3547 Clifton Ave.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45220
Phone: 513-861-1295
Pastor: Rev. Todd Grogan
OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
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Catholic Parish
Resources for Celebrating Advent in Your Home
Make sure you have picked up your copy of our Annunciation Parish Advent/Christmas Resource Booklet for this Year of Grace 2012!
Click here to access an online calendar with resources to help you live each day of the Advent Season to the fullest in your own home. There are activities and resources for everyone to use, no matter what there age!
Here is a Service of Blessing for an Advent Wreath in your home from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Another resource for Blessing an Advent Wreath, published by Loyola Press, can be accessed here.
Loyola Press also provides a daily online interactive retreat for the Advent Season. Click here to access this retreat. And the Advent edition of the "Finding God" e-newsletter can be accessed here.
A Jesse Tree is a wonderful way to keep the season of Advent and prepare for Christmas by decorating a tree (often a bare branch) with ornaments/symbols of Jesus' ancestors and the various events in Scripture which lead us to the birth of Christ. Loyola Press has a wonderful online day-by-day guide for creating a Jesse Tree. Click here to access this guide.
Loyola Press also provides a "Sunday Connection" which provides background and activities for the readings each Sunday and Holy Day. There is a guide for groups and for families, but families may also want to utilize the "group" reflections, which offer suggestions for children grades 1-8. Click here to access Loyola Press's Sunday Connection.
December 6th is St. Nicholas' Feast Day, a wonderful day to celebrate in your homes! To learn more about St. Nicholas and many ways you can celebrate his December 6th Feast Day, click here. This site also has many activities for children.
To download a Novena for Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose Feast Day is December 12th, click here. A novena is a prayer traditionally prayed for nine days, so to prepare for this Feast Day, begin the novena on December 3rd.
The Advent Wreath
An Advent wreath contains several powerful signs: the circular wreath reminds us of our eternal God, the evergreen branches remind us of life, and the candles symbolize the light of Christ. Each week another candle is lit, a sign of the coming of Christ into the world. You can light the wreath each evening at dinner using a simple prayer: As we light the candle(s) of this wreath, O Lord, we ask that you come and enlighten our hearts.
© 2009 Liturgy Training Publications. 1-800-933-1800. Written by Mary Katharine Deeley. Illustrated by Clint Hansen. Permission to publish granted by the Very Reverend John F. Canary, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Chicago, on July 16, 2009.
An Advent Wreath has four candles, usually three violet and one rose. The rose candle is lighted the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday.
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