Advent: the time of arriving, the beginning of the Church’s year, a season of preparation that concludes on Christmas Eve. Pope Francis tells us that Advent “begins a time of consolation and hope. A new liturgical year begins, which brings with it the novelty of our God, who is the ‘God of all consolation’. I wish you to experience Advent thus, as a time of consoling novelty, and joyous waiting.” 

It is of course a time of consolation and hope, though it’s also worth remembering that the readings of Advent look forward not just to the first coming of the Lord as a baby, but to His second coming, as a Judge. But the Pope is right that the waiting is joyous, because we know that that there will be a birth at the end of it: the baby Son of Man.