Advent 2025 - A New Beginning

November 25, 2024

This first blog is a new adventure for me.  Never have I thought of doing my writing in this venue.  I am actually very excited about getting this whole thing started.  While I published my book We Don't Live In Eden back in 2014, daily/weekly writing is very different.  Since this coming Sunday is going to be the beginning of the new liturgical year -- the First Sunday of Advent 2025 (I'll explain) -- I can't think of a better topic to have as a first installment.  I hope this will be the beginning of something beautiful and lasting.

I named this first piece Advent 2025 because it will be the beginning of a new liturgical year.  The Church's calendar and the Gregorian calendar are not the same in timing.  Advent begins the Sunday after Thanksgiving (which in the Gregorian calendar is the 4th Thursday in November).  The Gregorian calendar begins January 1st every year -- same date, whereas the new liturgical year's date is fluid, yet there will always be four Sundays in Advent before Christmas, even if the 4th Sunday falls on December 24th.  I know it's nuts.

Some people might be surprised to find out that the official definition of advent is “the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.”  It has plenty of synonyms too from the thesaurus: arrival, appearance, emergence, materialization, surfacing, occurrence, dawn, origin, birth, rise, development, approach, coming, looming, nearing, and advance.  That’s a lot.  For us as Christians, it is the first season of the Christian church year, leading up to Christmas and including the four preceding Sundays.  Furthermore, Christian theology speaks to the coming or second coming of Christ.  It’s such an interesting thing to find this information for me because it fits into our understanding in the faith.

 “The arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.”  Well, of course, this fits into our understanding, albeit from a future point of view.  We don’t say that Jesus was born in Advent, but it’s these next 4 weeks that help us to understand how we need to make known his arrival (the event).  That’s why John the Baptist is such a prominent figure in this 4-week season – his leaping in Elizabeth’s womb and his coming out of the desert to announce Jesus’ presence is supposed to get us excited (maybe even a little bit “en garde”) about Jesus’ arrival in the world, not his own.  That is what we all need to appreciate about Advent.  It’s not simply a 4-week span of time before Christmas.  It’s not the same sort of penitential season like Lent.  It’s 4 weeks to help us to focus on preparing how we might make known the good news John the Baptist puts forward as an example, even from the womb, that Jesus’ arrival is SOON.

St. Cletus has many ways for us to help that to happen leading up to the Nativity of Jesus.  There will be two evenings of prayer and reflection (first on December 3 in Spanish, then December 4 in English) by Friar Mario Serrano, OFM.  The Ho Ho Breakfast sponsored by the Council of Catholic Women is always a great family and community building event.  That happens on Sunday, December 8^th.  There will be first reconciliations for our second graders from both the school and faith formation programs.  There will be other opportunities between our parish, St. John of the Cross, and St. Francis Xavier for reconciliation.  

Our own choir is going to have a Christmas concert on December 22^nd.  And, of course, the Mass schedule for December 24^th and 25^th.  Masses on the 24^th are at 3pm in the church, 3:15pm in the gymnasium, and, at 5pm, 7:30pm (Spanish), and 10:30pm in the church.  Masses on the 25^th are at 7:15 and 10am in English, and at 12:30pm in Spanish.  And besides all of these events, there is no shortage of opportunities for practicing charity.  The St. Cletus Food Pantry is feeding more families than ever before and the Giving Tree was another major undertaking for such a labor of love from our volunteers. 

 Before I close, this article, let me also say once again how great it is to continue in our Formation Series “When You Pray.”  Some people might think that we as priests have all of our spiritual “ducks in a row” when it comes to prayer.  Let me assure you, that is not always the case.  Two sessions ago, as I preached about on November 17^th, every person goes thru a “dry-spell” in their prayer life.  Others think that they are doing something wrong because they are not getting “answers” to their prayers.  In the wake of that session, I actually used the lesson from that night on three separate occasions during the week.  You may have heard me refer to a friend whom I respect very much but who is not terribly religious ask me for advice because he had been having people asking him to pray for various intentions – from people who had ill friends or family, or they were losing their jobs, or other difficult times.  He just felt like he had no idea what to say to God in his prayer.  How was he supposed to approach Him?  I simply told him “Be yourself.  Talk to Him.  Even when He feels distant from you, He hears and answers.”  And yes, even some of the “best” saints were not always on track, but they were inspired to keep on moving forward and onward to the Kingdom.

 Make it a great Advent.  Watch and pray.

 Until next time...Ta for now.