Advent Video 4: Joy, Anticipation and Our Lady of Guadalupe (5:52)

Sign up at any time during Advent for Christopher West's Advent Daily Reflection emails at: www.corproject.com/advent

Nuptials . . . the union of the Bridegroom and the Bride . . . It’s what Christmas is all about. And the start of Advent means these divine-human nuptials are soon upon us. What are you doing to prepare?

Advent, of course, means “coming.” It’s a time set aside for the Bride (the Church) to prepare herself for the coming of the Bridegroom (Christ). To help you enter more deeply into the Christmas nuptials, The Cor Project is offering a free series of Advent reflections called “Open Up Your Hearts.” Through the written word, through videos, music, and sacred art, these reflections are meant to prepare you for Christmas by helping you direct the deepest yearnings of your heart towards its true satisfaction: the coming of Infinite love into the womb of Mary.

This is the Christmas story in a nutshell: the Infinite One has wed himself to our finite humanity. This is what we’re preparing ourselves for during Advent. And this is why Advent is a time of desire: the Bride is longing to be filled with the eternal life of her Bridegroom. And so she cries in union with the Spirit of God: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!”

“Open Up Your Hearts” is a series of reflections that will run from Dec. 3, the first Sunday of Advent, through Jan. 1, 2018. They are all about hope — hope that there is a banquet of life and love that corresponds to our yearning. And that banquet is coming in the flesh!