IFTTT Autopost 
Today, Catholic Christians celebrate the First Sunday of Advent, the first day of a new church year. This begins Year A, which means that for the most part, our Sunday Gospel selections will be from the Book of Matthew.
The big message of today’s Gospel selection from Matthew (24: 37-44), is to “be prepared,” for we never know when the end of our life on earth will come. In this passage, Jesus says, “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
We “stay prepared” by staying in contact with the Lord, and that is called “prayer.” We stay prepared by living our vocations as best we can. And we stay prepared by following the Christian commandments, such as welcoming the stranger, forgiving our enemies, caring for the sick, consoling those in sorrow, giving drink to the thirst, and many others.
If you have a traditional Catholic Advent wreath – which has 3 purple and 1 rose-colored candle – you would light one of the purple ones on this First Sunday of Advent.
