by Faith Central & Steve Welsh
“All of us need a road map to guide us through this life into the next. One of those road maps is the Church’s Liturgical Year, its annual cycle, its calendar of Liturgical Celebrations. Advent marks the beginning of a new Liturgical Year … a good moment for us to look at this road map ….”
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“As we look toward Christmas and ponder the Incarnation, we ought to remember that so profound was truth of the incarnation that the early Church fell to her knees at these words: ‘and He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, from the virgin Mary, and became man.’ This act of falling to one’s knees at these words is still practiced
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“Saint Andrew’s feast day is today! This feast is the marker that determines the start of Advent. The first Sunday of Advent begins on the Sunday closest to (or on) November 30th, St Andrew’s feast day. That explains the first part of the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena’s name. The second part simply refers to when the novena ends. On Christmas.
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“As we enter into the season of Advent, it’s easy to get caught in the whirlwind of Christmas preparations, whether shopping, baking, party planning or somewhere in between. We know that Advent is a season of conversion for the heart. Let’s spend more time this season praying and preparing our hearts for Christ’s coming. …”
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[The Divine Office, or Liturgy of the Hours, begins the Liturgical Day with “A Call to Praise God” in the form of the Invitatory Psalm, usually Psalm 95, in stanzas, or strophes, interspersed with an antiphon. From the First Sunday of Advent until December 16, the standard antiphon is “Come, Let Us Worship the Lord, the King Who Is to
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“For those of you who will be lighting an Advent ‘wreath’ this weekend, especially with tapers… remember to start with the purple candle ‘opposite’ the pink one in order for the progression to the pink one for the third week to look accurate. This also makes the candles burn down in successive order, which makes the visual impact of the
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“… The Advent season is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming at the end of time and also to the anniversary of the Lord’s birth on Christmas. The final days of Advent, from December 17 to December 24, focus particularly on our preparation for the celebrations of the Nativity of our Lord
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