The 4 weeks leading to Christmas are called advent. It is a season, a time of waiting, we are people who live in hope we have something awaiting us, we try to be vigilant and attentive.
As we enter this season, the Jubilee year of Hope is coming to an end; but hope never has an end! Advent is in particular a time to live out hope as we celebrate the coming of Jesus into our world. Already, Christmas decorations and music surround us, but the Church proposes an alternative way to prepare for this historical event of the coming of Jesus as a tiny baby into our world.
Advent is a time to experiment the season of hope, time to nurture peace and experience joy in anticipation for the love that Jesus brought into the world, into our hearts. Reflecting on past and future in the Liturgy can help us live the “Middle Coming” (St. Bernard of Clairvaux) as we renew our inner relationship with God.
I suggest to prepare yourself each day by taking a moment of silence in your room to pray and have a relationship with Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to inspire you. He is our guide and he can inspire you the words of faith. You can offer your thoughts and actions as you pray to our Father in private. I invite you to say the Lord’s prayer, take one phrase at a time and reflect on it. The closer we come to God, the closer we come to our brothers and sisters, as we are children of one God. You also can just pick up a bible and read the words of Jesus, you may find the Psalms very interesting to read. At this time a good prayer is to meditate the ‘Hail Mary”.
But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.’ Matt 6’6
‘Seek the Lord while he may be found; call him while he is near, ‘Isaiah 55:6,
We can also prepare ourselves by making a wreath with 4 candles on it. It can symbolize the 4 weeks of advent. We remember that Jesus is the light of the world. You may meditate and reflect on each theme for the week or make up your own prayer with “Lord Jesus come.”
HOPE: A tenacious hope calls on the saving power of the Infant Jesus, hope of the world. Advent gives us time to remember God’s deeds in preparation for the birth of Jesus and look ahead with courage and joyful hope for his second coming at the end of time.
“Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord.”
(Ps 27,14)
PEACE We are called to be instruments of peace as we look around to see how we can be peacekeepers in our own environment. We can use pope Francis’ prayer,
“Holy Spirit, make my heart open to goodness, open to the beauty of God every day.”
JOY: In joyful anticipation let us prepare ourselves inwardly with our minds and hearts as we wait. This waiting in joy is a path to new life, a new desire for relationship with God. “Come Lord Jesus come!!”
“Keep awake therefore for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
(Matt 24,37)
LOVE: Mary, Mother of Jesus is our example in her openness to God as she pondered the events in her life and that of Jesus, she shows us how we may bring love into our lives and into our world. She was favored by God as she waited for her Son Jesus to be born. She prepared herself by praying, listening, as she accepted to be the ‘handmaid of the Lord,’
“Blest are they who hear the Word of God and keep it,” (Luke 11:27-28)
