The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin said, “A dying person does not have time for the peripheral or the accidental. He or she is drawn to the essential, the important.”

The temptation as Christmas approaches is that we will become distracted and our attention will be diverted from a true appreciation for the moment.

Some surprises may be sweet, and wrapped boxes may hold hidden treasures awaiting discovery. But too many times we've had the opposite experience.

Jesus warns his disciples, “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from . . . the anxieties of daily life.”

A shot of sorrow pierced him. He sat straight up, and for the first time in months felt fully aware of God’s presence. His despair lifted.

All the Christmas lights, all the decorations, all the carols, all the shopping, all the cooking—none of this can prepare us for what is really coming on Christmas day.

As a people of faith, we welcome another year of grace. Advent has begun, our lives change from the ordinary, and we enter into the work of this season of preparation. Let us call upon our God to hear the prayers of his expectant people.

Every year the readings for the First Sunday of Advent look ahead to the coming of the Lord at the end of time, as the church begins the season of looking for the coming of the Lord at his birth.

The Messiah did not come without the prepatory period of Israel’s history or without the prepatory responses of fidelity by Mary and Joseph. The liturgy offers a third time of preparation that affects our lives, for Christ will not come in his fullness to us unless we, too, are prepared. —Raymond E. Brown