Advent: a time of expectancy ...

(Vatican Radio) Advent is probably the most pleasant but most misunderstood season in the Church year says Father Peter Fleetwood in a conversation with Veronica Scarisbrick:
Listen:
"...To be in Christmas mode a month before Christmas happens..But really I've tried to help people understand over the years that there's a lot to be gained to keeping to Advent... unfortunately our culture because of commercial pressure I think mainly, as well as the pressure of organising things in schools. That's to suit the school rather than to suit the faith, makes people think of Christmas far too early. That means you miss out on those lovely sets of readings, meditations and songs that are all to do with expectancy and waiting, waiting for the ‘Coming of the Lord’ rather than pretending He's here already..." ..
In the course of this conversation Father Peter highlights how while people generally enjoy the Christmas season on one occasion a minority in the West Midlands, wanted to replace the word Christmas with ‘Winterval’. An initiative which it seems provoked a negative reaction among many the local people.Curiously those who complained the loudest belonged the Sikh, Muslims and other religious communities.
At this point Veronica Scarisbrick asks Father Peter how he would explain Advent to non - Christians:
" Well I think the first thing I would do is to say is that we remember certain figures in our faith more than anything else, the first one is Saint John the Baptist..he was like a voice in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord. The second person who comes to mind in Advent and this is probably the most beautiful part of Advent is Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It's a season of expectancy ...to be close to Mary is something that many Christian families, that still celebrate Advent, try to do very consciously. She is one of the figures that they try and hold very close in their hearts..”…
Also in this programme you can hear about the living crib Saint Francis tried to recreate at ‘Greccio’ in Umbria. A touching scene which has become part of Christian culture:
"..What that recalls is that people coming from the different farms, villages and towns all coming to this place because they'd heard through Giovanni and Francis that there was going to be a different celebration of Christmas this year. Some of them brought their animals from the farms and one person even brought a brand new baby and Francis who was a deacon read the gospel ...Francis wanted to tell people without words but with images, the sight, the sounds and the smells, that when Jesus was born it didn't just change human history, it touched everything that had ever been created. And that's the great insight of Saint Francis which...I think was one of the reasons that our new Pope chose his name. He spoke to the press after he was elected and said: Francis is the poor man, Francis is the man of dialogue and Francis is the man of creation and don't we have a shocking relationship with creation nowadays. I think Pope Francis has been struck, as I have, by Saint Francis's desire to respect everything God ever made. And that comes to a focal point in a very beautiful way in that living crib that was first experienced at ‘Greccio’..."...