Week Beginning Monday 1 st December 2014 “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your lord is coming. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." Matthew 24:42, 44 Advent, which comes from the Latin word for "arrival" or "coming," is a period of preparation for the birth of our Lord. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and is the start of the Christmas season, which lasts until the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. The first Sunday of Advent also marks the beginning of the liturgical year, the Church's "New Year's Day," at which time we change the cycle of readings we are using at Mass.

Advent is a time of waiting, a time of preparation. Tuesday 2 nd December 2014 Let us see, O Lord, your mercy And give us your saving help. Ps 84:8 Am I willing to wait for God to reveal himself, in my life? Do I allow others to see God’s mercy and love in me? Do I always help others in need?

“Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope.…” It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope." Memory Awakens Hope Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, (Pope Emeritus) Seek That Which Is Above,1986

Let us pray……… GOD OF HOPE, As we begin this Advent season and light this candle, we wait for your coming. Help us to feel your love for us. May we come to know the depths of your love for each of us. Give us a generous heart, so we may spread this love, by sharing it with the people around us. Amen.