Increase your Marian Devotion.
Make more time for spiritual reading.
Make good stewardship a lifestyle.
Share your Catholic faith with others.
Bring back regular penances.
Go an extra day to Mass during the week.
Pray the rosary more often.
Pick a new Saint buddy. (Why not take on the tradition of choosing a different Catholic saint as a special patron each year?)

More than nineteen hundred years ago, a decree went forth from the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, commanding a general census in which all the people of the empire should be enrolled, “each in his own city,” that is, in the place to which his tribe and family belonged.

Why do we believe in Jesus and the Catholic Church? Why should we continue to do so? We’ve never seen him face-to-face (at least not most of us, I assume). Most of us have never had mystical visions of angels or saints. We live in the same world as our atheist and secularists friends. Why do we believe in Christ if we’ve never seen him?

The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, near Mexico City, is one of the most celebrated places of pilgrimage in North America. On Dec. 9, 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian convert, Juan Diego, and left with him a picture of herself impressed upon his cloak.

Later, the picture was placed in a magnificent shrine which the Roman Pontiffs ennobled by granting it a Chapter of Canons for the splendor of Divine Worship. There it became famous for the concourse of people and the frequency of miracles, exciting immeasurably the piety of the Mexican nation toward the Mother of God.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. Psalm 130:5

Life is an “Advent-sure” because we know how it all turns out! It is the coming of our Lord to be with us, in us and among us. His coming is a “given.” Christ’s presence in and through us is always a sure thing. Advent assures us again and again, whether we look like it, feel like it or even act like it, that Christ is the one who gifts us with the Advent-sure of a lifetime!