Although the Christmastide season brought fun and frivolity, it was also a solemn spiritual season. Sr. Diana Doncaster of the Community of the Transfiguration is visiting with me to shed some light on this aspect of the season.

     One of the delights of reading Jane Austen’s novels is the skill with which she skewers religious hypocrisy, especially among the clergy. Mr. Collins, for example, in Pride & Prejudice, seems to worship wealth, influence, social rank and his own perquisites far above any worship of God or desire for spiritual growth. The self-indulgent Mr. Grant of Mansfield Park offers the bare minimum of religious observance, appearing to care little for the people in his parish and much for his personal comfort. Do these characters, who make a mockery of Christianity, reflect Austen’s view of that faith, or do they reveal something of her frustration with those who wear the garments of religion without any substance beneath?

     What we know of her reveals a woman whose Christian faith mattered deeply to her. Her letters indicate a practice of regular worship with glimpses of concern for fidelity to practicing as well as professing Christian teachings. The three extant prayers which came from her pen reflect a thorough knowledge of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England as well as her own spiritual struggles.

Certainly that is to be expected of one who was raised in a rectory, but we have good reason to believe that she gave far more than lip service to her faith. In one of her prayers, for example, she wrote: “Give us grace, Almighty Father, so to pray, as to deserve to be heard, to address thee with our Hearts, as with our lips.” For her, prayer was not just saying set words, but opening the whole self to God in hope and trust.

     That being the case, what would she have been doing during the weeks leading up to Christmas – the season known as Advent? Two practices familiar to us, the Advent wreath and the Advent calendar were as yet unknown in England. How would she have observed the season?

     It is likely that she would have been conscious of observing it as a time of preparation, although not in the shop ‘til you drop sense. Certainly there would have been planning and preparing for a special feast in honor of Christmas – a labor intensive effort in a household affording few servants. There would have been plans for gifts for the servants and poor neighbors and other practices. Perhaps refurbishing a gown or two, if that was affordable would have been included. In the midst that busyness, she would also probably have intensified her times for prayer, engaging in serious reflection about how she lived her life, and doing all she could to follow the admonition of Isaac Watts whose hymn, “Joy to the World” she would have known. “Let every heart prepare him room,” Watts wrote in this hymn, published in 1719.  

“Advent” comes from the Latin, meaning arrival or coming. Any thoughtful hostess goes to great effort to prepare a welcoming place and warm hospitality for guests whose arrival they anticipate. Jane Austen would have been among those who prepare inwardly as well as outwardly – working to clear away resentments, greed, ingratitude, etc. in order to make more space in herself for love, caring, thankfulness, generosity. She would have had a strong sense that she would be observing the birth of Jesus, not just as an historical event, but as an ongoing reality within herself. In one of her prayers she asked for help “that we may not, by our own neglect, throw away the salvation thou hast given us, nor be Christians only in name”. For her, it had to be real. She had to enter deeply into preparation for Christ’s coming.

     Advent invites Christians to reflect on the coming of Christ in two senses. One is the birth of Jesus – God becoming fully human, being born to a human mother and living among us – celebrated at Christmas. The other is the expectation that there will be a culmination of history – the return of the resurrected Christ in power and glory. The spirit of the season is captured in the “collect” appointed at that time to be prayed daily throughout Advent[1].

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light now in the time of this mortall life (in which thy son Jesus Christ came to visite us in great humility): that in the last day, when he shall come againe in his glorious Majesty; to judge both the quicke and the dead, we may rise to the life immortall, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy Ghost now and ever. Amen.

      Hearing and praying these words daily for the four weeks of Advent, as she would have done in the observant households of her father and later of her clergy brothers, Austen would have found herself reflecting on any “works of darkness” or failures in love, kindness and charity she might have allowed into her mind or actions. Each of the prayers we still have from her includes substantial focus on seeking God’s pardon and mercy, even while trusting that these pleas can be made with the certainty of an affirmative answer and help to live as lights of hope and compassion for others.

     Advent, for those living in Jane Austen’s time, would have not have been primarily focused on shopping, decorating, cooking and parties. The observances, for those who paid attention in church, would have included times of more quiet and reflection in preparation for the awesome meaning of Christmas, as well as preparations for the feast, the guests, the games and fun.

     The reflective Advent that observant Anglicans practiced during Austen’s time did not preclude joy, laughter, amusement at the follies of others and all of the other gifts which she offers generously in her delightful, insightful and subtly wise novels. Rather, then as now, those times of drawing back, drawing inward, preparing room in the innermost heart enriched the welcome and celebration of the 12 Days of Christmas.[2]

[1] A collect (pronounced (cáh-lect) is a formal prayer in a set style which summarizes the theme of the worship of a particular service or season. This prayer is found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer – the prayer book in use in the Church of England at that time – and even now in some congregations. This same collect in modern form is still part of the worship of the Episcopal and many other churches connected by bonds of history and affection to the Church of England.

[2] It should be noted that the 12 days of Christmas begin on December 25 and end with the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6. A quieter Advent would certainly have the added benefit of not starting Christmastide totally exhausted.