Advent hymns emphasize the soul's movement towards hope, with songs like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" reflecting expectation and remorse. Advent is a season of penance marked by joy, using purple and pink colors to symbolize penance and the coming joy of Christmas. Church decor during Advent is intentionally restrained, with a lack of flowers and the absence of the Gloria, creating a sense of emptiness. The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and Gaudete Sunday mark the gradual introduction of festive elements as Christmas approaches.
16 days ago
The First Sunday of Advent arrives on November 30, 2025, marking less than four weeks until Christmas and the start of the Church's liturgical year.1 2 3 This season renews the ancient longing for the Messiah, inviting Catholics to prepare spiritually for Christ's birth and second coming through prayer, reflection, and sacraments.3 It emphasizes a horizon of hope amid penance, countering the surprise of Christmas with deliberate anticipation.1 2
Advent derives from the Latin "adventus," meaning arrival, symbolizing Christ's entry into hearts and the world.3 While practical preparations like decorating occur, the focus is on deepening desire for the Savior, echoing Israel's generations of waiting fulfilled in Jesus.3
Advent hymns guide the soul toward hope, blending expectation with remorse for sin.1 2 Classics like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" capture this mournful longing, while "O Come Divine Messiah" and "People Look East" foster joyful anticipation.1 2 3
The Spanish carol "Alepun" evokes Mary's pregnancy, with rhythms mimicking a donkey's journey to Bethlehem, deepening the theme of waiting in darkness and promise.1 2 Singing Christmas songs during Advent is permissible, but prioritizing Advent-specific hymns like "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" enhances the season's focus.3
Purple and pink dominate Advent's palette, linking to penance—like a mini-Lent—and the joy of nearing Christmas, with purple's blue hue nodding to Mary's role.1 2 The absence of altar flowers, limited instruments, and omission of the Gloria create intentional emptiness, underscoring penitential preparation.1 2
This void begins filling on the Immaculate Conception (December 8) and Gaudete Sunday, when flowers and festivity emerge as harbingers of Christmas joy.1 2 Such restrained decor teaches reliance on Christ's light amid spiritual discipline.3
The Advent wreath, rooted in medieval tradition and pre-Christian customs, uses evergreen for eternal life and candles for Christ as light.3 Three purple candles, lit on the first, second, and fourth Sundays, represent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.3
The pink candle on Gaudete Sunday (third week) signifies rejoicing at the season's midpoint, often paired with rose vestments and emerging caroling.3 These elements transform homes and churches, blending penance with growing festivity.1 2 3
Advent features few saint memorials—only five—centering on Christmas preparation, starting after Christ the King's solemnity.1 2 St. Nicholas inspires generosity, while St. Lucy's candle-lit charity ties to light in darkness.1 2
Mary's prominence shines through the Immaculate Conception (December 8, holy day of obligation) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12), foreshadowing salvation in a soul of grace.1 2 Families decide tree placement flexibly—perhaps on Advent's start, progressively, or Gaudete Sunday—to build excitement without rushing the season.3
These practices weave personal and communal rhythms, ensuring Christmas arrives as profound joy rather than haste.1 2 3
Advent as penitential preparation for Christ’s first and second coming
Advent, the liturgical season preceding Christmas, invites the faithful into a profound period of preparation marked by penance, vigilance, and hope. Rooted in the Church's tradition, it emphasizes conversion of heart as a means to ready ourselves for Christ's dual advent: his historical incarnation as the newborn Savior and his glorious return at the end of time. This penitential character draws from biblical calls to awaken from spiritual slumber and ancient practices of expectant waiting, fostering a renewal that aligns personal repentance with the cosmic drama of salvation. Through liturgical readings, prayers, and theological reflections, Advent reveals itself not as somber austerity but as joyful anticipation tempered by self-examination.
The Church's observance of Advent revives the ancient longing of Israel for the Messiah, directing the faithful toward the mystery of the Incarnation—the first coming of Christ in humility and poverty. This preparation is inherently penitential, urging believers to confront sin and open their hearts to the Savior's transformative light. As the Catechism explains, "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 Saviour's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming." This renewal involves a deliberate turning from darkness, echoing the prophetic visions of peace and divine instruction that herald the Messiah's arrival.
Liturgical readings during Advent, particularly on the First Sunday (Year A), underscore this theme through Isaiah's oracle: "In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains... He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares." Here, the prophet envisions a world redeemed by God's presence, calling the house of Jacob to "walk in the light of the Lord"—a light that demands repentance from idolatry and violence. The responsorial Psalm complements this, expressing joy in pilgrimage to Jerusalem: "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!'" This ascent symbolizes the soul's journey toward Christ, purified through penance to enter the holy city of encounter.
Theologically, Advent's focus on the first coming unfolds the entire paschal mystery within the liturgical year. The Church "unfolds the whole mystery of Christ from his Incarnation and Nativity through his Ascension, to Pentecost and the expectation of the blessed hope of the coming of the Lord." Prayers from the Advent liturgy reinforce this penitential preparation. In the Order of Penance, a monition sets the tone: "Tempus Advéntus nos præparat ad celebrándum mystérium Incarnatiónis Dómini, quo salus nostra exórdium hábuit" (The time of Advent prepares us to celebrate the mystery of the Lord's Incarnation, in which our salvation had its beginning). The accompanying prayer pleads: "Véniam precámur offensárum, cælórum cónditor, Deus, ut Redemptóris nostri sustinéntes præsentiam, peccatórum indulgéntiam percípere mereámur" (We pray for pardon of offenses, God, creator of heaven, that sustaining the presence of our Redeemer, we may merit to receive the forgiveness of sins). Such invocations highlight how penance clears the way for contemplating the Nativity, much like the Baptist's call to "bear fruit worthy of repentance" in preparation for the Lamb of God.
Equally central to Advent is the eschatological dimension, where penance prepares the soul for Christ's second coming in glory. This aspect instills a vigilant hope, reminding believers that the Lord will return as judge and king, demanding readiness amid the uncertainties of life. The Catechism teaches that in prayer, "the disciple keeps watch, attentive to Him Who Is and Him Who Comes, in memory of his first coming in the lowliness of the flesh, and in the hope of his second coming in glory." This watchfulness is a battle against temptation, born of conversion and faith, as Jesus urged: "Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming."
The Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Advent captures this urgency: "For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man... Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." Paired with Paul's exhortation, "You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers... Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." These texts frame Advent as a season of moral awakening, where penance—abstaining from "reveling and drunkenness... quarreling and jealousy"—equips the faithful for the parousia. The Psalm's plea for Jerusalem's peace extends to this future hope: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: 'May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls.'"
Theological explanations deepen this perspective. The Eucharist itself becomes a foretaste of the second coming, celebrated "awaiting the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ." In the Lord's Prayer, sustained by unshakeable faith, we express "the groanings of the present age, this time of patience and expectation," looking "eagerly for the Lord's return, 'until he comes.'" The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours encourages nocturnal prayer to "look forward to the Lord’s coming," citing the Gospel's midnight cry: "At midnight there was a cry, 'The bridegroom is here! go out to meet him.'" This vigilistic spirit permeates Advent, as seen in the Roman Missal's provisions for proper prayers in this "principal liturgical season," and in penitential celebrations that invoke judgment and mercy: "Domini adventus secum fert iudicium" (The Lord's coming brings judgment with it). Pope John Paul II linked this to sacramental confession, urging purification so that "the joy of the nearness of the Lord... must be true," freeing souls from sin's burden.
Advent's prayers weave together themes of first and second comings through penitential rites that foster contrition and hope. The Order of Penance provides formulas for Advent celebrations, beginning with a call to rise: "Hora est iam nos de sommo súrgere... abiciámus ergo ópera tenebrárum et induámur arma lucis" (It is time for us to wake from sleep... let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light), drawn from Romans. After readings and examination of conscience, the penitential act culminates in the Our Father, followed by: "Deus, qui inítio mundi condens lucem densas tenebrárum nébulas dissipásti... ut pópulus a vetustátis erróre liberátus, in occúrsum Fílii tui advéniat, dignis opéribus præparátus" (God, who at the beginning of the world created light and dispelled the dense fogs of darkness... that the people, freed from the error of antiquity, may come to meet your Son, prepared with worthy works).
These prayers emphasize vigilance for both advents, as in the acclamation: "Ecce vénio cito, et merces mea mecum est. Veni, Dómine Iesu" (Behold, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me. Come, Lord Jesus). The Roman Missal's penitential rite at Mass stirs "recognition of our state as sinners, the stirring of contrition in the heart and the desire for pardon," disposing the community for the Word and Eucharist. Such elements ensure Advent's liturgy is a school of penance, balancing joyful expectation with sober self-accounting.
Theologically, Advent's penitential nature stems from the Church's understanding of time as sacred, where the liturgical year recapitulates salvation history. By commemorating the Baptist's humility—"He must increase, but I must decrease"—Advent teaches that true preparation involves diminishing self to make room for Christ. This dual focus on comings integrates eschatology with incarnation, as the faithful, through penance, participate in the "blessed hope" that bridges past promise and future fulfillment.
In contemporary life, amid distractions of consumerism, Advent calls for renewed practices like the sacrament of Reconciliation, echoing John Paul II's exhortation to purify hearts for authentic joy. It challenges believers to "wake from sleep" in a world often numb to spiritual urgency, fostering habits of prayerful watchfulness that echo the early Church's nocturnal vigils. Ultimately, Advent's penance is liberating, transforming waiting into active hope.
In summary, Advent's penitential essence prepares us for Christ's first coming by reviving messianic longing and for his second by demanding vigilant repentance. Through readings like Isaiah's vision of peace and Matthew's call to readiness, prayers invoking mercy and light, and teachings on watchful prayer, the Church guides us toward a heart attuned to the Savior's eternal now.