Week of November 28, 2011
Greetings from the Pastor
First Sunday Of Advent:
The One Who Comes
Today we gather together to celebrate the Mass for the First Sunday of Advent. It is hard to
believe that we have started a new Liturgical year. The first reading today begins our celebration of the Advent Season. This will be our chance to prepare for our Christmas celebration. Isaiah stresses in the first reading the need we have for repentance. There are certain things we must do to prepare ourselves for the Christmas celebration. The Church in her wisdom gives us a four week preparation time. We start again as it were with our relationship upper most in our mind.
The Christmas feast we are preparing for is one we look for with joy. The birth of Christ brings with it what Jesus means to each of us. If Christ hadn’t come into the world we would have been left in sin. But Jesus comes as our redeemer and the world has never been the same. God paid the great price of giving Jesus to us and as believers we must pay homage to Him.
Unlike Lent, Advent is a different kind of preparation and Penance service. The major thought is one of preparation. We center the Birth of the Redeemer at the center of how we get ready for the return of Jesus. We know the whole creation story and are able to put Jesus in his rightly plan. As the one willing to suffer and die for us, we are able to be grateful as we honor Him.
We have such a short preparation that we must begin at once. Our preparation must be now thought out. Jesus, his life, and how He saved us by the heroic Act of Redemption on the Cross, must be something we think of everyday. His birth at Bethlehem is our strong point and we use Christmas as the beginning of salvation healing.
How are you going to use Advent 2011 as a special time in our relation with God and the beginning of our chance to make amends? Use Advent as an important preparation of our celebration for this Christmas. You will not be sorry if it is a good one and the center of a new relationship with God.
–FR DAVE
