appy New Year! No, it is not January 1! The liturgical year does not  match New Year’s Day, the beginning of the calendar year, nor July 1,  the beginning of the fiscal year for many organizations. The Church year  is distinctive. It always begins on the first Sunday of Advent, and  with it comes a shift in the cycle of readings. The feast of Christ the  King signaled the end of Ordinary Time.

Advent is the four-week liturgical season that precedes Christmas. The term “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus which  means “coming,” and it focuses not only on the past coming of Jesus on  the first Christmas; but also on the present coming of Jesus in the  gospels, the sacraments, other people, prayer, love, truth, and personal  experience; and the future coming of Jesus at the Second or Final  Coming at the end of the world, the Parousia or the Last Judgment.