Forward Movement, the excellent resource for many things Episcopal, including the Forward Day by Day booklets many of you are familiar with, has once again challenged people to reflect on one word each day of Advent. Each word is taken from the Sunday liturgy – the prayers and readings for the Sunday in Advent for each of the 4 weeks of the Advent season. I am going to attempt (pray for me) to add a short reflection on each word each day of Advent. To subscribe to the Advent Word series from Forward Movement, click HERE.

Sunday November 30th – Again

Advent is all about “again”. In our opening Collect of the Day for the 1st Sunday in Advent we are reminded, “when he (Jesus) shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to life immortal”. The word “Advent” comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming”, and during this season before Christmas, we rejoice and celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ at his humble birth in Bethlehem, while also looking forward to his “parousia”, Greek for “coming” which is usually associated with the Second Coming of Christ. “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead”, as we say in the Nicene Creed. And at the end of the book of Revelation, we hear an Aramaic word, “Maranatha”, which basically means: “Our Lord, Come”, or even “Our Lord has come”. This word incorporates the double meaning of Advent as we too wait for Jesus to come again, so we may rise to life immortal. Maranatha, Jesus, Maranatha again!