{"id":10084,"date":"2017-12-08T12:15:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T12:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=10084"},"modified":"2017-12-08T19:24:18","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T19:24:18","slug":"advent-second-candle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=10084","title":{"rendered":"Advent – Second Candle"},"content":{"rendered":"

2nd Candle\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 (purple) The Bethlehem Candle or The Candle of Preparation\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 God kept his promise of a Saviour who would be born in Bethlehem. Preparation means to \u201cget ready\u201d. Help us to be ready to welcome YOU, O GOD! \u201cAs is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: \u2018A voice of one calling in the desert, \u2018Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God\u2019s salvation.\u2018 (Luke 3:4-6)<\/p>\n

Traditionally, Advent wreaths are constructed of a circle of evergreen branches into which four candles are inserted, representing the four weeks of Advent.\u00a0 Ideally, three candles are purple and one is rose, but white candles can also be used.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The purple candles in particular symbolize the prayer, penance, and preparatory sacrifices and goods works undertaken at this time. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, when the priest also wears rose vestments at Mass; Gaudete Sunday is the Sunday of rejoicing, because the faithful have arrived at the midpoint of Advent, when their preparation is now half over and they are close to Christmas.<\/p>\n

The progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord\u2019s first coming into the world and the anticipation of his second coming to judge the living and the dead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2nd Candle\u00a0\u2013 (purple) The Bethlehem Candle or The Candle of Preparation\u00a0\u2013 God kept his promise of a Saviour who would be born in Bethlehem. Preparation means to \u201cget ready\u201d. Help us to be ready to welcome YOU, O GOD! \u201cAs … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10084"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10104,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084\/revisions\/10104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}