Mother Angelica on Advent

On Preparing for Christmas

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Advent

Appreciating Advent

St. Théophane Vénard on Rejoicing

The third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday (from Latin meaning rejoice).  Advent is a penitential season in which the faithful ought to prepare for the Coming of Christ.  As Gaudete Sunday marks the halfway point of Advent, we are urged to rejoice as the Lord is near. 

Pope St. John Paul II on Advent

Fr. Andrew Greeley on Christmas-tide

C.S. Lewis on Advent

Benedict XVI on Advent

Caryll Houselander on Advent

Pope Francis on Hope

Exploring Advent through Art for the First Week of Advent

Detail of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel (1512)

Today is the start of the new liturgical year for the Roman Catholic Church. It also marks the first Sunday of Advent for the Latin Church (other Eastern Churches started a fortnight beforehand). In our secular society, we can be tricked into thinking that the Advent calendar is only a countdown for Christmas shopping.  But scripture during Advent reminds us of the dual nature of the season:  to prepare for the cyclical celebration of Our Lord's birth as well as Parousia (the Second Coming). 

The Lectionary during Cycle A features Isaiah's prophetic vision (IS 2:1-5) when God reigns Supreme and swords are hammered into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, a professor of liturgy at Loyola University in New Orleans, uses a detail of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel to illustrate the scripture.  



The Gospel (MT 24:37-44) alludes to the Second Coming where Jesus exhorts the faithful to be prepared as Noah was for the Flood.  This is sobering "Good News" but it should help lead us with our walk with the Lord, especially in this period of preparation.  

The Isaiah panel on the Sistine Chapel prompts a ponderous thought. Zsupan-Jerome wondered if position of Noah's Ark about Isaiah prompted the prophet to think  of Mount Ararat, where Noah's Ark landed, as he handed the vision of God's Holy Mountain? This would lend the aspiration that man should seek God's holy mountain to, borrowing a phrase from the Responsorial Psalm (PS 122), "dwell in the House of the Lord."

The Noahide Covenant established that the Lord would not destroy humanity through a flood. The Messiah's admonition to be prepared has some soothing subtexts rather than relying upon our own inadequate righteousness. The name Jesus can be translated to "Yahweh Saves".  Moreover, the Lord so loved the world, He sent His only son to be born of this world in all things but sin and be an intregal part of our salvific history. 

As we come into this season of  devout and joyful expectation, it would behoove us to consider the nuances, hermaneutics and deeper meanings of Advent, as expressed through art, scripture and the easily overlooked holiday trappings.  

h/t:  Loyola Press 

St. Clare of Assisi on Advent

Benedict XVI on Advent

The Modern Paradox

As we make Advent preparations in preparations for Emmanuel, we should listen to this contemporary wise man from the East and prepare ourselves for the Holy Spirit and share the love to transform the world.

Mother Teresa on Advent

Karl Rahner on Advent

Advent: A Season of Hope and Anticipation--Maranatha!

Archbishop Charles Chaput

In 2006, Archbishop Charles Chaput, the former Archbishop of Denver and current Archbishop of Philadelphia, offered some instructive observations about Advent:

Catholics observe these last few weeks every year before Christmas as the season of Advent. It’s a time when the Church asks us to prepare our lives to receive Jesus the child at Christmas, and Jesus the king at the end of time. How can we best do that? The tradition of the Church tells us by vigil and by prayer.

The season of Advent is a vigil. The word “vigil” means to keep watch during normal sleeping hours, to pay attention when others are sleeping. It comes from a very old Indo-European word “weg,” which means “be lively or active.” So to keep vigil or to be vigilant does not mean passive waiting but active, restless waiting, expectant waiting for the Lord. It means paying attention to what is going on in the world around us, and not being asleep. It means acting, living out our mission to be God’s agents in the world.

The Advent tradition of the Church is vigil and prayer.

There are two places in the New Testament — 1 Corinthians and Revelation — where we find a prayer in the Aramaic language, the Semitic dialect spoken by Jesus. Since this prayer is in Aramaic it must come from the very earliest days of the Church. The prayer is “Marana tha” and means “Lord, come!”
St. Augustine tells us that God is indebted to us, not because of anything we have done, but because of His promises. God always keeps His promises. So we call on Him to come again.

Our Advent prayer is “Lord, come!”

Lord, come — into our world!
Lord, come — into our lives!
Lord, come — and purify our longings!
Lord, come — to free us from our compulsions and sins!
Lord, come — into our relationships!
Lord, come — into our work!
Lord, come — into our sufferings!
And into the darkness of our troubled world.

We speak these words — “Marana tha” — with a real and confident urgency, not only for ourselves and our personal lives, but also for our Church and our nation.

The Maranatha! Singers have a more joyful sounding approach to keeping vigil for Advent.

Grooving on Advent--Gangnam Style

Preparing for Christmas--this time with Seoul (sic):


 

May we take some time during this busy season to prepare for the Feast of the Incarnation of the Lord with soul. 

 h/t: XT3

Thomas Merton on Advent