A season of hope and promise

There was joy and excitement around our convent last evening as we prepared to celebrate the First Vespers for the First Sunday of Advent. This is the liturgical season of hope and as Sisters of Jesus Our Hope we love Advent. The readings for this four-week period are filled with promise and expectation. I experienced that as I took my basket and clippers and went onto our property to cut the green evergreen branches to place around the four Advent candles in our chapel. Last evening Sister Julia blessed the Advent wreath as we began Evening Prayer for the Sunday.

My hope today is that I will get you excited about the Advent Season. I have included some web sites here that might be of interest to you. This first one is the homily given by Father Roger Landry for this Sunday. He will be our retreat master for our retreat this summer: http://www.catholicpreaching.com/index.php?content=homilies&homilies=20061203

This link is to help you find the daily readings during the season: http://www.usccb.org/nab/today.shtml And the following link contains the readings for Morning and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours: http://www.universalis.com/

Finally this link is to Catholic.org’s Advent Page. The articles are excellent. You might want to keep these sites bookmarked so you can use them as you wish. http://www.advent2009.org/index.php

God bless you! I pray that you will use these weeks wisely and fruitfully to prepare your hearts not only to celebrate Christmas but to prepare your hearts anew to recognize Jesus when He comes into your life each day and especially when He comes at the moment when we meet him at the end of our lives.