Advent is here!  And all of our St. Maria Goretti Advent traditions are with us on this First Sunday.  Our big Advent wreath is up and we’ve blessed it and lit the first candle.  The Boy Scouts are here today, as they have been the last several years, offering us their homemade, Advent wreathes, for our homes.  Man, the pine always smells so good!  The HELP Committee’s Advent Angel trees are up in the church narthex, as they were last weekend, offering us all the chance to help someone in need this Advent.  And in our church bulletin this week, with the cover highlights switched from green to purple by the way, in the “Pastor Note’s”, you’ll find my traditional challenge to really live out our Faith this year and this Advent, by living “counter-culturally” and celebrating Advent BEFORE we get to Christmas.  You need to read the bulletin this week.  I’m not going to repeat myself here.  Tom Derksen has always teased me about nobody reads the bulletin anyway.  In today’s case, people may or may not read the bulletin, but bombarded by enticements to start celebrating Christmas early, it is very difficult to do what I’m asking us to consider this week.  And that is, that we need to keep Advent.  These next four weeks are extremely important to our Faith lives.  It’s not time for Christmas yet.  It would be doing ourselves a great disservice to skip Advent.  And why is that?  I think we get an important clue from our Gospel today.

        In our Gospel, St. Luke is telling us that our redemption is close at hand.  The Gospel says that there will signs and wonders, great and terrible events that will signal the Second Coming.  The Gospel even goes on to say that there will be those “who die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world”.  This Gospel text encourages all of us to stay strong, to keep believing, and to persevere in our Faith.  The Gospel goes on to warn us about becoming drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and from the anxieties of daily life.  I’m seriously hoping that we don’t have to worry about carousing and drunkenness.  But I think all of us do have to worry about the anxiety of daily life.  What I’d like to suggest to you today, is that Advent is our chance to get out of the anxieties of daily living.  Certainly, Advent is our chance NOT to get caught up in the craziness and perverted values of the mass-consumerism Christmas that has already started for so many.  Advent reminds us that Christmas is the birthday of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that Christmas is all about Him!  We’ve got to get ready for Christmas in our hearts and souls first.  Christmas isn’t supposed to be about getting 30% off at some store.  Christmas isn’t supposed to be about having bigger and brighter lights than your neighbors.  Christmas isn’t about snowmen, or reindeer, or what kind or brand of ham we are going to serve for dinner.  We lose Christmas when we forget what Christmas is ALL about.  Advent helps us to keep things in perspective and to concentrate on what’s most important.  It prepares our souls.  Advent is our time to listen, to pray, to prepare, to change our hearts for the coming of Jesus.  And all of us have some changing to do!  Wouldn’t it be a terrible waste for us to miss this opportunity?

       Advent is here now.  It’s not time to start decorating.  It’s not time to start wrapping presents.  It’s not time for Christmas music yet.  We’ve got Advent songs to sing and to listen to.  It’s time to get our hearts and our souls ready for Jesus this Advent.  We need to pray more.  We need to read the Sacred Scriptures more.  We need to help out and volunteer more.  We need to be quiet and listen to God’s call in the silence of our hearts more.  What are you going to do this Advent?  The possibilities are endless!

       One of the saddest parts of the Christmas story for me, has always been that when Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, that there was NO room for any of them anywhere.  It is why Jesus had to be born in a stable, a barn.  How sad that when the Messiah came, that there was no room for Him in our world.  This Christmas, prepare a place for Christ in your heart.  For that to happen, you gotta make some room.  You may have to get rid of a few things and get some things out of your heart.  The time for this making room is Advent.  And it is now!  Let us use this time wisely.  Let us prepare the most important part of Christmas first! 

       We’ve got four weeks.  Our redemption is close at hand   Let’s remember what’s most important.

May God bless us as we prepare,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti…Pray for us !!!