Advent is derived from the Latin word “adventus” meaning “coming.” Advent is the preparation for the coming of Jesus—we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord. The Season of Advent begins on the 4th Sunday before Christmas, and ends on December 24th at sundown (when Christmas Eve begins).
I started out trying to list all of the prayers, reflections and readings for Advent here, but in the meantime came across a few wonderful sites that do a much better job! 🙂
Here is a lovely Advent site:
http://www.catholic.org/clife/advent/index.php
Daily Scripture Readings for every day during Advent:
http://www.catholic.org/clife/advent/advent.php?id=18
And here is another truly wonderful site which lists all of the prayers of the Mass and the Divine Office:
See:
http://www.universalis.com/today.htm
Readings for the Mass
This site offers a nice instruction manual on how to pray these prayers (also called Liturgy of the Hours).
See: http://divineoffice.org/liturgy-of-the-hours/how-to-pray-the-liturgy-of-the-hours/