Today, November 27, is the earliest possible Advent. For reasons I cannot completely fathom, Advent was always for me the most meaningful season. It's observance is not a matter of mere expectation, nor of filling one's mind with thoughts of the coming Christmas or even the first Christmas. We are called to live in the present, not the past or future.

We are called to live in the now during Advent as at any other time.

It is said to be a season of contemplation, of expectation, of awaiting. It is living in a world that is always pregnant with a new world and the infinite possibilities inherent in new worlds.

For me, Advent is a good time for sweeping the cobwebs from one's soul, of deconstructing one's mental edifices of how both the world and the spirit work; of being as realistic as I can about everything; of seeing things as they are and not as I would like them to be; and of accepting all things, not as the best of all possible worlds, but as the world we have to work in and to work with.

May Advent be a blessed time for you.

Article on Advent from the Catholic Encyclopedia

From the Wikepedia