First Sunday of Advent

November 29, 2009

First Sunday of Advent

Advent, (Latin ad-venio, to come to, arrival or coming) begins the Church’s liturgical year, therefore it can be called our “New Year’s Day,” it also begins the Christmas cycle, where we prepare for the arrival of Our Lord. Advent starts on the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Andrew, November 30. With “the earliest evidence of this season coming from the end of the fourth century, when Gaul and Spain observed a period of preparation for the newly inaugurated Feast of Christmas.”[1]

The Advent season gives us an opportunity to look back to the first coming of Christ at Bethlehem, and look forward to the future when Christ will come again. It is between these two events we now find ourselves, striving to live out the purpose of our existence; God’s reason for giving us life, our reason for being. This is a time to prepare not only for Christmas, but also for the Second Coming of Christ. “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing….and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.” (Luke 21:34) We must be awake and watchful, lest He find us asleep.

First Reading Jeremiah 33:14-16

Responsorial Psalm 25
Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Light the first candle in your Advent Wreath

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[1] Encyclopedia of Catholic Devotions and Practices, Ball, page 29