Advent means a (solemn) coming. From the fourth Sunday before Christmas until Christmas itself, the Church recalls the approach of our Lord. A liturgical remembrance is not a mere piece of memory-work. It deals with events that are still relevant for us. To remember means in this case to re-enact. But perhaps even this is not clear enough. It could be taken in the sense of what happens when we remember the dead - we re-live in our minds what happened long ago. But liturgical celebration re-enacts the event, not just in thought, but in reality. Every event recalled by the liturgy was a meeting of God with man. But God is ready to make what was decisive in this event, its grace, take place once more among those who celebrate it. They experience the same encounter with God as did those who with receptive hearts lived through the event in the past. Indeed, they experience it better than those who were only present in the body, like someone who passed by where John was preaching, but did not pause.

The celebration of Advent means that we share once more the longing for God's coming and the conversion which prepared for it. It is a way of experiencing more and more fully how God comes to us in our darkness. The liturgy draws especially on Isaiah, the most monumental of the prophets, who is so rich in messianic texts. Isaiah's firm belief that God would send his anointed and his salvation helped him to find words which can still express man's longing for God today 'Have courage, fear not, behold your God.'

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Advent means every coming of Jesus. Primarily it means the coming of the Lord, which took place once and for all. But it also means his coming into our human fellowship here and now (in the Mass, and in works of charity -Editor). And this again is seen in conjunction with his great coming - his manifestation at the end of time. Advent, in fact, begins with this, in the readings of the first Sunday of the season. 

Advent is also celebrated by some household customs, such as the Advent wreaths with their four candles, one more of which is lit every Sunday, to symbolise the approach of the Light.

taken from The New Catechism, Catholic Faith for Adults, translated from the Dutch, 1967