Sunday, Nov. 30, is the first Sunday in Advent and the first Sunday in a new liturgical year: Year B, Cycle I.

Family

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Tom loves to put the Christmas tree up early. April has continually fought against this. So, we have compromised: We now put it up early, but without decorations.

Instead, we put a single gift box under it that looks like a Christmas present, but with a removable lid. Each morning before Tom leaves for the office, we kneel by the Christmas tree and say a prayer. Then we open the box and each of us picks one of the “gifts”: slips of paper with writing on them.

Each person reads his gifts and the action to help foster that gift underneath. We end with a prayer and put the papers out where we can see them, reminding us to complete the action during the day.

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Media

Since Advent is a time to review the salvation story, we’re going to watch the story of Moses on the first Sunday of Advent. We’ve always enjoyed The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston. We plan to try a new one this year — we’ll let you know how it turns out.

Readings

Isaiah 63:16-17, 19, 64:2-7; Psalms 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19; First Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:33-37

EPriest.com offers free homily packs for priests.

Our Take

It’s hard to put yourself in the place of the Old Testament believers waiting for God. But the Psalms help you do it.

Dominican Father Peter John Cameron, editor of Magnificat, gave a talk at our parish for the year of St. Paul. He thought about how Paul must have felt encountering Christ for the first time.

After all, Paul had prayed the Psalms all his life, but perhaps he didn’t ever expect them to literally come true. He would have prayed in this Sunday’s Psalm, “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved. O shepherd of Israel, hearken. From your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth. Rouse your power, and come to save us.”

He would have been familiar with the words of Isaiah from today’s readings: “O, that you would rend the heavens and come down.”

Imagine praying that for years, perhaps thinking, “This is what we always pray and hope for — but it is always something that will happen another day, not to us.”

God surprised and delighted Paul and others by giving them just what they asked for. They saw his face. He ripped open the heavens and came down. He saved them.

We often hear this Sunday’s Gospel reading about Christ coming and have the same attitude toward it. Some day it will happen, sure. But it won’t be today.

But what if it does?

Or, short of that, we pray for a success to our pro-life efforts, or for peace. What if that happens today?

It might. As Pope Benedict said, “Advent is the time when Christians should awaken in their hearts the hope that they can change the world, with the help of God.” Amen.