So is this New Year's Eve?

For those of us still recovering from our Thanksgiving feast, we are rapidly approaching the New Year. That's right, the new year of the Church is upon us. Beginning with the vigil masses on Saturday afternoon, we are officially in Advent; the start of the new liturgical year. So I ask again, does that make tonight and Saturday morning and early afternoon New Year's Eve?

With the Saturday daily liturgy, we say goodbye to Ordinary time and the end of Cycle B of the 2009 liturgical year. With this Advent, we enter Year C and a more detailed emphasis on the Gospel of St. Luke.

So what is Advent really all about? This liturgical season that kicks off the liturgical year is a season of joyful preparation for the coming of Christ. The word Advent can be translated as coming or arrival. While the focus seems to be on the coming of Jesus at Christmas as the babe born of the Virgin, Advent also helps us focus on the second coming of Christ at the end of time. It is both a celebration of the historical fact of Jesus' birth and the future expectation of the fulfillment of God's plan for our salvation. As we prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus, both at Christmas and His second coming, we are called to be full of joyful anticipation and repentence as we welcome Him with a clean heart. For these reasons, the Church marks this Advent season with the liturgical color purple, just as she does in Lent.

One of the beautiful traditions of the Advent season is the Advent wreath with the four candles, 3 purple and 1 pink or rose, surrounding a larger candle in the middle. At each weekend Mass throughout Advent, a candle is lit to symbolize our communal Advent worship focused on the coming of the Lord. The one pink or rose candle is for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday where our emphasis shifts to the rejoicing of the Christ.

As Catholic families and all people of faith, we are called to embrace the season of Advent. It has become so customary to throw up the Christmas tree and lights as early as this week, to start celebrating Christmas and to fully participate in all the commercialism going on around us. But Advent is a beautiful season to celebrate, especially as a family. Incorporate an Advent wreath, or Advent calendar to your home, even if you are busy getting out all the Christmas stuff.

Prepare for the coming of Jesus. Prepare for the celebration of His birth and prepare for His second coming. Be an Advent people. Follow the daily readings of this Advent and see the grace and beauty of the liturgical movement of the Church. As the great Advent hymn says: Come, thou long expected Jesus! And let us not forget the joyful cry of the earliest Christians: Maranatha! Come O Christ the Lord!

Happy New Year = Happy Advent!!!