their only son, John. The Advent story we so often associate with the joy of Christmas actually begins with deep sorrow and longing. But thankfully, in the kingdom of God, there is always more to the story than meets the eye, Enuma Okoro writes.
Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ by Flemming Rutledge
Advent, says Fleming Rutledge, is not for the faint of heart. As the midnight of the Christian year, the season of Advent is rife with dark, gritty realities. In this book, with her trademark wit and wisdom, Rutledge explores Advent as a time of rich paradoxes, a season celebrating at once Christ’s incarnation and his second coming, and she masterfully unfolds the ethical and future-oriented significance of Advent for the church.
Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us Then, Here, and Now by Scott Erickson
In a world that's difficult to make sense of, and a season that's so often overtaken by consumerism, here you'll find heart-stirring illustrations and thought-provoking meditations designed to show you the raw, powerfully sacred story of Christmas in a new light. Has the joy of the holiday season become painfully dissonant with the hard edges of life? Do you feel weary from the way Christmas has become a polished, predictable brand? You aren't alone. For too many of us, Christmas has lost its wonder. What if we stopped treating the Christmas story as something that happened a long time ago and started believing that it's a story that's still happening today?
Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany by Various Authors
This collection contains daily and weekly inspirational readings to help the reader prayerfully experience God through the liturgical seasons of winter. Well-loved classics by Andersen, Dickens, and Eliot join contemporary works by Frederick Buechner and Gary Schmidt. Poems by Donne, Herbert, and Rossetti are paired with newer voices: Scott Cairns, Benjamín Alire Sáenz, Susanna Childress, and Amit Majmudar. Readers are invited to experience Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany in its raw strangeness, stripped of sentiment, and to turn toward Emmanuel.
Living The Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross
Infuse your days with meaning. You are part of a larger Story. And the One who began the Story is at work today, in your life, in the midst of your meetings and bills and family activities that make the days rush by and blur together. In these pages Bobby Gross opens to you--and opens you to--the liturgical year, helping you inhabit God's Story every day.
Resources for Children and Families
Weekly Advent Children’s Bulletins
Pick up on Sundays at Grace Mosaic!
The Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Activity Book by Sally Lloyd-Jones (Author), Jago Silver (Illustrator)
This is your guide to a complete and creative celebration of the holiday season, filled with crafts, games, recipes, songs, and activities for every day of Advent. The Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Activity Book highlights the significance of the Nativity and meaning of God’s most precious gift.
Seek and Find: The First Christmas by Sarah Parker (Author), André Parker (Illustrator)
Search-and-find activity book with exciting things to find and lots of things to learn about the very first Christmas! Young children will love interacting with the Christmas story as they find, count, and sort over 450 hidden things in this large-format board book. They will learn key truths about the first Christmas through the biblically faithful illustrations and retellings of the Gospel accounts of Jesusbirth.
The Christmas Promise: A True Story from the Bible about God's Forever King by Alison Mitchell (Author), Catalina Echeverri (Illustrator)
This hardback storybook is a captivating retelling of the Christmas story, showing how God kept his promise to send a new King, a rescuing King, a forever King!
A Very Noisy Christmas by Tim Thornborough (Author), Jennifer Davison (Illustrator)
Some people think that Christmas was a "Silent Night." Far from it. It was filled with shouting, singing and screaming! It was as noisy as any of our Christmas celebrations. This fun and fresh retelling of the Christmas story comes with invitations to make some noise, so that children can join in as parents read to them. But it also shows children that at the heart of the Christmas story is something we should all be quiet and see: God’s Son Jesus was born, so that we can be friends with God forever.
All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss
Open a window each day of Advent onto the natural world. Here are twenty-five fresh images of the foundational truth that lies beneath and within the Christ story. In twenty-five portraits depicting how wild animals of the northern hemisphere ingeniously adapt when darkness and cold descend, we see and hear as if for the first time the ancient wisdom of Advent: The dark is not an end but the way a new beginning comes.
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas by Ann Voskamp
Unwrap the greatest Gift with your family this Advent season! With vivid, full-color illustrations, downloadable ornaments, and moving scenes from the Bible, this book is a gift your whole family can experience each day leading up to Christmas. Devotions by Ann Voskamp, bestselling author, daily Scripture readings, discussion questions, meaningful Advent activities, and beautiful illustrations.
The Biggest Story Advent: 25 Lift-the-Flap Devotions for Families by Kevin DeYoung (Author), Don Clark (Illustrator)
Kevin DeYoung, pastor and author of the popular Biggest Story Bible Storybook, has written 25 brand new advent devotions for kids that start from the beginning of Scripture and feature a daily surprise. Each reading opens with a fun lift-the-flap page, which kids open to reveal a Bible passage and colorful illustration. On the opposite page, DeYoung retells a related Bible story or prophecy that foretold Jesus’s coming, and shares a simple prayer to recite. Helping kids understand God’s redemption story from Genesis to Jesus’s birth, this devotional is a fun, interactive way to center your holiday traditions on Christ and to see how he is the fulfillment of promises God made throughout Scripture.
The One We're Waiting For: An Illustrated Advent Devotional for Families by Taylor Combs (Author), Aedan Peterson (Illustrator), Natalie Peterson (Illustrator)
The whole Bible whispers about a coming King. Every book before His arrival gives hints about what He might be like, and during Advent, families around the world gather to wait and prepare for the celebration of His birth. The One We're Waiting For is a 25-day family experience that will help kids from one to ninety-two anticipate and celebrate Christmas.
