What I want to speak about this afternoon is a sort of, is the top, I want to speak about the topic of

Advent and Christmas from the point of view of a kind of spiritual preparation by thinking about

the Marian mystery of Advent and the Marian mystery of Christmas. That's to say, how we

to understand Advent and Christmas

primarily as Mary's own mystery, the Virgin Mary's own mystery, of conceiving the child,

the Christ's child, giving birth to Christ's child. And how is that our own way of

entering into a kind of deeper reception of the mystery of Christ.

And I'm just going to speak for maybe 25 minutes and then invite questions and answers,

and then we'll have some refreshments.

Every liturgical season has its own grace.

These liturgical seasons in the Catholic Church are not simply external ceremonies. Of course, we could associate something like Lent with the grace. These liturgical seasons in the Catholic Church are not simply external ceremonies. Of course,

we could associate something like Lent with the grace to do penance. But even more profoundly,

the season of Lent is really about entering into Christ's own mystery of the 40 days in the desert,

of defeating the spirit of evil in the world, of casting out the evil one,

and of entering into, in a certain way, combat with evil and overcoming evil in combat to be one with God and to consecrate humanity to God.

And we enter into Christ's own mystery, into Christ's

purity and His holiness in Lent. You know, we're not pure or holy the way Christ is, but we can

begin to enter more deeply into His mystery in Lent. Advent is, in a different way, an entrance

into the mystery of Christ at its beginnings, its origins.

And in its origins, the mystery of Christ coming into the world is a mystery of interiority.

By interiority, I mean a kind of primacy of our internal spiritual life.

Not the external things that are happening.

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