Spirituality
Advent Week 3: Rejoice during bleak times
The joy of God bursting from heaven spills into our time on this Gaudete Sunday, beckoning us to quiet down, do less, be more prayerful and find joy in what Christ is offering us in this unique and strange year.
Advent Week 3: The joy of Advent and pregnancy
Writer Cassandra Palmer is expecting a child this Advent, and despite the busyness of the season, she focuses on what is quietly developing inside. She has company, as we all have the company of God.
Advent calls us to face our brokenness with hope
A drive through a devastated neighborhood reminds Gina Christian that the Lord prepares his way in the deserts of our lives, so that he can transform them and reveal his glory.
Advent Week 2: Prepare the (digital) way of the Lord
Many people have abandoned the toxicity of social media, but it is an ideal place, and now is the ideal time, to "make straight the way of the Lord" and for Catholics to model good use of media.
Advent Week 2: Our idea of God undergoes conversion
The suffering and disruption of the pandemic this year frequently yielded surprising human rewards, even as it challenged us to seek and find God in new ways, writes David Gibson.
This Advent, travel back to the future (and beyond)
Time travel has always fascinated sci-fi buff Gina Christian, but Advent reminds us we don't need a Starfleet craft to break through the everyday into the joyous eternity promised by Christ's coming.
Advent is time to say ‘yes’ to our life in Christ
The Spirit who dwells within gives us the strength to move forward in confidence, which we do by striving for the good each day, writes Msgr. Joseph Prior on the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent.
Readings of the Holy Mass – Second Sunday of Advent
Read, listen to or watch videos of the Mass readings with these resources from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, using the New American Bible, Revised Edition.
Communion, confession and knitting in prayer
In this week's Q & A column, Father Ken Doyle comforts a teen upset over a mortal sin and eases a mom distracted in prayer while viewing the Mass at home on TV.
Be alert, wait in hope of the Lord as Advent begins
Msgr. Joseph Prior writes that with Advent we begin the season of hope -- not in an ideal but in the person of Jesus, whose return moves forward in joy and peace.