Prepare your heart to welcome the Prince of Peace. This Companion follows a practical, page-a-day format and features original meditations on each day's Gospel by one of twenty-four gifted authors. Each year's Advent Companion is different from the last, and contains these one-of-a-kind extras that you won't find anywhere else: - A variety of beautiful and practical blessings - An Advent Penance Service - Specially-commissioned poetry - Advent Stations - Praying the O Antiphons Advent is that sacred season of anticipation and expectation in which we come to terms with the deepest yearning of our soul—a yearning fulfilled only in Jesus Christ. As we wait in longing for the coming of the Christ Child at Christmas, we turn over to him all the false satisfactions—the compromises—of our life. To live Advent is to live in the awareness of a Presence that changes us. Our Advent preparation is marked by vigilance—custody of the heart, in which we keep our soul fixed on the Lord. For what we see incarnate in the infant Jesus we desire for ourselves: purity, innocence, childlikeness restored. In the birth of this Child we know the promise of our own spiritual rebirth. This rich spiritual companion will accompany you like a beloved friend through the four weeks of Advent with poignant scriptural reflections for each day of the season. You will also find a wealth of meditative prayers, essays, and poetry, an examination of conscience, and a unique feature: the Advent Stations. If you long for the nearness of God in your life, this invaluable little booklet promises to bring you ever closer to the One who promised: I am with you always (Mt 28:20).
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