4th Sunday of Advent: "Everything's Going to Be Okay"

Today is the fourth and final Sunday in Advent. Next up is Christmas - the time when we celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In order to get to this celebration though, we first have to get to that time and place of his birth. Today's readings take us on quick scriptural journey of the prophecy of Jesus' birth, just before his birth, and after his resurrection. In all three readings, Father Bob told us in these week's homily, that one message is clear -  "Everything is Going to Be Okay."

Isaiah in chapter 7: 10-14 tells the people when the demand a sign that God will fullfill God's promise to David of the ideal king in 2 Samuel 7: 12-16. He tells them that a woman from the House of David shall give birth to son whom she will call Immanuel (Emmanuel) which means, God is with Us. Isaiah tells them that "Everything is Going to be Okay."

Joseph, who was engaged to Mary, finds out the she is pregnant. According to Jewish law at the time, he could have had Mary stoned to death for having relations with another man while betrothed to Joseph. But, Joseph was simply going to divorce her. I think Father Bob said it best when he said to put yourself in Joseph's shoes. Here he was very close to marrying Mary and think of how he must have felt when he found out she was pregnant, presumably by another man. Then, an angel appears to him in a dream and tells Joseph that "Everything is Going to be Okay." Think about the faith that Joseph displayed.

Finally, in Paul's letter to the Roman's, he tells the people that "Everything is Going to be Okay" because they "have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of [Jesus] name" among all peoples (Romans 1:5). Those first apostles laid the foundation for a Faith that has lasted close to two thousand years.

Christmas can be a very hard time of year for some people either because they are alone, have suffered tremendous loss, or are hurting for whatever reason. It makes me really sad for those folks because this is one of the two Seasons in the Church year that really reminds us that with faith "Everything is Going to be Okay."

I think it is up to us to remind those people who are suffering that they are not alone, we will do what we can to ease their pain. God never said it was going to be easy, but with a little bit of faith "Everything is Going to be Okay."

3rd Sunday of Advent: Gaudete - Rejoice!, Patience, and Preparation

The third Sunday of Advent is a time for us to rejoice as Christmas is getting ever closer. We must show some patience for we have still have preparations to make. Today's readings cover all three of these aspects for this glorious day.

"Let the desert and the dry lands be glad, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom; like the asphodel, let it burst into flower, let it rejoice and sing for joy." (Isaiah 35:1-2a) We should rejoice; we know that Christ has come for us once, and we can prepare for the day when he comes again. It will be a glorious day.

In order to be ready for his second coming, we need to prepare our hearts. The first time around John the Baptist was sent before Jesus to tell of his coming. This time around, I do not know who will foretell of that great day when Jesus returns. We had better be ready. This is the perfect time of year for us to change. The Christmas season is full of chances for us to change and redeem ourselves.

We also need to be patient, because we do not know when Jesus will be back. 2 James 5:7 says: "Now be patient, brothers, until the Lord's coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains!"  Like a farmer, we are going to have to wait through barren seasons before the spring comes, in the form of Jesus.

2nd Sunday of Advent: Remorse vs. Repentance

Today we celebrate the second Sunday of Advent. Today's readings were about preparing for Jesus' coming and for whom Jesus came. Father's homily focused on one aspect of preparing for Jesus' coming - repentance.

He said that repentance was when you ask for forgiveness and then take steps to change your ways.  Remorse is merely asking forgiveness because you know what you have done is wrong. For example, if you have a man who cheats on his wife and feels badly about doing so, he may ask her forgiveness. Then, two months later he does the same thing. He has not repented. He will repent when asks forgiveness and stops cheating.

I had never really thought about repentance in that way. It was a pretty profound statement. I had always believed that if you asked God's forgiveness then you had repented. It never really occurred to me that I would need to change my ways to fully repent my sins. Then, as I sit here and write about it, I wonder why I did not see that earlier.

I would feel badly if I did not talk about the second topic covered in today's readings - for whom Jesus came. The simple answer is that he came for the Jews and the Gentiles. That covers everyone on the planet. It is comforting to me to know that no one is excluded. We just have to choose to follow in his Ways.

Introduction to Advent

I have mentioned in other posts that I teach Faith Formation (CCD) at my church. This week's lesson was on Advent. I wanted to share some of the notes that I talked about in class with my readers. The Advent Wreath is a Christian Tradition started in Germany. Many of my notes below are geared towards to the Roman Catholic Church because that is where I teach Faith Formation.

Overview 


Advent is one of my favorite times of the year tied with Lent. They both hold special meaning for me. For Advent, I wanted to put together some interesting tidbits of information for my student's parents. I know how busy life can be with working, raising children, and trying to maintain a home. Then, when we start getting into the Holiday season, it is easy to lose sight of why we really celebrate Christmas.

The other reason for these notes is to explain the tradition of the Advent Wreath. We made wreaths in class this week. This is something that I knew I wanted to do when I first decided to be a Faith Formation teacher. This is a tradition that we follow in my home with my children. They really enjoy it. If you do not participate in this tradition already, give it a try. It only takes about 6 or 7 minutes a night. For my students, I included with the wreath “The Little Blue Book.” It is a book that contains six-minute reflections for each day of Advent and Christmastime. The books were provided by the Church. (If your church does not hand out "The Little Blue Book," you can find the daily Mass readings here.)

Here are some high-level notes about Advent:

• Advent marks the beginning of the Roman Catholic Church year.
• Advent comes from the Latin Adventus meaning “arrival” or “coming.”
• Advent is the season in which we celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ at his birth and when he will come again.
• The Advent Wreath is one of the traditions that we have to celebrate this season.

Advent Wreath

"Wreaths have always been symbolic of victory and glory. The basic symbolism of the Advent Wreath goes beyond this. It lies in the tension between darkness and light. It represents the long time when people lived in spiritual darkness, waiting for the coming of the Messiah, the light of the world. Each year in Advent people wait once again in darkness for the coming of the Lord, his historical coming in the mystery of Bethlehem, his final coming at the end of time, and his special coming in every moment of grace.” (pg. 47 “Catholic Customs & Traditions: a popular guide” by Greg Dues).

The traditional Advent Wreath consists of an Evergreen wreath and four candles (three purple and one rose/pink). “Three of the candles are purple, reminding us of the penitential nature of the season. A rose or pink candle is lit for the Third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete (rejoice) Sunday. The name is taken from the entrance antiphon or Introit "Rejoice (gaudete) in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice." It is reminding us that the end of Advent is almost here, and we can hardly contain our joy.” (Source)



Light the candles in the following order:

• 1 Purple
• 2 Purple
• 2 Purple and Rose/Pink
• All four candles.

As the weeks progress, the light from the wreath gets brighter and brighter pushing out the darkness and bringing us closer to the light of Jesus and his coming. The wreaths we made in class have four bows (three purple and one pink) and the candle has four bows with the same colors. For those families that did not not have an Advent Wreath already, I wanted to give them an opportunity to try out this wonderful tradition that we as Christians have.

You can buy an Advent Wreath that is already made of you can make one like we made in class. Go to a Craft store and pick up a small wreath, some pink and purple ribbon, and a battery operated candle and make this wreath . Use hot glue to attach the bows to the wreath and candle.

Advent Wreath

Candle 

The idea is for you and your child to match the ribbon on the candle with the ribbon on the wreath. Light the candle and then read the day's reading in “The Little Blue Book” or from where ever you decide to get your scripture. When you get to Christmas, put the candle in the center of the wreath and then do the readings in the “Little Blue Book,” if you have one, for the rest of the Christmas season which runs through January 9th 2011.


Author's Thanks: I want to say thank you to my wife for tying all of the bows for my class' wreaths and candles, and for gluing the bows onto the candles. She also made a beautiful Advent Wreath for the Classroom too. I will post a picture after next week's class. Goofy me forgot to take a picture before I took it to the Church.

All Saint's Day 2010

Today is All Saint's Day. For those of you who do not know what this day is, this is the day when Roman Catholics honor all of the Saints known and unknown. What does known and unknown mean? Known Saints are the people who have been canonized (recognized) by the Church as being Saints and typically have a feast day on which they are honored. An Unknown Saint is anyone else in heaven.

I am not here to give you a lesson about the Catholic Church. Instead, I want to discuss a point our Priest made about the canonized Saints in his homily (sermon) tonight. He said that all of the canonized saints started out just like us.  They were people who had their own trials and tribulations; but they rose above those problems to do God's work and spread His Word.

For him to say that people like St. Joan of Arc or St. Peter (the Apostle Peter) was like me, was comforting and ironic.  Two weeks ago I was trying to explain the concept of Saints to my CCD (Faith Formation) class. One of the things I told them was that Saints were people just like us. As kids do, one of them asked a tough question. She asked me if Saints ever told lies. I told her I am sure they did at one point or another, and then it came to me. St. Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times just like Jesus told him he would. Anyway you slice it, Peter lied. In a way, that is comforting. He showed a great sign of weakness. But that is not how we define him today. He is recognized by Roman Catholics as the First Pope. He had done great things before his denial and continued to do great works after it.

Both St. Joan of Arc and St. Peter had humble beginnings. St. Peter began his life as fisherman. St. Joan of Arc was born in the peasant class in 15th century France and eventually led an army to help the King of France regain his crown from the English. They went on to do astounding works in the name of God.

My point is that we can be inspired by learning and honoring saints.  It does not matter if you are Catholic or not. The Saints were good people who were doing great things for the people of their time. For me, those are the best role models to have. This is especially true at a time when it seems decent role models are becoming scarce. Here is a link to a site that lists all of the canonized Saints and brief biography. Pick one and read about him or her and tell me that you are not at least a little bit inspired.