In the Maronite Catholic Church, "advent" encompasses 7 weeks known as The Season of Announcements. It begins with the Announcement to Zechariah (that his wife Sara will bear a son) and continues through the Announcement to Mary, the Announcement to Joseph ... etc. It culminates with Genealogy Sunday. On that day, Matthew 1:1-17 is the gospel. Look it up. For the average pew Catholic, this is probably one of the most boring gospels ... yet ... it is one of the most important. The Gospel of Matthew begins with the words "The Book of Genealogy [in Greek, "Genesis"] of Jesus Christ", deliberately echoing the words of Genesis 2:4 in the Old Testament in Greek. The genealogy tells of Jesus' descent from Abraham and King David and the miraculous events surrounding his virgin birth, and the infancy narrative tells of the massacre of the innocents, the flight into Egypt, and eventual journey to Nazareth.
The aim of the first Gospel is to show that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah - the Christ or the "Anointed One" - promised in the Old Testament, and that His kingdom is the Church which He founded. St. Matthew constantly refers to prophecies fulfilled in our Lord in words such as these: "As it is written." Most commentators seem to agree that Matthew, alone among the gospels, alternates five blocks of narrative with five of discourse, marking each off with the phrase "When Jesus had finished..." As I noted above, Matthew wrote his gospel for the Jewish community.