Advent

“Imagine the countless moments the Virgin Mary experienced during the months between the Annunciation and the Nativity — that special, private time that she and Jesus shared while he was growing in utero.”

“Maybe this Gaudete Sunday, and this strange year, is beckoning us to quiet down, do less, be more prayerful, take intentional time to count our blessings and give thanks for the fundamental things.”

Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, who served in the Holy Land for the last six years, explains the challenges, exacerbated due to the pandemic, that Christians face there.

This year, Advent calls us to a new kind of hospitality to welcome the discomfort or stranger as an act of hope.

“This year has felt more Lent than Advent, but it has been a time of waiting, a year of mandated patience. We have not all done this equally well. Many of us have grown impatient at the long austerity of the COVID crisis. We don’t all feel we are sharing the same burden.”

Conversion during Advent is, in particular, “a question of converting our idea of God,” Pope Francis says. It is a time “to welcome not a fairy-tale character, but the God who challenges us, involves us and before whom a choice is imposed.”

How can we be the voice crying out in the wilderness when we can’t even leave our homes? The answer: We take to the (digital) streets.

The Church offers a variety of prayer forms and spiritual practices to deepen our faith during these holy seasons.