We Catholics celebrate liturgical seasons, times within the year when we focus our liturgy and our spirituality on particularly significant events in the life of Jesus Christ.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the penitential season before Christmas, the Feast of the Nativity. During Advent, we await the birth of Jesus at Christmas and, with faith and hope, the second coming of Christ. Our awaiting during Advent is actualized not by our pacing around the room, doing nothing but look longingly toward the future with no eye to the present, nor by our sitting around tossing a ball against the wall to pass the time in the spirit of Captain Hilts or Maggie Simpson. Advent is a time of hopeful preparation and atoning penance; it is a time for building the Body of Christ, for giving birth to the love of God in the world, and for making present, to ourselves and to others, the graceful face of God.
As we await the birth of the child Jesus, we strive to live our vocation as children of God.
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