This Sunday we begin the season of Advent, which is also the beginning of the new liturgical year. Advent is originally a time to reflect and prepare for Christmas similarly to how Lent is the preparation for Easter. The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ in His first coming, and the anticipation of His return as King in his second coming.
During this season, we usually have the traditional advent wreathe. It has four candles decorated with evergreen that is shaped in a perfect circle to symbolize the eternity of God. Four candles (three purple and one pink), are used to count down the weeks until Christmas. Each Sunday of Advent, one of the candles is lit and it has a particular theme leading up to the birth of Christ. The themes are: 1) hopeful longing 2) prayerful penance 3) joyful expectation and 4) spiritual preparation. It looks to: 1) salvation history of the past 2) our present redemption being accomplished and 3) the future coming of Christ. The four Sunday’s liturgical readings of Advent will guide us to enter into these themes.
Symbols Meaning
Circle—Eternity of God
Evergreen Wreath—Life, Immortality
Candle—Jesus as the Light of the World
Four Candles—Four Weeks of Advent
Three Purple Candles—Prayer, Penance and Preparation
One Rose (pink) Candle - Rejoicing
Within the first week of Advent, we also have the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which is a holy day of obligation. This year, December 8th falls on Saturday. Normally we don’t have a scheduled Saturday morning mass in our parish, but because of this solemnity, we will celebrate mass on Saturday at 8:30 A.M. and have a vigil mass on Friday at 7:00 P.M. to accommodate those who are working. For clarification, those of you who attend the Saturday morning mass cannot count that as your Sunday obligation because the morning mass is for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Therefore, there is still the need to attend mass on Sunday.
Finally, because I already received the mandate from Bishop Malesic for the Extra Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion allowing them to exercise their ministry in our parish, there will be nine parishioners to be commissioned this weekend. They are Bridget Fogarty, Nancy Forbeck, Sharon Mihalic, Arlene Miller, Karen Nigra, Alyson Scholl, Mary Scholl, Mary Williams and Tom Brestensky. The rest of the EMHC will receive a special blessing as they have their renewal for the ministry.
Congratulations to our new EMHC and the members who renewed their commitment.