Advent

I’d suggest three ideas, three approaches to these days that can help us experience Advent the way it was meant to be.

How can we make Advent matter?

The students are making the world a warmer place this winter, especially right here in central Minnesota for their Advent service project.

It is interesting that Catholics and other Christians dedicate entire seasons to reflect about “waiting.” Advent is one of them. So is Lent, which will soon be upon us! What are you waiting for this Advent? What to do while we wait?

Advent and Christmas are seasons of hope.

In Trinidad, groups of parang singers, meaning “group of serenaders” and musicians, called paranderos, go house to house during the evenings of the Advent and Christmas seasons, expecting no food or monetary compensation.

The Advent season is a time of preparation for the coming of the prince of peace and not a time of making war with those around you, Pope Francis said.

Christians can turn Christmas into a “pagan” or “mundane” holiday by focusing on the gifts and the tree rather than on the birth of Jesus and his promise to come again, Pope Francis said.