About Advent

The Advent season is filled with beautiful sights, sounds and joyful anticipation. The First Sunday of Advent is also the Church's "New Year's Day," as it marks the beginning of a new liturgical year.

Advent, which means "arrival" or a "coming" in Latin, anticipates three comings:

Remembering His birth:
We prepare to experience a renewed, heart-felt acceptance of Jesus Christ into our hearts on Christmas Day, as we celebrate His miraculous birth in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago.

Anticipating His second coming:
Throughout the four-week season, Catholics intentionally renew their anticipation of Christ's Second Coming, when He will come to judge the living and the dead.

Will we allow him to "arrive" in our hearts?
The season is especially teeming with God's graces.

In order to receive them, though, we must be prepared. God speaks to us in our consciences and through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

He comes to us in the Eucharist, and in the Word of God proclaimed at Mass.

He arrives in the person of the beggar, the needy family, the lonely and the suffering.

Are we ready to receive and welcome Him when He comes, however He comes?

Learn more about Advent at any of the following Web sites:

www.usccb.org/advent
www.advent2008.com

(Certain content provided courtesy of Catholic Online's Advent Web site at www.advent2008.com)