Get involved this coming Advent Season with wonderful events! 1. Advent Wreath Making Kits 2. Advent Bible Study 3. Advent One Evening Bible Study: Christmas Separating the Holy Day from the Holiday 4. Growing Catholics is looking to give the 90 residents of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Enfield some much needed holiday cheer

This last weekend of the liturgical year is a celebration of the universality of Jesus Christ as our true leader—a King—as the Church turns its attention to life on earth and its ends as we know it in the consideration of eternal life. We begin Advent next Sunday, and the Season is a time to prepare for the coming of the infant Jesus in the Nativity at Bethlehem and it is also a time of expectant waiting—when we wait for the Second Coming, the return of Jesus Christ (the Parousia) when He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

According to scripture scholars and other faith educators, a “talent” as used in today’s Matthean Gospel is “more than an inborn trait” but rather we are to understand it as “a huge allotment of Divine goods that God entrusts to Jesus’ disciples” for the building up of the Kingdom of God.

RCIA stands for Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA), and it is the formal program that allows individuals to become members of the Catholic Church. RCIA programs tend to start in the fall, so this is a great time to begin considering joining the program.

In the next three weeks we will conclude the current liturgical year in the Church and Advent (Sunday, 29 November we shall start the Advent season, concluding on Thursday, 24 December, Christmas Eve). Advent asks us to consider the Coming of Emmanuel, the Son of God, and the Salvation of the world—in the Christmas event but it also asks us to consider the Second Coming of Christ at the End Time. So let us now consider the end-time as we prepare for Advent.