Golden Sunday: Silence, Peace and ultimate CONNECTION

And the feeling that we're almost there... 🕯️

You know how it is – the days before Christmas suddenly have this strange, accelerated feel to them. and at the same time a calming energy. Throughout Advent, we have honored home, family, friends, and ourselves. And I have found that this last, Fourth Sunday of Advent, is such a beautiful culmination and is supposed to lead us to the highest – honoring God, higher leadership, and all his helpers. Do you feel it? It's that feeling that you are being held by a power that transcends our daily hustle and bustle.

This Sunday is rightly called Golden Sunday, and I like that name so much because it has the color of light, peace, and such a quiet, deep joy. In the liturgy, it also has the color gold!

When I think about my Advent wreath now, I have to smile. Tonight we will finally light the fourth, last candle! You know, it's called Angel's – it symbolizes peace and tranquility. And that's exactly what we need most in this pre-Christmas finale.

The last candle on the wreath reminds us of the power of warm relationships, not just at Christmas, but all year round. What a beautiful thought! I always light it with deep respect for God and the beings who help us every day. It's such a way of saying thank you to everyone.

• I know it's time for the final touches that make Christmas Christmas. Maybe today we're finishing up the last of the cookies - probably just unbaked ones - and preparing fruit bowls.
• I'm already thinking to myself: "We're almost there!" It symbolizes the end of the wait.
• This Sunday is also, according to tradition, the most joyful day of the entire Advent, full of joy from the soon coming of Jesus Christ. The silence that descends into my apartment with the flame of the Angel Candle – that is the genuine peace that I so want to preserve!

In families, this Sunday is traditionally marked by building nativity scenes, decorating trees and also baking Christmas cakes. The smell of freshly baked Christmas cakes, which by the way is one of the oldest Czech Christmas pastries or stollen, is the true smell of Christmas for me. Did you know that its shape resembled Baby Jesus in a swaddling cloth? And the cross-stitching was supposed to protect people from evil forces! I love those old stories!

And although decorating a Christmas tree is considered to be a pagan tradition and was originally decorated with apples, nuts and other foods, it is such a way of thanking nature!

And what about the carols, dear ladies? The first time carols can be sung is when the first star appears on Christmas Eve, although most of them celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and should therefore be sung afterwards. That seems like such a nice, little tradition to me! Even carols were created as songs of celebration and thanksgiving. So let's brush them up to get the right atmosphere.

This Sunday is simply a day to stop and be grateful for the family and friends we are lucky enough to have in our lives. It is a good time to send up a prayer of thanks.

We light all four candles, and now the Golden one too. And as my grandmother used to say, yeast dough (like Christmas cake) has become a means of increasing wealth in popular belief. So may our coming year be full of abundance, gratitude and peace, symbolized by the flame of the Angel Candle.

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Yule – pagan holiday of the winter solstice