Advent 2025, the liturgical season of watchful and joyful waiting, invites us to renew our hope and prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord.
Indeed, throughout this year, the entire Church has been called to embark on a pilgrimage of hope. The 2025 Jubilee has reminded us that Christian hope, rooted in the love of God, never disappoints (Rom 5:5).
In this same spirit, the Raising Hope Conference brought together religious, social, scientific, and political leaders to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Laudato Si’ and the Paris Agreement. Together we renewed our commitment to care for our common home and to raise hope amid the challenges of our time.
A heart open to this hope can hear the call to conversion that resonates in the cry of the earth and the poor (Laudato Si’ 49). Amid the social and environmental crises shaking our common home, Advent calls us to keep hope alive. Therefore, living this season in the spirit of Laudato Si’ means opening our eyes, converting our hearts, and collaborating with God in the renewal of all creation.
Join the Advent PilgrimageThe Mystery of the Incarnation and Creation
A key to understanding the relationship between Advent and ecological spirituality lies in the mystery we are preparing to celebrate: the Incarnation. This event reveals a deep communion between God and creation. “The Son, through whom all things were created, united himself to this earth when he was formed in the womb of Mary.” (Laudato Si’ 238) In Christ, God embraces the life of the world.
Advent prepares us to contemplate precisely this mystery: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us” (Jn 1:14). Creation, a gift from God, finds its fullest meaning in Christ, in whom everything is reconciled. His coming manifests the love of God that accompanies human history and leads it—together with all of creation—to fulfillment.
Creation and salvation are a single act that God accomplishes through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The fullness of Christ’s mystery, when “God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28), is the goal toward which all creation strives (Laudato Si’ 83, 100). If the whole world is destined for renewal, our vigilant waiting cannot be passive. Christ’s coming invites us to cooperate in God’s creative work.
The Advent liturgy invites us to live some essential attitudes for all Christian life: conversion, vigilance, and hope.
Conversion: Preparing the Lord’s Way
“Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight” (Mt 3:3)
The Lord’s arrival calls us to conversion. To convert is to change direction and orientation, to change our way of thinking. Preparing the Lord’s way also means healing the wounded earth, straightening what blocks communion with God, with others, and with creation.
It is about transforming heart and life so that Christ’s coming reshapes how we inhabit the world: moving from domination to stewardship, from indifference to compassion, from excessive consumption to grateful simplicity.
Vigilance and discernment: awakening from sleep
“Is already the moment for you to wake from sleep.” (Romans 13:11)
Advent calls us to stay awake. In this sense, vigilance means cultivating an attentive gaze that can discover God’s presence in our world and challenge sinful structures. This attentiveness protects us from being caught off guard by a culture of discard and a technocratic paradigm that drives environmental degradation and social inequality.
Christian vigilance becomes prophetic when it blends contemplation and action. The Advent season provides a fertile framework for this blend, inviting both serene contemplation and active hope.
Hope: Come, Lord Jesus!
“Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.’” (Mt 1:23)
Hope rests on the God who, in Christ, has shown His faithfulness (cf. 2 Cor 1:20). We live in hope because “we know that things can change” (Laudato Si’ 13) and because “injustice is not invincible” (Laudato Si’ 74). This hope is not a passive, individual feeling; it is deeply collective and active, serving as an antidote to discouragement and fatalism. The Church lives in this joyful expectation, crying out, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).
During Advent, the Church recalls Christ’s first coming and renews the desire for His second coming. God always comes to humanity, bringing salvation and the renewal of life. “Together with all creatures, we walk this earth seeking God” (Laudato Si’ 244). The invitation is to await, with joy, the fullness of His Kingdom of justice, peace, and harmony with all creation.
How to Live This Path Concretely Day‑to‑Day
We can treat each ordinary moment of Advent as a step of ecological conversion. To that end, we invite you to undertake the “Advent Pilgrimage: Walking the Path of the Laudato Si’ Virtues” (insert link). It is about living Advent as a pilgrimage of the heart, where every step becomes an opportunity to praise, give thanks, care, and live with humility and simplicity.
Find the Complete Guide to the Advent Pilgrimage and additional resources here.Mary, Mother of Hope
Mary, Mother of Hope, embodies the spirit of Advent waiting. Her visit to Elizabeth shows us that hope is communal, joyful, and filled with service. She receives God’s promise and brings it to life in the world.
Let us walk with Mary to the manger. There, in humility and silence, hope is reborn. In that fragile birth, creation itself is renewed, and our hearts find again the meaning of God’s love made flesh.