Sunday, December 1, 2024, marks the first day of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming and the anniversary of Our Lord’s birth on Christmas.
HOPE
The 1st Week of Advent we embrace the theme of HOPE, recognizing its importance in our lives and hearts. Hope is a central theme of Advent, and the first week prepares us to believe that the light of the world will overcome darkness. As we gather around the Advent Wreath to light the first candle we ask God to bless us as we seek to bring the light of Christ to all we know.
Advent Week 1 Reflection
Fr. Jim Sabak, OFM, invites us into the hope of the Advent season and helps us to meditate upon and contemplate this past Sunday’s readings as we carry the Word with us into our weeks. In the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, may we prepare a place within ourselves for God to dwell.
From Fr. Jim: “We are told to stand tall, to hold our heads high because our redemption is at hand and we need to welcome it. A very different understanding, again, of endings than our world can ever understand. And yet this is our difference as believers in the world. A God who promises, again, that what happens at the end will be for glory and fulfillment and not for destruction. A God who promises us a future, a future that cannot be taken away, a future that cannot be discredited, a future that cannot be forfeited, because the future lies with God, always with God, and the progress of humanity is to move so that God is all in all and always a part of who and what we are called to be as human beings of this good earth.” (franciscanmedia.org)