We tend to think of Advent as four quiet weeks before Christmas: candles, wreaths, anticipation, and joy. But historically, Advent wasn’t four weeks at all.
It was forty days.
Early Christians understood Advent as a “Little Lent”—a season of penance, prayer, and preparation before the joy of Christ’s birth. And surprisingly, the Church’s ancient wisdom reveals something we often forget:
Bethlehem is always in the shadow of Calvary.
A Little Lent Before Christmas
The Nativity scene is tender—Mary, Joseph, and the Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. But Christians are not naïve witnesses. We know where the Child is headed. The wood of the manger points to the wood of the Cross.
As author David Mathis observes:
“We cannot keep Bethlehem and Golgotha apart without losing what Christmas really is.”
This is why Advent was traditionally penitential. Before the Church shortened the season in the 9th century, Advent lasted forty days, echoing the forty-day fast of Lent. Violet vestments, a restrained liturgy, and the omission of the Gloria all signaled that the Church was preparing its heart for the coming of the Savior—the Child who would die for us.
Dom Guéranger explains that the Gloria is withheld because:
“The tongues of the angels are not loosened yet… it is not time to sing, ‘Glory to God in the highest.’”
Not until Christmas night.
Somber—Yet Still Joyful
But Advent is not Lent.
There is no Passion Week.
There is no Good Friday on the horizon.
Instead, Advent holds a tension that is uniquely its own:
penance paired with festivity.
We still sing the Alleluia, because we are waiting not for death, but for birth.
Not for the tomb, but for the manger.
As Great Advent puts it:
“Advent is both somber and festive because we are anticipating the birth of a Child… our long-awaited Messiah.”
A Season of True Preparation
Both Advent and Lent point beyond themselves.
Advent prepares the soul for the coming of Christ—
His Nativity long ago,
His coming in glory at the end of time,
and His quiet arrival in our hearts today.
Christmas doesn’t begin until the first Mass on Christmas Eve.
Everything before that is preparation.
Everything before that is longing.
And in a culture tempted to skip Advent entirely, the Church calls us back to the truth:
The Child we await is the Savior who will one day hang upon the Cross.
Advent invites us to hold both mysteries together—
the tenderness of the manger
and the triumph of the Cross.
Only then do we understand what Christmas truly is.
