First Sunday of Advent

We are so surrounded by the tacky, trashy schmaltz of commercial Christmas that the hidden life of Advent, found in the ancient practices of contemplation and repentance, may seem unreal.
It’s been said before, and must be said again. That hidden season is reality — and all else is show and evasion. There is no Christmas joy without the inner preparation of Advent. This season is so profoundly beautiful that only God himself could have conceived it. A farmer prepares his field for growth. The earth of our souls must be turned over. The seeds of spiritual life need our attention. We can reject the pseudo-season for the real by self-examination and repentance. The Lord will give his goodness: and our earth shall yield her fruit.
Don’t let the events of the world distract you. Abstain from the daily news; the circus of deception and distraction is not going anywhere. The biggest problems we face are within us. We sometimes lie to ourselves as much as the powerful magicians and scam artists working for their worldwide, luciferian government lie to us.
Here let us admire the goodness of our God, who, remembering that man hid himself after his sin, because he was naked, vouchsafes himself to become man’s clothing, and cover with the robe of his Divinity the misery of human nature. Let us, therefore, be on the watch for the day and the hour when he will come to us, and take precautions against the drowsiness which comes of custom and self-indulgence. The light will soon appear; may its first rays be witness of our innocence, or at least of our repentance. If our Savior is coming to put over our sins a covering which is to hide them forever, the least that we, on our part, can do is to retain no further affection for those sins, else it will be said of us that we refused our salvation.
— Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, First Sunday in Advent
From a sermon for the First Sunday of Advent by Bishop Ehrler in 1891:
I. The care of our soul is the most necessary duty of our life.
1.All other cares are but transient, superficial, trivial; the care of our souls involves our deepest and holiest interests, the decision of our lot for all eternity. Before many years, this body of ours, the object of so much solicitude, which we feed and clothe so carefully, will return to dust. The goods and joys of life are as glittering dust, which will be swept away by the storm preceding the General Judgment, and which is of no value in the eyes of God and his Saints. The friends and relatives whose well-being is very near our heart, are little more than transient acquaintances whom we meet and part from at a wayside inn, bidding them farewell after a short greeting. “I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” (Eccles. i: 14.) Our souls will not die nor decay. Their eternal happiness or misery depends on the care or carelessness we manifest in their regard. Is there then a greater necessity than to care for our immortal soul? (more…)
