Readings for Celebrating Advent

⁵ Now the one who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the down payment, the Spirit.

⁶ Therefore, although we are^[a] always confident and know that while we^[b] are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— ⁷ for we live by faith, not by sight— ⁸ so we are confident and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.