Advent opens the Church's year. It begins on the evening before the Sunday nearest 30 November and ends on the afternoon of 24 December, four Sundays and up to four weeks of waiting for Christ: for his coming in the flesh at Bethlehem, which Christmas celebrates, and for his coming in glory at the end of time, which the season's first weeks keep before us. It is a season of devout and joyful expectation rather than of penance in Lent's sense, though it wears violet and holds its joy in reserve. The whole difficulty of Advent is that the world around it is already keeping Christmas; the whole art of it is to wait anyway.

What you need

• A calendar with the four Sundays of Advent, 8 December and 17 December marked
• An Advent wreath with three violet candles and one rose candle
• A Bible or missal for the Advent readings from Isaiah and the Gospels
• The confession times at your parish before Christmas

When to pray it

From the First Sunday of Advent (between 27 November and 3 December) to the afternoon of 24 December; the last eight days, 17 to 24 December, are the immediate preparation for Christmas.

Steps

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   Step 1: Understand what Advent is

   Advent, from the Latin adventus, 'coming', is the four-week season that begins the liturgical year and prepares for Christmas. The Church keeps it as a time of expectation with two objects: the memory of the Son of God's first coming among us, and the longing for his second coming at the end of time. It wears violet, omits the Gloria at Sunday Mass so that the angels' song may return fresh at Christmas, and reads Isaiah, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary week by week. Advent is not Lent: fasting is not required, and its spirit is joyful. But it is not Christmas either, and keeping the difference is the whole of this guide.

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   Step 2: Keep the two halves

   The liturgy divides the season at 17 December. From the First Sunday until 16 December the readings and prayers look toward the Lord's coming in glory, with Isaiah's promises and John the Baptist's call to prepare the way; the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, wears rose and tells us to rejoice, for the Lord is near. From 17 to 24 December everything turns to the immediate preparation for his birth: the Gospels of the annunciations to Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, the Visitation, the birth of John, and at Vespers the great O Antiphons. Read the day's Gospel each morning and you will feel the season change under you.

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   Step 3: Set up and light the wreath

   The Advent wreath, a circle of evergreen with four candles, three violet and one rose, has become the season's sign in Catholic homes as well as in churches. Bless it on or just before the First Sunday of Advent and light one candle that week, two the second, three (adding the rose) the third, and all four in the last week, at the evening meal or at family prayer. The How to Make and Bless an Advent Wreath guide gives the blessing and the weekly order. Its growing light through the darkest weeks of the year says what the season says: the Light is coming.

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   Step 4: Go to confession before Christmas

   The Church has always joined the joy of Christmas to the purification of the heart; John the Baptist, whom Advent hears twice, preached a baptism of repentance to make ready. Go to confession during Advent, ideally in the first two weeks, before the parish schedules fill with Christmas preparations. Prepare with the Examination of Conscience guide and pray the Act of Contrition. If it has been years, the How to Return to Confession After Many Years guide is written for you, and Advent is a good time to come home.

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   Step 5: Keep the Advent readings and the Immaculate Conception

   Advent's weekday Mass readings are almost all from Isaiah, and reading them at home, even five minutes a day, is the simplest Advent practice there is. Within the season fall the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December, a holy day of obligation and the patronal feast of the United States, and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on 12 December. Both belong to Advent's meaning: the Mother who waited for the Child. Pray The Angelus▾ at noon through the season; it is the Advent prayer par excellence, telling the Incarnation three times a day.

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   Step 6: Fast from the rush

   The world's December is loud, full and finished by the twenty-fourth; Advent is quiet, empty and only beginning. Choose now what you will not do this year: which parties to decline, which shopping to finish early or drop, which evenings to keep free, which screens to switch off after dinner. Give the time to the readings, the wreath and the people who will be alone at Christmas. If you keep a small fast, from sweets or from music, until Christmas Eve, the feast will be a feast. Advent's penance, such as it is, is mostly the penance of waiting.

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   Step 7: Pray the O Antiphons

   From 17 to 23 December the Church sings, before the Magnificat▾ at Evening Prayer, seven ancient antiphons that call on Christ by his prophetic titles: Wisdom, Lord, Root of Jesse, Key of David, Dawn, King of the Nations, Emmanuel. Each begins with 'O' and ends with 'come'. The hymn 'O Come, O Come, Emmanuel' is a paraphrase of them. Pray one each evening with the Magnificat▾, or with the whole of Evening Prayer; the How to Pray the O Antiphons guide gives each one. These seven days are the heart of Advent.

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   Step 8: Keep Christmas Eve

   Advent ends on the afternoon of 24 December, and Christmas begins with the evening's first Vespers and the Vigil Mass. Spend the day finishing, not starting: the last candle, the crib set up with the manger still empty, the house made quiet. At Evening Prayer the Church sings the Benedictus▾ (Canticle of Zechariah▾) at Morning Prayer and the Magnificat▾ at evening every day of the year, but on this day their words about the dawn from on high and the promise to our fathers come true. Go to the Vigil Mass, the Mass during the Night or the Mass at Dawn, and place the Child in the manger when you come home.

Tips

• Advent has two halves. Until 16 December the readings look toward the Lord's second coming; from 17 December they turn to the events before his birth. Let your prayer follow that shift.
• Do not begin the Christmas carols at home until Christmas Eve if you can bear it; Advent has hymns of its own, above all 'O Come, O Come, Emmanuel'.
• The Immaculate Conception on 8 December is a holy day of obligation in the United States; check your parish's Mass times early in the week.
• Fast from the rush: decide before the season which invitations, purchases and commitments you will decline.

Related devotions

• Liturgy of the Hours
• The Holy Rosary

Related practices

• Lectio Divina