First Sunday of Advent

Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent's intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church's year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart's memory so that it can discern the star of hope. All the feasts in the Church's calendar are events of remembrance and hence events of hope. These events, of such great significance for mankind, which are preserved and opened up by faith's calendar, are intended to become personal memories of our own life history through the celebration of holy seasons by means of liturgy and custom. Our personal memories are nourished by mankind's great memories; in turn, it is only by translating them into personal terms that these great memories are kept alive. Man's ability to believe always depends in part on faith having become dear on the path of life, on the humanity of God having manifested itself through the humanity of men. . . . It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
"Seek That Which Is Above"
Ignatius Press (San Francisco, 1986)

• Daily Reflections for the Advent-Christmas Season, Daughters of St. Paul.
• Advent Reflections, courtesy of EWTN.