How Can God’s Dream for Your Family’s Holiness Become a Reality? What do we dream about? Advent is a season of dreaming, a time of hopeful waiting, it is the dreaming and waiting for families. And the Church, herself a family of families, puts before us on this Sunday a great dream from a great dreamer, a family man and a man of faith, St. Joseph, the main figure in our Gospel from Matthew, and also the patron of this parish. Joseph’s dream relates to his family. The angel, God’s messenger, declares a miraculous birth that will come from within his own family. From his family will come an amazing dream for Joseph and his fiancée, Mary who is pregnant and for her son. Joseph’s dream is at first fearful, he is unsure what to do with a pregnant fiancée and is worrying about what the future might hold. But even in his fear, the angel of the Lord lets Joseph and Mary in on God’s great plan for their family. The Holy Spirit, God Himself, has come upon Mary to give her a gift greater than she could ever have dreamt of. Joseph is invited to be the foster-father of the Messiah, the long-awaited Savior of his people, the one who is able to save us from any and all sin, to save us from ourselves. The one hope of all the people of God throughout thousands of years was going to be fulfilled. Jesus would be born, and God would be with us.