Religious Education

This weekend brings us to the first Sunday of Advent, which is also the first Sunday of a new liturgical year for the Church. The Advent season includes the four Sundays that precede Christmas. Themes for each week are: 1.HOPE, 2.PEACE, 3.JOY, 4.LOVE.

Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. 

Advent is a time of waiting, preparation and a time of prayer. It is a time of hope, peace, joy and love. Advent is a time of preparing our hearts to ‘receive’ Jesus into the world each year. 

By the time the Church begins to celebrate Advent as a period of preparation towards Christmas, the stores have been filling with Christmas paraphernalia for weeks. It starts out small with a few decorations and wrapping paper and eventually takes over every retail outlet. In the midst of this excess of Christmas consumerism, it is often difficult to draw attention to the season of Advent and the need to prepare spiritually for the celebration of Christmas. It is important to stay awake, as we are cautioned in this week’s gospel. Awake to what is happening around us in the world and awake to what is happening within us.

So how do we do that?  Very simply:  We keep in touch with our God and those around us by each day doing our best to live lives of love, of compassion, of forgiveness, of honesty, of integrity and of service. 

So, as we watch and we wait,  we call upon our good God, and thus we get ourselves ready to meet the Lord at the same time. To be aware of the active presence of God permeating every single moment of every single day we pray:  “O Lord, help us to recognise you and respond to you in love through every person and every experience of this day.”

Please help those less fortunate this Christmas by donating goods for the St Vinnies Christmas Hampers