Lectors, and any who own their own missals, are reminded that the Year of Grace 2001 begins today with the first season of the year, the Season of Advent.    Sunday Readings at Mass are now taken from Year "C", and Weekday Readings from Year "I".

"The Season of Advent has a twofold character:   first, it is a Season to prepare us for Christmas when Christ's First Coming is remembered as a Season.    Second, it is a Season when that remembrance of Christ's First Coming directs the mind and the heart to await Christ's Second Coming at the end of time.   Advent is this a period for devout and joyful expectation!" (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, par. # 39).

Thomas Merton in his book, "Seasons of Celebration", reviewed the ways Saint Bernard of Clairvaux approached the Comings of Christ.     The First Advent Coming we consider, is the time of preparation for Christ's Coming among us by His Birth in Bethlehem as a Fulfillment of God's Promise to send His Anointed, Messiah, to come and save us.    The Second Advent we reflect upon, is our awaiting Christ Jesus' Return in Glory and Power at the end of time.    And, as St. Bernard adds, faith in these two Comings of Christ stimulates recognition of a Third Advent Coming of Christ, namely, the Coming of Christ each and every day in His grace and love to each of us in so many wonderful ways.     Through the Mass and Sacraments, through prayer and good works, through others touching our lives and we touching theirs, etc.

This, viewed from this perspective, the Advent Liturgy with its Scripture Readings, its prayers and hymns, is neither a romantic return to the Old Testament while we re-await the Birth of the Messiah at Bethlehem, nor it is an exercise in expressing hope for the ever-receding end of time.    The Season of Advent is neither nostalgic nor illusory!   Rather, when we take Tradition and enter into it fully, we become Advent, i.e., we become the people "in" whom and "through" whom Christ comes to the world today.   

In this spirit, let us all open the doors of our hearts to Christ, so that He might come fully to us and through us to our waiting world!

The Ventura County Life Centers are selling Poinsettias for your Christmas pleasure.   Your donation will allow the Ventura County Life Centers to continue assisting women with problem pregnancies.     It will help respond to the needs of youth, and families who need counseling, goal setting, parenting skills, and material support.