FEASTS OF THE WEEK
ADVENT
ADVENT
Advent (from, ad-venire in Latin or "to come to") is the season of spiritual preparation consisting of the four weeks leading up to the celebration of Christmas. This is a prayerful time for renewing our experience of waiting and longing for the Lord. It is a time of preparation that directs the heart and mind to Christ's second coming, and to the upcoming celebrations of the Nativity of our Lord at Christmas.
Sunday 1st December : FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
The advent spirit of waiting and longing for the Lord reminds us of the daily call to holiness. We are to be found blameless when He comes, living lives of honesty and integrity. We are to avoid the temptations to escapism from the true meaning of life. The temptations come in many guises.
Tuesday 3rd December : St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552)
One of the first seven Jesuits, was sent to India by St. Ignatius. He converted many in Goa and later in Japan. He died as he attempted to enter China. A patron of the missions.
Wednesday 4th December : St. John Damascene (675-749)
He was a Syrian Christian theologian. He became a priest in the monastery of St. Sabas near Jerusalem and was a leading figure in the defence of icons in the iconoclastic controversy.
Friday 6th December : St. Nicholas
A fourth-century Bishop of Myra, in modern-day Turkey, of whom little is known. He is patron of Russia, of sailors, of pawnbrokers and of children.
St. Nicholas is remembered as being a very generous man who, having lost his parents at a young age, gave all his inheritance away to the sick and needy. There are many stories that have been passed down over the years about him .... One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value - a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home - providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings on the mantel of putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas.
Saturday 7th December : St. Ambrose (340-397)
Became governor of the Roman province whose seat was in Milan. In 374, the laity insisted o is becoming bishop though he was still not baptised. He defended orthodoxy in brilliant preaching and through his writing. Patron of Milan, bee-keepers and domestic animals.