Happy New Year!
By Mike Lambrecht
In our society, “Happy New Year” is not something you usually hear until the first of January. At the very mention of the phrase often images of toasts may spring into mind or the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.” However, in the Church, the season of Advent marks the start of a New Liturgical Year. Many changes take place during this time. Some are very visible, while others take place more or less “behind the scenes.”
One of the more subtle changes that you might not be aware of takes place in the cycle of readings. The Church follows a three year cycle of readings for Sundays and a two year cycle for weekdays. At the start of Advent, we move from one cycle into the next. This allows the Church to choose different readings for the various days throughout the year, which in turn gives us a greater familiarity with Sacred Scripture. You might be interested to know that if you attend Mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation for three years that you would hear over 70% of the New Testament proclaimed to you.1
One of the more obvious changes which take place in Advent which you may have noticed is that the colors decorating our church have gone from the green of ordinary time to the violet of Advent. This violet color, often called purple, represents “sorrow, penitence, and preparation.”2 The reason for the change in color is to remind us that Advent is a
period of penance and preparation for Christmas—a time to make straight our paths for the coming of the Messiah. As such, it is an excellent opportunity to reflect upon all that has occurred over the past year. It gives us an opportunity to give thanks to the Lord for the good times, to acknowledge and seek forgiveness for our failures, and to renew again our determination for the coming year to follow Christ more faithfully.
So, on this First Sunday of Advent, I would like to wish all of you a very happy New Year and a grace filled Advent.
1 http://catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/Statistics.htm
2 The Catholic Sourcebook by Rev. Peter Klein