All right, welcome back. We'll go ahead and begin the second talk now. It's a good sign. The room's not noticeably emptier than after the first talk. So I appreciate your coming back.

And the second talk will look at the advent of Christ in mystery. So in the first talk, we'll look at the advent of Christ in mystery.

So in the first talk, we looked at the advent of Christ in the flesh and in glory.

And we'll look at what the church appreciates as the advent of Christ in mystery.

So over the course of the church's history,

Advent reflection on the coming of the Lord has steadily deepened,

such that Advent preaching has come to reflect not just on the first and second comings of the Lord,

but also on a third coming of the Lord.

So as if Advent prayer is not complex enough, just looking at the first and second comings of the Lord,

guess what?

There's a third that should also inform our prayer, or at least our appreciation of a third coming of Christ,

should inform our Advent prayer.

Take, for example, the preaching, the Advent preaching of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

And this is the first text that you have on your handout under Talk 2. In the 12th century, Bernard preaches, we know that there are three comings of the Lord.

The third lies between the other two. It is invisible, while the other two are visible.

So he talks about the two visible comings of the Lord, the coming of the Lord in flesh,

in Bethlehem, the coming of the Lord in glory at the end of time, the

public manifestation of his saving power and his judgment.

Between the two, there's a third coming.

And unlike the other two, visible, public, this one is invisible. In the first coming he was seen on earth, dwelling among men.

He himself testifies that they saw him, his contemporaries, and they hated him.

In the final coming, all flesh will see the salvation of our God

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