WASHINGTON—The United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is offering online resources for
prayerful preparation for Advent and Christmas. The daily suggestions for
reading, reflection, and prayer during the Advent and Christmas seasons are now
available online. In addition to a clickable online Advent calendar, with each
click opening “doors” to a page of suggested reading, the online page also offers
daily reflections, prayers, suggested activities and bilingual calendars that
can be printed.

The U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) provides the online Advent and Christmas resources
at https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/advent/index.cfm and https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/christmas/index.cfm.

This year, in
addition to the traditional bilingual calendar for Advent that can be printed
out, the USCCB is also offering a second bilingual Advent calendar specifically
for families, with daily suggestions for prayers and activities to do as a
family in preparation for Christmas. Suggestions include creating a Jesse Tree,
blessing the family Nativity, and taking time to learn about Advent traditions
around the world.

Other Advent
resources on the website include liturgical notes on the season, a commentary
on the proper prayers of the Advent season from the Roman Missal, and prayers
and blessings from the USCCB publication Catholic Household Blessings and
Prayers. Also included are lectio
divinas for the four Sundays of Advent.

For Christmas, in addition to the clickable calendar and the bilingual
calendar that can be printed, there are lectio divinas for four feast days
during the Christmas season—the Solemnity of Christmas; the Feast of the Holy
Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of
God; and the Solemnity of the Epiphany. The lectio divinas are also available
in English and Spanish.

Advent begins on December 3 and continues until the
evening of December 24 when the Christmas season begins. The Christmas season
will conclude with the Baptism of the Lord on Jan. 8, 2018.

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Keywords: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, website, resources,
Advent, Christmas, prayer, lectio divina, Roman Missal, reflection, families

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Media Contact:
Judy Keane
202-541-3200

Source:: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops