Advent is 2 Weeks Away - Are You Getting Ready?

Advent Is Coming: Preparation for “the Preparation:”

The liturgical season of Advent is four weeks dedicated to prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas. We should think about this now while we have time. We are publishing this message more than two weeks before the beginning of Advent this year to give you a head-start to enable you to prepare for the preparation. Advent is also the beginning of the Church’s year. Just as we make resolutions at the beginning of the secular new year, how much more we should try to make some serious resolutions for a better life at the beginning of the Church’s new year.
Preparation is of great importance in almost anything you do in life. Much of the chaos and incompetence we see in various spheres of influence today is due to lack of preparation. Everyone that takes any pride in their work, their sport, their profession, etc. has to be prepared. To go into battle unprepared is to invite disaster. To go into a football game, or any other sports contest, unprepared is to invite defeat.
One of the not so edifying facts that I’ve seen in my lifetime, the last 30 years of it anyhow, is that large numbers of people have lost the will for excellence, and that’s why we have so little of it: in education, in politics, in service, in products, etc. The great American institution of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts contributed very materially to the greatness of our nation by “preparing” our young people for life. “BE PREPARED!” was surely the Boy Scouts’ motto that we learned and were schooled in.
Lower things can prepare us for higher things. The natural order is a good teacher of things more moral and spiritual. We can learn much from nature. This Advent we should make an effort to truly prepare for the coming of the Lord Jesus at Christmas. Prepare for the preparation, now. How will you spend Advent? How will you prepare for this Christmas? Now is the time to plan it out.
Certainly attend Mass on all of the Sundays of Advent, four of them, as we should attend holy Mass on all Sundays and holy days of obligation. Perhaps this year you can have an Advent wreath at home. Light the candles on the Sundays of Lent at the dinner table. Explain the meaning of the Advent wreath to your family. Do some easy research on the internet, or other reliable source to learn more about your faith.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us in paragraph 524:
When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the Precursor’s birth and martyrdom [St. John the Baptist], the Church unites herself to his desire: “He must increase, but I must decrease (Jn 3:30).
Do something special this year during the season of Advent that will help you and your family to appreciate the great event of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem at Christmas. The name Bethlehem means House of Bread. Try to recall and consider that in a town named House of Bread Mary laid Jesus, the Bread of Life, in a manger—a place where higher beings set food for lower beings. There is a deep Eucharistic meaning in the depths of Christmas. Use this Advent, this time of preparation, to discover the connection between Jesus’ coming at Christmas, and his coming to you and to me in the holy Eucharist.
Make a plan now for Advent. Prepare for the preparation now. Resolve to perhaps go to Mass an extra day during the week. Read the Bible and Catechism a half hour each day during Advent, pray the Rosary every day of Advent. Do something special this year to make your Advent truly a preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus at Christmas.

God bless you,

Fr. John Corapi