Third Sunday in Advent

“As we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Every time I listen to the Celebrant saying these words “...as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ” at the Communion Rite during Mass, I ask myself - especially during the Advent Season - if I am waiting in joyful hope for the coming of the Lord. I stop in silence and reflect on my personal longing, the longing of Mother Church, and the longing of the world. Yes, there is a longing in my heart and in the hearts of my brothers and sisters, a longing for order, beauty, holiness – gifts brought to us by the coming of the Lord. 


Advent is indeed a privileged time to dwell in the land of waiting with joyful hope! Advent is a Season to be spent with Mary to learn from her, the Virgin of Adoration, how to get ready for the coming of the Lord. We need to recall and reflect on her attitudes: her silence, listening, openness and availability, her ready response to needs, her song of praise and glory... A prayer surges from my heart, “Mary, mold me, mold all, according to your heart; make us ready to welcome the Lord as you did.” I pray, “Mary, ‘make me, make us, empty, sturdy, soft inside, still, ready’ (Barbara S. Germiat). Prayer, Eucharist, Reconciliation, silence, joy, and service are all tools that make us ready, that make us receptive to the Lord’s many graces, and that make us  generous in our response to the many demands of self-giving capable of putting a smile on our neighbors’ faces.


We are waiting, Mother Church is waiting, too! She waits for her children to fully live their vocation and mission in life! She is longing to see her Faithful fully alive, fully human, all saints, all brothers and sisters! She says to us, “I have given you documents to read, meditate on, and pray with so that you can understand your responsibilities as laity, consecrated people, and ordained ministers. Be who you are! Laity, be laity! Family, be family! Consecrated people, be consecrated people! Deacons, be deacons! Priests, be priests!” May we listen to Mother Church’s plea and commit ourselves to embody our vocation and mission in life!


The world, too,  is waiting! It waits for peace and solidarity; for respect for the sacredness of life and the order of love established by our Creator, the Father of all peoples; for becoming a community of love, a family! Yes, the world is waiting for light to break through its darkness, for love to penetrate its harshness, for yeast to ferment the growth, for witnesses to enhance beauty, order, growth, and joy, much joy.


“Mary, woman of Advent, teach us to live with a new spirit our daily gestures, with the sentiment of a profound expectation that only the coming of God can fulfill” (Benedict XVI, Nov. 28, 2010). Mary, Mother of Confidence, give us trust to become saints, trust to become brothers and sisters! Mary, help us “go in haste” along the paths of the world to announce to all that the Lord is coming and He will make all things new. 


Reflection by Franca Salvo, A.O.

Third Sunday in Advent

Second Sunday of Advent

The second week of Advent has arrived! Have you come with it? Is this season of preparation slipping through your hands, or are have you been participating fully in this gift the Church gives us? As the time speeds by, I always feel like I have not taken full advantage of the season. Although this is true due to my weakness and poverty, the temptation is to get stuck in worrying about what I have failed to do perfectly. Jesus invites me to something greater.


During this time of preparation and waiting, He is inviting me to abandon myself to His care, to let Him draw close, to be with me, to heal me, to love me. This does not mean that I am to be nonchalant about my sinfulness; rather, it is the way of spiritual childhood which St. Therese continues to teach me. In humility I can run to the Lord to tell Him all my failings when the Spirit gently convicts me. In trust I can abandon my life, my projects, and my very self to His power and love. In my weakness I am unable to make myself be humble and to trust, but the Lord has planted those desires in my heart because He wants to fulfill them.

Christ wants to come to each of us in a deeper way this Christmas, in a unique, personal and amazing way. As Advent continues may we live it fully and let Him prepare our hearts by: fostering silence, being faithful to prayer, receiving His love, and by responding to His love with our love. Come, Lord Jesus!

(Reflection by Monica Hejkal)

Second Sunday of Advent

First Sunday of Advent

As we enter into the season of Advent, we are invited to pause and listen. What do you hear? Do you hear Christ knocking at the door of your heart? Is there room for Him in your inn?

In the spirit of the world, we often spend the time before Christmas filling our hands with useless stuff to keep us busy, noticed, and appreciated. The Church, however, gives us the season of Advent to let go of these distractions, sin, and fears so our hands can be free to hold the Baby who holds the entire world in His Heart.

At the beginning of the liturgical year, the Church calls us to develop an attentive attitude in order to receive Christ who wants to enter into our lives and speak to us. Everything that happens to us throughout the day is a divine moment in which we can encounter the Lord. Last Advent, Our Holy Father reminded us that the Lord speaks to us continuously through Scripture, the liturgy, the witness of the saints, in daily events, and in creation. Pope Benedict XVI recommended cultivating an “interior diary” of all the moments we have been aware of God’s love.

Reflecting on the gifts received should move our hearts to respond with gratitude and in anticipation to receive more. The reality that we are never alone, that Someone who loves us is always present to us, should fill us with joyful hope. As we grow in awareness of God’s presence in our lives, we become more disposed to the needs of our brothers and sisters. This is the secret of the saints’ self-giving love and what we are called to imitate.

“For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19-21)

Spend some time this week in prayer developing a plan for Advent. Where are you being invited to draw closer to Christ who comes to draw close to you? How can you witness the glorious freedom of the children of God to a world enslaved by materialism? The world needs saints this Advent to lead the way!


(Reflection by Joan Patten, A.O.)

Advent Resources

25 Ways to Celebrate Advent

http://www.prosanctity.org/library/spiritual/advent25ways.htm

Advent Letter of Bishop Giaquinta, 1975: http://www.prosanctity.org/library/spiritual/advent_1975.htm

Bishops’ Website with Advent Resources

http://www.usccb.org/advent/advent_index.shtml

The Mary Page, Advent

http://campus.udayton.edu/mary//seasonadvent.html

Catholic Culture, Advent Resources

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm

First Sunday of Advent

Christmas Novena 2007 - DAY SIX

My Birthday Present!
O DAWN OF THE EAST, brightness of the light eternal, and Sun of Justice: Come, and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

By Jessi Kary, A.O.

O Come, Divine Messiah; O Come, O Come Emmanuel; Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus...so many of our Advent hymns remind us that we are waiting. Waiting for Jesus to come to us - in a new, amazing, the-world-is-never-going-to-be-the-same sort of coming.

Today, as I was waiting, I received a lovely realization:
Yes, it's true, I am waiting for Jesus - with eagerness and joy and anticipation and desire and pining...
But the deeper reality is that HE is waiting for me.

Waiting for me with an eagerness and joy and anticipation and desire and pining that exceeds what I can imagine. Waiting for me to turn, to be drawn to ever-greater conversion, to resist my mediocrity, to keep my gaze fixed on Him: to let Him be my Savior and my Beloved - at every moment, in every way, to the maximum.

Sometimes I seek Him; I pursue Him. Often, though, I become distracted and must "start over" and return to Him. His waiting pursues and strives to captivate me, is tireless and unceasing, meets me at every turn, and seeks me and seeks to be received by me. The poverty of the cave and the poverty of the cross reveal: Jesus waiting for me. For us.

As we wait for Jesus in these last days of Advent, may we prepare our hearts to respond, to the maximum, to Jesus Who waits for us.

Christmas Novena 2007 - DAY SIX