Event Details

About the Event

Advent is a time to prepare the way for the birth of Jesus. In the Franciscan tradition, St. Francis of Assisi made the event an opportunity to engage in the activity as he brought the manger and the creche to the followers of Christ. However, Advent, this preparation time is so much more than that. It is an opportunity for a personal rebirth in your faith. Please join us and the faculty at the Franciscan School of Theology on a virtual journey to experience a rebirth this Christmastide. We will be hosting three online sessions on the 3rd, 10th and 17th of December.

Take a look here for more details and how each presenter’s Advent journey has been illuminated. Join us for this joyous celebration of the anticipated birth of Christ in a true Franciscan spirit.

The series will be guided by the captivating faculty of FST, including Garrett Galvin, OFM, Professor Angela Zautcke and Juliet Mousseau, RSCJ.

The sessions will be one hour in length, held weekly on Tuesday starting at 7:30pm PT. You can register here and attend any or all of the sessions. Registration link here. The program has a suggested donation of $45 for all three sessions, but feel free to contact us if you would like to take advantage of free admission.

Dr. Michael Cunningham, OFS, will moderate the questions from the sessions which will be led by the faculty below:

December 3:
Four Key Themes of Advent: Promise, Preparation, Presence, and Peace Fr. Garrett Galvin, OFM, President and Rector

While each Sunday is not devoted to one theme, we can focus on one of these inspiring themes each Sunday of Advent. The themes characterize the season, although they will be more prominent on certain Sundays. In this season of joyful renewal, we are to prepare for the coming of God among us as a child who is a king, as an infant who is a savior, as one born at a given time and place, yet who is a Messiah for all ages and peoples.

December 10:
Preparing Humble Hearts for the Christ Child’s Arrival Sr. Juliet Mousseau, RSCJ, Vice President for Academic Affairs

As we prepare for the coming of the infant Jesus, we reflect on what the Incarnation means to us. St. Francis used a live nativity scene to bring to life the reality of God-be-come-human, complete with the sights and smells of his earthly surroundings. With Francis’s help, we will explore the theme of humility as central to the Incarnation. While most of us would rather avoid humility, Francis chose humility as a way of life, beginning with the renunciation of his family’s wealth. He lived out what Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:29: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” In this talk, we will explore the fullness of humility in God’s act of Incarnation, we will share stories about the humility of Francis, and we will reflect on our own call to live the virtue of humility in love for all of God’s creation.

December 17:
Advent: A Time of Joy for the Present and Future Angela Zautcke, Professor of New Testament at the Franciscan School of Theology

In the third week of Advent, we recognize that it is almost time to celebrate the birth of Christ and so the Incarnation. In this talk we will reflect on how the Gospel of Luke conveys the Incarnation as a joyful event that changed the world from Christ’s birth onward. During Advent, we are therefore mindful of how we live in a time of “already/not yet”: the Incarnation has revealed God’s love for humanity and given the present new meaning, yet we still await the fullness of God’s kingdom. Advent is a time of rejoicing and reflecting on the meaning of the Incarnation for the past, present, and future.

THE SPEAKERS:

Garrett Galvin, OFM, holds a doctorate in biblical studies from The Catholic University of America. He is President at the Franciscan School of Theology where he has taught a variety of courses on Sacred Scripture. He has written two books and a number of articles including chapters on 1 Samuel in the Paulist Biblical Commentary and on 2 Kings in the Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century.

Sr. Juliet Mousseau, RSCJ, a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, completed her Ph.D. in Historical Theology at Saint Louis University in 2006. She served as a professor of church history at the Aquinas Institute of Theology from 2012 to 2021 and then became Vice President for Academic Affairs at FST in 2021. Her most recent books are a collection of essays on religious life that came out in November, Reseeding Religious Life through the Global Sisterhood, Prophetic Witnesses to Joy: A Theology of the Vowed Life and the edited volume of translations, Life at St. Victor.

Angela Zautcke, is Professor of New Testament at the Franciscan School of Theology. She studies Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity and is completing her dissertation at the University of Notre Dame. Angela focuses on the study of the New Testament within the broader context of Judaism and the Greco-Roman world. Her approach to studying the Bible involves attention to the historical, literary, and theological aspects of the text.

Hosted by San Damiano Retreat, with an introduction and moderation by Dr. Michael Cunningham OFS, each session will consist of around 40 minutes of presentation from the Franciscan School of Theology professor, and then a moderated online Q and A with the speaker. Sessions will last one hour.

ABOUT THE SERIES:

This series has been created by FST and is being offered and promoted through Franciscan Retreat Centers in the Western United States. A special thank you to the Casa, Serra Retreat, St Francis Retreat, San Luis Rey Retreat and San Damiano Retreat for their support of this program and the Franciscan charism at this wonderful time of year.

Cost is $45 per person. Here are the three Series, Tuesday dates: December 3rd; December 10th; December 17th.