7. Advent...what is this?

Yesterday began the beautiful season of Advent.  The Church in her Wisdom recognizes that the human person needs reminders to wake up  in their walk with God....to ignite a New Fire of The Holy Spirit to support a better life...a life filled with more giving, loving, kindness and as my Pastor Fr. Carlo spoke at Masses yesterday,  a life with "less grumbling" and growth spiritually.  Even Joel Olsteen, who i do not think celebrates an Advent Season, was inspired to speak of "holding the tongue" from James 1 and changing.  Advent is the sister of Lent.  Both are a serious season of growing, converting either for the first time or a revert back to God's Road.  Enter into this season in a spiritual way and Christmas will have much more meaning than giving gifts, food and pressure. Take time to fast, pray more, go to confession, get back to Mass/Church on Sunday and each day work on things to improve in your life and your relationship with God.  There are many great Catholic resources to assist you in this.  Here are a few sites you can look at and maybe subscribe to that have daily morning prayer and evening prayer, Mass readings for the day, and saints' stories.  Dynamic Catholic has a great day to day video, music and stories, etc to help us celebrate Advent in a new way.

http://dynamiccatholic.com/best-advent-ever/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRaaU1qVXpaREJpT1RjeiIsInQiOiJtYmJVVWpWOERwY1JnU01UOEcyNW9YU1h5V2h3YXZyWTRGNTZ2OUJMWFhNMHRkSks2QmZYcUxpc0UrVGZLcVVvV1JsbkpBQ0c0ODBWTlgxQ21mTXg0cmdkXC9oV0VsemNZdGtiSDRScmtxU0k9In0%3D

http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=88e1e53d7262719bee7f23be0&id=b47167b346&e=4838735909

http://www.ucatholic.com/

This is a time for preparations for 3 things....first, to celebrate and rejoice that Jesus was born because without Him we would not be saved and Heaven would never be accessible to us remembering that this is past, second to have Jesus born in our hearts in a new way..to kind of cushion a manger in our hearts for Him to make His dwelling..this is now....and finally to prepare for His Final Coming when He will come as Judge...future.  The most important for today is the second, for if we prepare ourselves to meet God each and every day by our Beliefs and practicing those Truths we will surely be ready, as the Mass prayer the priest says each and every time we are at Mass:

"Deliver us Lord from every evil and grant us peace in our day.  In Your Mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety,  AS WE WAIT IN JOYFUL HOPE FOR THE COMING OF OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!"

Maranatha, come Lord Jesus!  If you do not know what Maranatha means, look it up...we need to start to use our computers more to look up spiritual things ....we live at a great time in history...so many great resources to support our journey toward God.  Happy searching....a fruitful Advent to all of us!  til next time....psalm 122:1

"I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!”