The First Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the Church’s New Year. With it comes a change in the cycle of readings for both Sundays and weekdays. Sunday readings are from Cycle B (the year of Mark) and weekday readings are Year 2.
Advent is a time of waiting, conversion and hope. Waiting has two forms — the first one is in memory of the first coming of the Lord in our mortal flesh and the second is in prayer for his final, glorious coming as Lord of History and Universal Judge Conversion, to which the liturgy of this time often refers quoting the prophets, especially John the Baptist, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 3:2) Hope is a joyful hope that the salvation already accomplished by Christ (cf. Romans 8:24-25) and the reality of grace in the world will mature and reach their fullness, thereby granting us what is promised by faith, and ‘we shall become like him for we shall see him as he really is’ (John 3:2)