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advent

Advent: Slow down, appreciate anticipation of Christmas

As Catholics begin a new liturgical year with the first Sunday of Advent, liturgical and catechetical leaders are reminding people to slow down and appreciate the weeks of hope and anticipation that lead up to Christmas.

Wait for it

I can’t believe I’m feeling nostalgic for TV. I mean the TV of the past, when shows aired on a schedule. A schedule that you could look up each day in a newspaper, or in the little booklet that came in the Sunday paper, or, if you didn’t read a newspaper or just wanted a lot of information about television, the TV Guide, a separate weekly magazine.

On fire with hope

What are your best Advent memories? You’ve got some, right? Maybe it was that time your family lit the candles on the Advent wreath at Mass. Or the time you put up a Jesse tree. No, not a Christmas tree. Not during Advent.

Hope, the virtue that astonishes even God

Every Advent, a beautiful poem by the French writer Charles Péguy, comes to mind as I reflect on the gift of hope. He wrote “On the Portico of the Mystery of Hope” from his own experience, and it offers some beautiful insights on the relationship between the virtues of faith, hope and love.

Tips for enriching the Advent experience

Sometimes the meaning of Advent can get lost in the parties and preparations for Christmas, but it is a time to draw closer to Christ in the quiet, according to Kevin Pease, director of the Scripture School at the Institute for Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago.

Advent week four: We are called

These last few days of Advent draw us further into preparations, celebrations and “must do” activities. We might be feeling mighty frazzled, perhaps pulled in myriad directions, afraid we won’t get it all done.

How Pope Francis views Advent's call to hope

Advent is a "continuous call to hope," says Pope Francis. It seems, then, that a key aim of this pre-Christmas season is to focus attention on hope's immense importance for everyone.

The Baptist: Our model for Advent

One of the novelties found in the readings introduced in the lectionary of the Second Vatican Council is the prominence given to John the Baptist in the second and third weeks of Advent. John is presented as a witness to the coming of Christ, the implication of which is that he serves as a model for how we are to prepare for the coming of Christ. We too are to be witnesses. In trying to understand what that means, three things strike me as noteworthy.

‘O Come, O Come,’ everyone

Ever since I became a mom — more than 20 years and four kids ago — the Advent and Christmas season has taken on a whole different perspective for me. That perspective has opened up the meaning of the season and brought me closer to Mary in a mother-to-mother kind of way.

Advent: Allowing ourselves to be bathed in the light of heaven through the season

I love the hymns that accompany us through the Advent season. A term I sometimes hear used for them is “haunting.”
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