Most, if not all of the leftover turkey has been eaten. Black Friday sales are mostly over. The decorations are up all over town and in the malls. We're stuffed and either glad the relatives have finally left or we're saddened because they could stay longer; or maybe just a little of both. Those are the telltale signs that Christmas is right around the corner.

Today we enter the Season of Advent in the Church. It is a season of promise and a season of preparation, preparation to receive the Promise of God for the world.

In an old "Peanuts" cartoon strip, good old Charlie Brown says to Linus, "Life is just too much for me. I've been confused from the day I was born. I think the whole trouble is that we're thrown into life too fast. We're not really prepared."

And Linus asks, "What did you…