Advent 2004: Symbols, Meanings, Facts, Calendar

EWTN. com ^ | 11-28-04 | EWTN

[Salvation]

Would "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel: be the exception to #60?

[William Tell]

Salvation said: "Great picture!"

Yes, it is. Let's have a bump for MARTIN Tell, also.

[Martin Tell]

William, Martin, whatever.

This is a great thread. I hope we keep it going all through this blessed Advent season. It can be the FR Advent Calendar, with a treat inside every door.

[Salvation]

OK, I'm confused.

[Salvation]

Reflections for Advent and Christmas, [November 28, 2004 - January 9, 2005]

[Desdemona]

Would "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel: be the exception to #60?

Yes. Veni, veni... is an Advent chant. Technically, carols are not to be sung until Midnight Mass and can be sung until Epiphany.

Also, "People Look East" is an Advent song.

[Martin Tell]

I'm confused.

Not to worry. There was an earlier ping to another member of the Tell family. "William" Tell, not posting on this thread, responded that the ping should have come to me.

Simple, huh?

Happy St. Andrew's Day, everyone!

[Salvation]

Week 1: Tuesday    Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. (Isaiah 11:6) Reflection The old joke about this passage is that the leopard might light down with the kid, but the kid won’t get much sleep. We chuckle at this because Isaiah gives us an image that goes against all our experience and expectations. Take note: the kingdom of God will not be how we expect it! Assumptions about natural friends and enemies are not true in the kingdom of God. What is the modern, urban equivalent of Isaiah’s pastoral image of lamb and wolf? Black and white folks breaking bread and worshipping together? A teenage delinquent and an older person sharing a cup of coffee? "The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb…" Advent Action Send a card to a friend or loved one who lost a family member during this year. Let them know you are praying from them and thinking of them this Christmas. Prayer Lord, help me welcome You once again and make room for You in my daily life, that You may make Your home in my heart.

[Salvation]

Week 1: Wednesday    Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied. (Matthew 14: 19-20) Reflection During Advent we always consider the past, present, and future dimensions of Jesus’ coming. Jesus came to us at Bethlehem; He is risen and present in the world today; we look forward to His second coming. In the miracle of the loaves and fishes, all these dimensions of time are also present. Jesus fed the people on the hillside that day, but He also prefigured the Eucharistic banquet, as well as the eternal banquet to which we are all invited. How are we to make this miracle real in the present? Just as Jesus asked the disciples that day in Galilee to distribute the food, it is our duty to act as the hands of Jesus today, bringing His gifts and presence to others. Advent Action Multiply your own resources (however great or small) to help the poor. Make a gift of your time or money to a charitable organization that helps the poor. Prayer Lord, may I be generous with others from the richness You have shared with me through Your goodness.

[soccermom]

THANKS!!!! I make an advent drawer for my kids each year. I use one of those small tool drawers with each drawer numbered 1-24. Each drawer has a nativity ornament and candy. I also like to include a daily prayer. Does anyone have a good source for daily advent meditations for kids?

[Salvation]

What a neat idea! An Advent box with individual drawers!

[Salvation]

Week 1: Thursday A nation of firm purpose You keep in peace; in peace for its trust in You. Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal Rock. (Isaiah 26: 3-4) Reflection We cannot eliminate upsets and anxiety from our lives, but Advent is a good time to slow down and remember where we should look for stability and peace. Throughout these weeks of preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, the Scriptures for our liturgies tell us again and again to turn to God, to build our house on the rock of Jesus. Only there we will find peace. Advent Action Make a phone call. Call someone you have been meaning to speak to, but for some reason you have not done so. Prayer Lord, may I truly bring peace to others that I may be at peace with myself and one with You.

[Salvation]

Maybe these daily action thoughts could be modified for children.

For example todays:

Advent Action

Make a phone call. Call someone you have been meaning to speak to, but for some reason you have not done so.

Could be modified for children:

Talk to someone at school that you have been meaning to talk with, but for some reason you have not done so.

[Salvation]

by Fr. Roger Landry

Other Articles by Fr. Roger Landry

Advent Dynamism

12/02/04

Happy New Year! This week the Church, indeed, inaugurates a new year dedicated to our reliving in time the central mysteries of the life of Christ. Christ is the “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rv 22:13), and the Church has us begin each year focusing both on the end and on the beginning so that we might better live the present.

Advent is that season in which we prepare for Christ’s coming in the past (in Bethlehem), his coming in the future (on the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead) and His coming in the present (in so many ways, but especially in the Eucharist).

Advent, like the life of faith as a whole, is fundamentally dynamic. There’s movement. Christ out of love is coming toward us and we, out of love, await His coming, so that we might embrace Him with joy. There’s a temptation sometimes to look at a new liturgical year with little or no excitement, similar to what we experience when we watch re-runs of television programs or movies. We know how the story ends and therefore it makes less and less of an impression on us each time. But that’s not the way God wants it and that is not what the liturgical year is meant to be.

It’s supposed to be more like the way Red Sox fans and players alike are looking forward to spring training next year. Even though there will be 162 games next season just like this one, even though the squad will for the most part face the same opponents in the same cities, even though the games will still be nine innings long and the diamond will have the same dimensions, there will be a whole new drama. The drama will involve how they rise to meet the challenges that will come to them within the structure of the new season.

Similarly, there’s meant to be a whole new drama for us in this new liturgical season in which we, with Christ’s help, rise to meet the challenges He puts before us. Every liturgical cycle is supposed to be a liturgical spiral: we are not meant to repeat last year’s steps but rather to retrace their direction at a higher and more intense level. The experience of last year is meant to help us to have a better season this year. God the Father shouts to us from heaven, “Play ball!,” and He wants us to do so with enthusiasm.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel that when He comes, there will be winners and there will be losers. “As it was in the days of Noah,” he stresses, “so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.” We know what happened at the time of Noah. “The wickedness of mankind was great in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually,” the Book of Genesis tells us. “It grieved God to the heart” (Gn 6:5-6). While the majority of people were drowning in their own hedonism — so self-absorbed that they didn’t even see the storm coming — Noah was building an ark awaiting God’s word to be fulfilled.

Jesus tells us that history will repeat itself. When He comes again, some will be ready and some won’t. He tells us that of two men who do the same job in the field, only one will be ready; of two women in the kitchen, only one will be prepared; of a husband and a wife in the same bed, only one will be taken (Lk 17:34). He himself has come into the world and built a new ark for us — Peter’s barque, the Church — stockpiling it with the salvific provisions of the sacraments, His Word and His very presence, but we have to be wise enough to see the forecast and to get on that ark.

Jesus tells us very clearly in the Gospel how to avoid making the same mistake the people in Noah’s day did. The means is to “stay awake,” to remain always vigilant and alert for His return so that we might never “fall asleep spiritually” and be caught off guard. St. Paul interprets for us what that means:

You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Thus, each of us is faced with a choice. The choice is between light and darkness, between day and night, between life and death. The choice is that stark. If we elect to “revel in drunkenness, debauchery, licentiousness, quarreling and jealousy,” we’re electing the darkness and will remain there. In the final analysis, we either “make provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires,” or make provision for the Spirit, to gratify God. Jesus and His faithful apostle sound an alarm clock for us today. They tell us to wake up. And they give us the Good News that we can “walk in the light of the Lord,” leaving “the words of darkness” behind, and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” That is the way we will always be ready to embrace Christ whenever and wherever He comes.

We know that when Christ came into the world the first time, some people were ready, but most people were not. Mary Immaculate was ready and said a hearty “Yes” to God’s will. Joseph was ready and therefore capable of adapting quickly to God’s mysterious plans. The shepherds were ready, vigilant at night, to run to Bethlehem as soon as they heard the news. The Magi were ready, so ready in fact that they were able to discern the newborn king’s presence through the presence of a star.

On the other hand, Herod was not ready, too caught up in his own pride and sensuality to recognize the Source of his authority. The inn-keepers were not ready, too caught up in their business and in their need for order that they didn’t have room to house their Creator. The scholars of the law were not ready to make even the short six-mile journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to learn from the Divine Legislator. The vast majority of the Jewish people, who had been awaiting the advent of their Messiah for centuries, were simply not prepared when at last He came.

The surest way for us to be ready for Christ when He comes in the future is to be ready for Him now. The same Christ whom the shepherds and Magi adored in Bethlehem comes to us in the Eucharist, in an even more humble disguise. Our response to Jesus in the Eucharist now is the true indication of whether we are awake or asleep, whether we’re like Noah or so many of his contemporaries, whether we’re imitating Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the Magi, or whether we’re behaving more like the inn-keepers, scholars of the law and Herod.

How we respond in this year of the Eucharist is therefore a great litmus test. How would we have responded two thousand years ago if we were in Bethlehem? The best indication is how we respond now when Christ is here with us in our own parish.

In this new liturgical year, let’s get it right. Emmanuel, God-with-us, has come! He is here with us now in the Eucharist. Come, let us adore Him!


Father Roger J. Landry was ordained a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts by Bishop Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap. in 1999. After receiving a biology degree from Harvard College, Fr. Landry studied for the priesthood in Maryland, Toronto, and for several years in Rome. After his priestly ordination, Father returned to Rome to complete graduate work in Moral Theology and Bioethics at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Rome. A popular speaker on the thought of Pope John Paul II and on apologetics, he is presently parochial vicar at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis, MA.

[Salvation]

**Thus, each of us is faced with a choice. The choice is between light and darkness, between day and night, between life and death. The choice is that stark. If we elect to “revel in drunkenness, debauchery, licentiousness, quarreling and jealousy,” we’re electing the darkness and will remain there. In the final analysis, we either “make provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires,” or make provision for the Spirit, to gratify God.**

In a nutshell!

[Salvation]

	Week 1: Friday St. Frances Xavier And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed (Him), crying out, "Son of David, have pity on us!" When He entered the house, the blind men approached Him and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I can do this?" "Yes, Lord," they said to Him. Then He touched their eyes and said, "Let it be done for you according to your faith." And their eyes were opened. (Matthew 9:27-30) Reflection Many people scoff at the idea of miracles. Unwilling to believe that Jesus could restore the sight of the blind when He walked on earth, they are unwilling to see the miracles that Jesus continues to work today. If we are open to the guiding touch of God’s hand and willing to discover His plan for our lives, miracles will happen. What prevents us from seeing and being a part of God’s miracles? Would we rather be blind? Advent Action Send a get-well card to someone in the hospital. Prayer Lord, clarify my vision that I may see You in others and sense You within my own soul.

[Salvation]

Adoration Tally Presented to Pope by Vocation.com

Bishop Calls for Perpetual Adoration of Eucharist

What I learned From a Muslim about Eucharistic Adoration

PERPETUAL ADORATION [The Monks of the Adoration]

"The best, the surest , and the most effective way of establishing everlasting peace on the face of the earth is through the great power of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament." -- Pope John Paul II

"Could you not watch one hour?" -- Mark 14:37

[Salvation]

Please notice the little insert (in purple) for children today! (Smile)

[Salvation]

Week 1: Saturday   The light of the moon will be like that of the sun and the light of the sun will be seven times greater (like the light of seven days). On the day the Lord binds up the wounds of His people, He will heal the bruises left by His blows. (Isaiah 30:26) Reflection God, while His ways are still mysterious to us, is not on the sidelines of our lives. Just as Isaiah predicted, He has come, in Jesus, to bind up the hurt of His people, and through Jesus’ presence is still active in the world. Advent Action Find an opportunity today to be the hands of God, and "bind up" someone’s hurt. Say a kind word and listen with compassion to someone who is suffering. Before going to bed, say a decade of the rosary for  your mother. Prayer Lord, flood me with Your light, and help me to brighten the lives of those whom I find most dark.

[Salvation]

Second Sunday of Advent

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