Advent begins with the celebration of Immaculate Conception
Advent begins with the celebration of Immaculate Conception!
Advent is a time of preparation in prayer. During Advent, we celebrate Immaculate Conception. I take this opportunity to wish everyone the Happy Feast of Immaculate Conception, especially to Parishioners of Immaculate Conception. I also would like to congratulate our Confirmation Candidates who are introduced at St. Anthony and Immaculate Conception.
As we begin the Advent season and celebrate the Feast of Immaculate Conception, it lends us an invitation to set aside our busy lives and to examine our lives, reflect on our need for God to enter our lives, and prepare homes for the coming of Christ. He will come to us in the celebration of the Incarnation, in His continual coming in our daily living, and in His final coming as our Lord to judge us all and to renew the Father’s creation.
On the First Sunday of Advent, the reading tells us “Watch.” Jesus says in the Gospel, “Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning” (Mark 13:35). Advent is a time of watch and wait in preparation for the coming of the Lord: at Christmas and the second coming. We are in Eucharistic Revival Years and Maintenance to Mission. Let us include Bishop Powers’ pastoral letter “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” as part of the Advent preparation. He invites us in his letter to renew our baptismal call. He says, “We must rouse ourselves out of complacency. We must courageously move past simply maintaining our programs and structures and allow the Lord to lead us into a deep renewal of our identity and purpose.”
Two weeks ago, I mentioned about three steps in evangelization: 1. Pre-Evangelization 2. Evangelization. We are in step 3. Discipleship and 4. Apostolate – discipleship is Christian life and Apostolate – growing in discipleship to carry out the mission of the Church in our sphere of influence. We do participate in the mission of the Church at the local level and at the universal level. In this Advent, I would like to invite you to join Cross Catholic Outreach to build a home for children in Guatemala. They created the 2023 Advent Activity Guide for Four Weeks of Advent based on the Sunday reading. These activities may reaffirm the importance of Catholic social teaching and Corporal Works of Mercy. Whatever you contribute over the four weeks of Advent, please bring it for Christmas. Please take the activity books at the entrance. If you only participate in local missions, you can bring items for the Lord’s cupboard.
In the first reading from the book of Isaiah, it makes a very explicit prayer. In the context of Israel's suffering, the exile, and the scattering of the tribes of the people amongst the Gentile nations, and recognizing the sinfulness, Isaiah cries out to God and says we want you to come down from heaven and save us. Isaiah says, “You, Lord, are our Father.” In all the books in the Old Testament that are written in Hebrew, there are only one or two occasions where God is ever explicitly identified as Father. There's only one place in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Hebrew prophets, where prayer is explicitly addressed to God as our Father, and that is Isaiah 63 and 64. Isaiah cries out “our Father” – a cry for God’s mercy.
This passage prepares us for Advent, to remain in preparation for the coming of the Lord. It also prepares us to listen to the Gospel of Mark (13:33-37) which focuses on the Second Coming. St. Gregory the Great says that the parable outlines the responsibilities of the Church before the second coming. Jesus says, “I say you to all ‘watch’!” His invitation to be vigilant is on several levels: 1. For early Christians, still worshiping in the Jerusalem Temple (Luke 24:5) is a call to flee before its downfall (Mark 13:14-16), 2. Everyone must be ready for the personal judgment ((2 Corinthians 5:10) 3. The Church must persevere in holiness while waiting for Jesus’ second coming at the end of time (Acts 1:11).
In this Advent season let us come together for an Advent Retreat on December 13th with Fr. John Gerritts. There will be a soup supper at 6:15 and a 7 pm retreat. The theme is Jesus in the manger: Bread of Life and Mission. There will an opportunity for reconciliation during the retreat.