Advent Basics
This four-week period starts the liturgical year and prepares us for Christmas.
What is Advent?
The main color for Advent vestments, symbolizing penance and preparation.
What is purple (or violet)?
In Isaiah 35, this prophet describes the Messiah's signs: blind see, lame walk, and waters break forth in the wilderness.
Who is Isaiah?
Advent means "coming" or "arrival" in Latin, referring to Christ's three comings: birth, ongoing presence, and second return.
What is adventus?
This rose-colored candle on the Advent wreath is lit on Gaudete Sunday to represent joy amid waiting.
What is the third candle?
John the Baptist, from prison, asks Jesus in Matthew 11: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"
What is John's question?
This Sunday of Advent, the third one, is called Gaudete Sunday because we "rejoice" that the Lord is near.
What is the Third Sunday of Advent?
The evergreen wreath with four candles symbolizes the stages of salvation history, like prophetic light breaking the "long night" before Christ.
What is the Advent wreath?
Jesus responds to John by listing miracles that fulfill Isaiah's prophecy, like the deaf hearing and good news to the poor.
What are the signs of the Messiah?
Advent last this many weeks.
What is 4 weeks?
On Gaudete Sunday, priests can wear rose vestments or even dalmatics, breaking the usual violet for a touch of festivity.
What is the exception for the Third Sunday?