Prepare your heart to welcome the Prince of Peace. This Companion follows a practical, page-a-day format and features original meditations on each day's Gospel by one of twenty-four gifted authors. Each year's Advent Companion is different from the last, and contains these one-of-a-kind extras that you won't find anywhere else: - A variety of beautiful and practical blessings. - An Advent Penance Service. - Specially-commissioned poetry. - Advent Stations. - Praying the O Antiphons. Advent is that sacred season of anticipation and expectation in which we come to terms with the deepest yearning of our soul-a yearning fulfilled only in Jesus Christ. As we wait in longing for the coming of the Christ Child at Christmas, we turn over to him all the false satisfactions-the compromises-of our life. To live Advent is to live in the awareness of a Presence that changes us. Our Advent preparation is marked by vigilance-custody of the heart, in which we keep our soul fixed on the Lord. For what we see incarnate in the infant Jesus we desire for ourselves: purity, innocence, childlikeness restored. In the birth of this Child we know the promise of our own spiritual rebirth. This rich spiritual companion will accompany you like a beloved friend through the four weeks of Advent with poignant scriptural reflections for each day of the season. You will also find a wealth of meditative prayers, essays, and poetry, an examination of conscience, and a unique feature: the Advent Stations. If you long for the nearness of God in your life, this invaluable little booklet promises to bring you ever closer to the One who promised: I am with you always (Mt 28:20).