Today we come to Advent—the beginning of the Church’s liturgical year. Throughout this Advent time we have the recurring theme of looking forward to the “end times”, of being prepared to meet with the Lord. We hear repeated the message of stay awake, be prepared, pray at all times.

Of course the early Christians were under the impression that Jesus would return in their life time. But as time passed they had to rethink this belief and to see that the message of Jesus was a valid one for all time:  we must always be attentive to the Gospel and live our daily life in readiness to meet our God—whenever that might be. We must not be distracted by the cares and worries of the world but be ready to stand confidently before the Son of Man—as our Gospel says this week.

Advent is also a key time for us to enter into a more intense preparation for the celebration of Christmas. Of course here we meet rather stiff  competition from the business/commercial world began several weeks ago, and comes to a halt on Christmas Eve, paying no attention to the traditional 12 days of Christmas—this is more a time for the post-Christmas sales. But hopefully Advent helps us to focus on and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ our Saviour.

As one of the liturgy documents says: “Advent has a two-fold character: as a season to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s first coming to us is remembered; as a season when that remembrance directs our mind and heart to await Christ’s second coming at the end of time.   Advent is thus a period for devout and joyful expectation.”

In our Opening Prayer today we pray ‘that we may take Christ’s coming seriously’. Let’s try and do that over the coming weeks leading up to Christmas.

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By way of preparing for Christmas please support the Vinnies appeal for Christmas goodies….see next column.

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CONGRATULATIONS to Simon Coat and Anthony Beltrame (both former altar servers) who received special excellence awards at the Rostrevor Presentation night this week. Well done!