advent

The more we focus on God and keep our minds on Him this holiday season, we will be able to rest in the perfect peace of the world. Allow the four candles of Advent to prepare your hearts for the season in celebration of Jesus’ birth.

It’s a common refrain this time of year: “Merry Christmas!” But what many of us don’t realize is that the season of Christmas hasn’t yet begun. In actuality, we are in the season of Advent, which means “coming” and begins four Sundays before Christmas.

What is Advent, and how do we celebrate it?

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Fans of the hit series The Chosen can now pray with the cast on Hallow, a catholic prayer and meditation app, as part of an Advent prayer challenge.

This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent. It’s the season historically set aside by the Church to help believers prepare to receive the fullness of Jesus’ coming. By “Jesus’ coming,” Advent refers both to Jesus’ Incarnation and “His return as the ‘Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory,” who will “send his angels to gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.”

Advent is a time to recall God’s utter and unstoppable faithfulness to His people. Though Israel failed to keep its covenant with God, made at Sinai and renewed on several occasions afterward, He always intended to keep His covenant with Abraham, that “through your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."

The King has come. He will come again. The meaning of Advent is worthy of our reflection, and here’s something to help.

TV commercials, radio stations, and shopping malls are all proclaiming that it’s the Christmas season! But actually, it isn’t.

Advent has been buried under a pile of twinkle lights, plastic reindeer, and the Grinch. Here's why.

Before Christians in many liturgical traditions celebrate Christmas, they observe a season of Advent that traditionally has been referred to as “a little Lent,” the 40-day season of repentance leading up to Easter.

To reclaim our Advent celebrations, it may help to better understand the reasons why we celebrate these four weeks leading up to Christmas as a specific season.