Spend this Advent with the Dominican Friars preparing for Christmas

Here's an exciting offering from the Dominican Friars in collaboration with Catholic Exchange.

Tom Allen, president of Catholic Exchange, explains:

Free Advent Study on the Way!

Realizing that our Christmas joy is in direct proportion to our Advent preparation, we are very excited about sharing with you a free Advent study, consisting of both written materials (downloadable and printable for your convenience) and videos. This series of articles and videos is entitled "The Mystery of Advent."

The "Mystery of Advent" is being produced by a team of Dominican Friars from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. and St. Vincent Church and Priory in New York City. Several of their brothers have become regular contributors to Catholic Exchange, sharing with us the treasures of their in-depth Scripture study and prayerful meditation.

More details from the Dominican Friars Student blog:

Every year Christians bemoan how the true meaning of Christmas gets lost from view in our society. In the midst of December’s consumerist frenzy and politically correct greetings, how does one put Christ back in Christmas?

The Church has a powerful response to the secularization of Christmas. The response is Advent.

The Advent season, when lived to its depths, prepares the heart and mind to celebrate Christ at Christmas. The more consciously Christians enter into what Advent offers, the greater will be their Christmas joy.

[We] are offering a series of articles and videos - titled “The Mystery of Advent."

The series consists of one article and one short video for each week of Advent. The articles will cover the readings and liturgy for each Sunday of Advent, and will appear on the homepage of Catholic Exchange the Thursday before each Sunday. The articles are designed to help one prepare spiritually for the upcoming Sunday Mass. The first article appears on Thursday, November 29. The videos will provide Dominican preaching on the meaning of each Advent week, and will appear each week on the homepage of Catholic Exchange.

We Friars invite everyone to join us this Advent in preparing the way for Christ at Christmas.

[Visiting their blog and bookmarking their RSS feed is an easy way to make that happen.]

I consider this is an excellent instance of using modern technology to meet the special spiritual needs of Catholics during this busy holiday season. I suggest we take the Dominican Friars up on their generous offer!