Beginning the Church’s liturgical year, Advent (meaning, “ad-venio in Latin or “to come to”) is the season leading up to the celebration of Christmas.
Preparing our Hearts and Minds for Christ
Preparing Our Hearts and Minds
The Advent season is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming at the end of time and also to the anniversary of the Lord’s birth on Christmas.
Advent devotions remind us of the meaning of the season. Special Advent devotions include the lighting of the Advent wreath; the Advent calendar which helps remind us of the season with daily thoughts and activities; Advent prayers that prepare us spiritually for the birth of Jesus Christ.
Bishop Gainer shares a number of Advent traditions in the below video.
- Advent Calendar & Resources from the U.S. Bishops
- About Advent Wreaths
- The “O Antiphons” of Advent
- Parish Penance Services
- Information on Penance and Reconciliation
- Parish Christmas Masses
- Daily Bible Readings
- Incarnation
- Christ Mass: A Celebration of the Humility of God
- The Epiphany of the Lord
- Blessing of a Christmas Tree
- Blessing of a Christmas Manger or Nativity Scene
- Festival of Lessons & Carols
522 -The coming of God’s Son to earth is an event of such immensity that God willed to prepare for it over centuries. He makes everything converge on Christ: all the rituals and sacrifices, figures and symbols of the “First Covenant.”195 He announces him through the mouths of the prophets who succeeded one another in Israel. Moreover, he awakens in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this coming.
523 – St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way.196 “Prophet of the Most High,” John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last.197 He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother’s womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being “the friend of the bridegroom,” whom he points out as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”198 Going before Jesus “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion, and through his martyrdom.199
524 – When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming.200 By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”201
195. Heb 9:15.
196. cf. Acts 13:24; Mt 3:3.
197. Lk 1:76; cf. 7:26; Mt 11:13.
198. Jn 1:29; cf. Acts 1:22; Lk 1:41; 16:16; Jn 3:29.
199. Lk 1:17; cf. Mk 6:17-29.
200. Cf. Rev 22:17.
201. Jn 3:30
