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Happy New Year! We begin a new Liturgical Year on the 1st Sunday of Advent. You’ll notice that our Advent Gospel Weeklies lessons focus on joyful anticipation, which is the spirituality of the season of Advent. We delay the celebration of Christmas to, well, Christmas.
Our culture may push us to celebrate Christmas before Christmas and skip over the season of Advent altogether. The Church encourages us to slow the pace and take time to focus on preparing our hearts to celebrate the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. During Advent, we also consider how well we are preparing for Christ’s Second Coming.
In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus warns the disciples to be ready for the Second Coming: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from…the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap” (Luke 21:34–35a). Our hearts and spirits can certainly become drowsy and weary from the mad rush of Christmas preparations, and we can become anxious about the demands of daily life. Our Lord warns us to be ready—not to have all the gifts made or purchased, the house and tree decorated, the baking done, the cards sent out—but to be ready to stand erect and raise our heads to the Son of Man when he comes in glory.
We pray that your weeks of Advent will be ones of joyful anticipation and that you remember the joyful part! We pray that you don’t let the trappings of the “perfect” Christmas become a trap that prevents you from truly celebrating the most perfect gift of all—God’s Son become man—and the promise of redemption and eternal life he brings!
Image credit: Corinne SIMON/CIRIC
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