The sense of Advent as a penitential season akin to Lent has been largely lost to the popular culture of today, marked as it is by high excitement throughout December, and accompanying commercial and social indulgence.
But if Catholics wish to prepare conscientiously for a holy Christmas, then Advent is the season in which they “prepare a way for the Lord” by practising abstinence, self-denial, fasting, almsgiving and charity.
It is a time when more time can be given to reading Scripture or a religious book and to deepening and improving prayer life.
