We begin our Advent Pilgrimage to the City of Bethlehem today.

It is a joyful, yet a serious time of the year. There is nothing quite like Christmas and so there is also nothing quite like Advent, the preparation time. It is the perfect opportunity to start over in our spiritual life. Yes, it is the hour to be vigilant and prepare well.

We begin in Arizona, but we turn our minds to the Holy City of Bethlehem. All of the world is now preparing for the 2025th year in Jesus’ Name. All over the world this day people are turning their minds to the House of Bread, which is what Bethlehem literally means.

“My kingdom does not belong to this world.” Today, our last Sunday of Ordinary Time for this liturgical year, we celebrate Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. So how can we understand Christ’s Kingdom?

History of Christ the King: This Solemnity of Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XI 99 years ago in 1925, during a wild time that was called ‘The Roaring Twenties.’ Pope Pius wrote about the Liturgical Year blessings in his encyclical Quas Primas:

“The Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory” (Mk 13:26).

Today we are in the second-to-last Sunday in Ordinary Time for this Liturgical Year B, when we have studied St. Mark’s Gospel.

In these darker days, we are with Jesus on the Mount of Olives and we are overlooking the City of Jerusalem just before that great Feast of the Passover. Jesus tells us of the “End Times” where there will be tribulation and the powers in the heavens be shaken.

God Does The Most With The Least:

Set in Holy Week, we see that Jesus has entered triumphantly into Jerusalem. He taught in the Temple area to the visiting crowds. Part of the deal was to make a show of your offering to the Temple to help with the cost of the Passover Feast. We see time and time again how God loves the poor and widows and always puts them first.