Advent - A Time to Invite God Anew Into Our Lives

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Hello, all!

This coming Sunday, November 29, 2015 is the First Sunday of Advent. It ushers in the Advent Season of 2015.

What is special about Advent?

From the Ordo, we read:

“ADVENT has a twofold character, for it is a time of preparation for the Solemnities of Christmas, in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered, and likewise a time when, by remembrance of this, minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. For these two reasons, Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight. (Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar, 39.)” (ORDO, p.1; emphasis added.)

“Advent is a time to recall the cry of the early Christians: Maranatha! ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ A penitential celebration is one way of assisting the people of God in preparing for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. Such a liturgy might best be celebrated during the latter part of the Advent season.” (SIZE=“1”]ORDO, p.2.)

For more thoughts on Advent, please see links:

www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/advent.htm
www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/wreath.htm
newadvent.org/cathen/01165a.htm
www.osv.com/reasonsforhope

You are all welcome to share Advent reflections from homilies or readings that could help create in us the proper disposition for celebrating the Solemnity of Our Lord’s Nativity.

Thank you … May we all have a fruitful ADVENT 2015! God bless us all!
 
Advent is a time of preparation for the Solemnities of Christmas! It is also a time to remind ourselves of Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time.

Christmas is potentially (and ought to be) a converging point of two journeys: God’s journey towards us, and our journey towards God.

This Christmas, let us strive to bring this point of convergence to deeper spiritual levels; and during Advent 2015, let us look at our life and ask ourselves:

Where am I in my journey towards God? Am I pleased with where I am right now?

ARE YOU LIVING IT RIGHT?
www.spiritualdirection.com/2015/09/24/are-you-living-it-right
 
Our gracious God continuously bestows upon each of us His** gifts and privileges.** These gifts and privileges bring with them corresponding missions.

When, at Baptism, we received the privilege of becoming members of the People of God, we also received the mission to be witnesses of God’s love for His creation. Our privileges and gifts provide potential opportunities for us to witness to God’s loving presence among us. Sadly, though, we sometimes fail to recognize our God-given gifts and privileges, and we miss our opportunities to reflect God’s love for His creation.

Let us pray - and hope - that we always recognize the gifts and privileges the Lord is giving us because these point us to our God-given mission in life.

During this Advent season, let us examine our lives:
Are there any privileges or opportunities from the Lord that I am failing to recognize and use?

The following link may help:
youtube.com/watch?v=EcxOkht8w7c
 

These are excerpts from the Euchalette, November 16, 2014, p.4. The theme is related to our last post regarding gifts / privileges from the Lord.​

“MAKING THE MOST OF GOD’S GIFTS” (The Parable of the Talents)

"All of God’s gifts are beautiful and precious. They are so many, far beyond our counting, for God is always immensely generous in lavishing His blessings upon us.

For our part, our first duty is to become aware of them…

Once we become aware of the gifts we have received from the Lord, **we should not boast about them, as if they were our doing, nor should we take them for granted as something that God ‘owed us’. The proper attitude **toward the favors of the Lord is that of Mary’s … splendidly expressed in … her Magnificat: it is **honest and grateful appreciation of these gifts **as signs of God’s love for us. (See Lk 1:46-49.)

But, in addition to acknowledging them as coming from the Lord, we also have to utilize these gifts according to His will, i.e., **with wisdom and creativity. God ** … will ask us to account for the way in which we have used His gifts.

What we shall have to account for … is not only and simply the way we used our physical, intellectual, aesthetic, spiritual faculties, and the numberless opportunities to do good to others offered us by the Lord. The most important item of our accountability will be our very 'self,’ God’s basic and most precious gift to us. This means that, in addition to having to account for what we did to others, we shall be specially accountable for what we did with ourselves.

God has implanted in each of us the potential to become a saint, to be a living example and an instrument of His saving and sanctifying love. The decisive question will always be, 'Did we do our best to become one?" (Euchalette, November 16, 2014, p.4.)
This Advent season would be a great time to take stock of our life, and to do our best to live a life that gives Christ a warm welcome each time we receive Him in Holy Communion. Most especially, let us prepare to give Him a particularly warm welcome on Christmas Day!
 
November 29, 2015 - 1st Sunday of Advent:
The Advent Season begins today.

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ
with righteous deeds at his coming,
so that, gathered at his right hand,
they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/112915.cfm
www.ewtn.com/advent/
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2015-11-29
 
grateful_child said:
November 29, 2015 - 1st Sunday of Advent:
The Advent Season begins today.

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ
with righteous deeds at his coming,
so that, gathered at his right hand,
they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/112915.cfm
www.ewtn.com/advent/
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2015-11-29
Click to expand...
ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/29.html

**REASONS FOR HOPE by Bishop Robert J.Baker **
www.ewtn.com/advent/reasonsforhope/index.htm
 
November 29, 2015 - First Sunday of Advent:

Today’s Scripture Readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/112915.cfm

A reflection on today’s Scripture Readings from the Euchalette, 11/28/2015, p.4:

PREPARING TO WELCOME THE LORD WITH FAITH-FILLED EXPECTATION

God does not wait till the end of the world to judge us. We shall have to face Him as our Judge at the end of our life, even if the sun keeps shedding its light as usual, and the rest of mankind may be enjoying perfect tranquility. On that day (or night) we shall see the end of our world – of the relationships we have established with things, places, and people.

The question, then, is not “if” this world of ours will end. It shall surely end, for us, when we die. It is not even “when” and “how” it will end, for that is not for us to know. Rather,** what matters is HOW we will reach the end i.e., what will be the disposition of our heart when we meet the Lord at our death.** That will be the most dramatic moment in our existence, since our eternal destiny will depend on that encounter. Hence, the exhortation to “be vigilant at all times and pray.”

To be vigilant, in this case, does not mean to be like a sentry on the lookout for possible attacks from external enemies, though we live in an unfriendly world, and “the great day will close in on us like a trap” (Lk 21:34). Rather, it means that we have to guard ourselves against our sinful inclinations fanned by the devil, and the moral disorder which both original sin and our personal sins have introduced into our lives."
(Please read on for continuation of thought.)
 
November 29, 2015 - First Sunday of Advent:

PREPARING TO WELCOME THE LORD WITH FAITH-FILLED EXPECTATION - continued:

"We all have a continuous “insurgency problem.” But the situation of permanent “red alert” in which we have to live should not paralyze us. We are expected to take the initiative and “conduct ourselves in a way pleasing to God,” ever bent on making “still greater progress” (1 Thes 4:1).

All this is far from easy. A very strong enemy has infiltrated our lives, and we are weak and wounded. We need desperately a powerful ally on whose help we can rely. His presence in us will be not only the most effective deterrent against the “enemy,” but also a factor of “internal stability.” God Himself is such an Ally, and prayer is the “supply line” through which we come to share in His strength.

By opening our hearts in prayer to Him, we begin to enjoy already now that life-giving communion which is the essence of the afterlife for all those who say “Yes” to Him. If we place ourselves in such a disposition, nothing, not even death, will frighten us. And actually, we shall be able to raise our heads with trust-filled hope . . . “to stand secure before the Son of Man” (Lk 21:28.36).

Let this be our disposition this Advent … "
(The Euchalette, 11/29/2015, p.4)
 
November 30, 2015 - Monday, First Week of Advent:

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Keep us alert, we pray, O Lord our God,
as we await the advent of Christ your Son,
so that, when he comes and knocks,
he may find us watchful in prayer
and exultant in his praise.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture Readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/113015.cfm
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
 
BCP Collect for Advent

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
 
December 01, 2015 - Tuesday, 1st Week of Advent:

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Look with favor, Lord God, on our petitions,
and in our trials grant us your compassionate help,
that, consoled by the presence of your Son,
whose coming we now await,
we may be tainted no longer
by the corruption of former ways.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/120115.cfm
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
 
grateful_child said:
November 30, 2015 - Monday, First Week of Advent:

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Keep us alert, we pray, O Lord our God,
as we await the advent of Christ your Son,
so that, when he comes and knocks,
he may find us watchful in prayer
and exultant in his praise.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture Readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/113015.cfm
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
Click to expand...
Note: November 30 is the Feast of St. Andrew, the Apostle. For today’s liturgy, see:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=13467751#post13467751
 
December 2, 2015 - Wednesday, 1st Week of Advent:

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Prepare our hearts, we pray, O Lord our God,
by your divine power,
so that at the coming of Christ your Son
we may be found worthy of the banquet of eternal life
and merit to receive heavenly nourishment from his hands.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/120215.cfm
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
 
Daily Advent Thoughts from EWTN:

First Week of Advent:

11/29/2015 - Sunday - www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/29.html

11/30/2015 - Monday - www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/30.html

12/01/2015 -Tuesday- www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/1st.html

12/02/2015 - Wednesday- www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/2nd.html

12/03/2015 - Thursday - www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/3rd.html

12/04/2015 - Friday - www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/4th.html

12/05/2015 - Saturday - www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Advent/5th.html
 
December 3, 2015 - Thursday, 1st Week of Advent:

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Stir up your power, O Lord,
and come to our help with mighty strength,
that what our sins impede
the grace of your mercy may hasten.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/120315.cfm
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php​

Note: December 3 is the memorial of St. Francis Xavier, Priest. For today’s liturgy, see:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=13474567#post13474567
 
December 4, 2015 - Friday, 1st Week of Advent:

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Stir up your power, we pray, O Lord, and come,
that with you to protect us,
we may find rescue
from the pressing dangers of our sins,
and with you to set us free,
we may be found worthy of salvation.
Who live and reign with God the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/120415.cfm
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
 
December 5, 2015 - Saturday, First Week of Advent:

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“O God, who sent your Only Begotten Son into this world
to free the human race from its ancient enslavement,
bestow on those who devoutly await him
the grace of your compassion from on high,
that we may attain the prize of true freedom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture Readings and reflection:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/120515.cfm
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
 
December 6, 2015 - 2nd Sunday of Advent:

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Almighty and merciful God,
may no earthly undertaking hinder those
who set out in haste to meet your Son,
but may our learning of heavenly wisdom
gain us admittance to his company.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture readings and reflections:
new.usccb.org/bible/readings/120615.cfm
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2015-12-06
 
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