1st Sunday of Advent

Happy New Year!  Today we begin, in the Church, a new liturgical year with Advent - the season of waiting, watching, and praying for the coming of the Lord at Christmas.  Pope Francis has also proclaimed this coming year a Jubilee Year of Mercy, wherein the Holy Door of St. Peter's basilica will be opened.  We are all invited, in spirit, to step through that door  from a life of sin into a life of grace, to recommit ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ, and, in a special way, to both receive God's mercy in our own lives and to be agents of that mercy in the lives of those around us.