I wrote this last year, just a few days before Christmas, in response to a homily I heard that focused on Advent as preparation for Christmas: that’s not wrong – not wrong at all – but it did not seem to tell the whole story, or to capture the primary focus of the season. – CRA
Advent concludes with the celebration of Christmas, it is true: but all through this season of expectation the Church reminds us that we are awaiting the Second Coming of Him, who was born in Bethlehem twenty centuries ago. She tells us that, as quiet as His first coming was in a manger, so great and glorious shall be His coming this second time, that it shall break the Earth.
Advent is a privileged season, in which the Church prayerfully reflects and longingly sighs for her Spouse, who is the Christ, the Glorious King, coming soon to judge the world.
The Church in Advent waits in joyful hope for the coming of her Savior, doing penance and making acts of reparation for past sins – her members’, and the sins of the world.
In her official public worship, the Church proclaims Christ the Lord of creation, and implores the protection of…
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Thinking with the Church 