Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son

With Advent, the curtain goes up on a new liturgical year. In its own way, it presides to the coming of a new cycle of which Easter is the life-giving center. So it turns our gaze and our attention to this point, which catalyzes the memory of the mystery of our Salvation, by making us enter into the ultimate preparation for its realization.

The liturgy of Advent gives us direct announcements of the coming of the Messiah, through the three figures that are Isaiah, John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary. Isaiah, because he is the champion of hope and messianic joy; John the Baptist, because he designates the Messiah; and Mary, because she is the one in whom the Messiah took flesh in this world, the one about whom Isaiah proclaimed, "Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and he will be called Emmanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).

Liturgie catholique