First Advent Candle/Sunday: Hope

December 3, 2023 First Sunday of Advent: Hope

Advent in Latin: Advent derives from the Latin word, “ad-venire,” which translates to “to come to,” therefore, the Advent season is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s coming.

Advent: The word advent is derived from Latin word, adventus, that means “arrival, coming”. Advent, being the season that begins the Catholic Church’s liturgical year, is intended to be a period of preparation for the coming of Jesus.

Advent the Latin word adventus, which means coming. It is a translation of the Greek word parousia, that means coming as well. So that’s one reason the Church chose this passage. It is because in the Latin translation of the Bible you actually would have the word adventus right here. So it is an advent teaching.

We all read on Mark 13:33-37 The Word of God

Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” Mark 13:33-37

CCC # 524 When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming.200 By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”201

200 Cf Rev 22:17.
201 Jn 3:30.

1171 In the liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfold. This is also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning of our salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal mystery.

First Advent Candle/Sunday: Hope

“Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.” – C.S. Lewis

It is only fitting that the first candle on the Advent wreath represents Hope – the first Sunday of Advent not only leads us to anticipate the birth of Christ but celebrate the beginning of a new liturgical season as well. The first candle is purple, the primary color of Advent and a color symbolizing royalty. Sometimes called the “Prophecy Candle,” the first candle harkens us back to Isaiah’s foretelling of the birth of Christ and all of the promises God gave us in the Old Testament that would be fulfilled by the birth of Jesus. This Advent, light the first candle on Sunday, December 3, 2023.

Please click Advent 2023