My dollar store Advent wreath

It is too late to order online and too difficult to find a Catholic store open after work. But the dollar stores have everything needed to make an Advent wreath – for a buck. I got a wreath, candle stands and candles. I didn’t even use pliers to twist the wires around the candle stands and there you have it.

An Advent wreath sets the tone for the weeks before Christmas. It is a way for us to take back our season from the vendors, to overcome commercialization with spirituality. And coming closer to home, it forms our children to value not the presents under the tree but The Present from the Heavenly Father.

Advent is all about preparation and anticipation as St. John the Baptist exhorted the people to fill the valleys and level the mountains. The wreath itself is an educational tool. The circle has no beginning or end – just like eternity or God. The evergreen leaves in the wreath in the dead of Winter is life – just as Jesus Who is the Life. The four candles are the four weeks. Every week, we light one and the place is brighter. Since Jesus is the Light, the place gets brighter the closer He gets. The candles should be purple – a color of penance and royalty: penance for our sins, royalty for the King of kings. So, this little thing stresses preparing and anticipating the comings of Jesus.
Fr. Z mentions the ways that Jesus has come as, “He came historically at Bethlehem in the fullness of time. In the liturgical year he comes to us sacramentally. He will come again at the end of the world as Judge of the living and the dead. Christ comes to us also in the two-fold consecration of the Body and Blood of Christ by the priest at Holy Mass and, in a special way in a good Holy Communion. He comes in the person of the priest, who is alter Christus, another Christ. He comes in the words of Holy Scripture. He also comes in the person of our neighbor, especially those who are in need of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

During Advent, John the Baptist has been reminding us in the liturgy to "make straight His paths". When we come to the Lord in death, or He comes to us in His Second Coming, He will make straight the path whether we have during our earthly lives done our best to straighten it ahead of time or not.”

Here's a video about Advent - as a time to slow down, prepare and anticipate.
If video fails, go to http://divine-ripples.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-dollar-store-advent-wreath.html