Skip to main content

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

It's Advent, the time to prepare the way for the Lord. In my mind, it always has the atmosphere of darkness and silence and lots of candles.

It's a time of prayer and mystical music and preparation for the Lord...

Until you see the halls being decked, hear the Christmas music blaring from every direction, are dazzled by lights and trim and "Seasons Greetings." You hear of wild shoppers and meet long lines in the stores. Everything seems to shout.

And where is the Lord?
It is easy to be distracted in this time of year, forgetful and busy, getting ready for the day -- and then we're so exhausted by the Feast of the Incarnation of God that we can only follow up the "Merry Christmas" with a heartfelt "Thank God it's over!"

But that's not the spirit of the Advent Season. And it's not impossible to have Advent even in the midst of this wild world of ours.
Advent is walking through the chaos with the quiet in our hearts; taking time for the prayer that we need; refusing to get pulled away from reflection by the simple choice to prepare our hearts for His coming. It's not a strident, hard sort of thing; it's a Marian attitude - an imitation of the Lady who became God's good Mother.


Let us pray for one another for the true Spirit of the Season.

Blessed Advent!

--Submitted by Sr. M. Luka, Kansas City in Kansas

Comments

Michele said…
exactly. good points! too many people, Catholics included forget what Advent is about. Iam not out in a rush to buy stuff right now, not out at the malls in long line ups waiting for that"perfect gift" iam waiting for Christmas day, for the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the reason not us. we seem to forget that fact. so no iam not in a mad rush, iam patiently waiting for Christmas day:)
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Journey with Mary: Sacrificial Love of Spiritual Motherhood

                Recently, I found a reflection I had written during my first retreat as a postulant. The last conference that had been given was on Spiritual Motherhood. As I approached the 4 th Station where Jesus meets His Sorrowful Mother, this is what struck my heart:                 What is the sacrificial love of a mother? It is the self-sacrifice made to love her children. Mary’s self-sacrifice to be there with Christ, her Son, in His passion was the selfless love that united her with Him. Her heart was pierced with 7 swords in the agony of watching her beloved Son endure a cross that He did not deserve, but which He embraced for the love of the Father and mankind. Could she not have said to Jesus, “You don’t have to do this, there are other ways. Do you know how much pain You are causing me and those who love you?” She knew He could have chosen any other way t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Welcome to our Family, Postulants!!!

Today, on the Feast of the Birth of Mary, our new postulants entered the postulancy of our American Province of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George! We thank God for the gift of these vocations. Pictured above - on their very first full day in the convent - are (from left) Ashley Vola, Samantha Goodson, Miranda Edgar, Jennifer Clark and Erin Leis. Welcome, Postulants! We Sisters are grateful that you have accepted Christ's invitation to belong totally to Him in our Franciscan community, and we support you wholeheartedly with our prayers and help! If you would like to send a word of welcome and encouragement to these new postulants, we will pass the greetings along to them. Just leave them as a "comment"!
9 comments
Read more

To Gaze upon Christ

This Lent the Lord has put on my heart the awareness of gazing upon Christ.  In our Franciscan congregation, our spirituality flows from John 19:37 “they will look on the one whom they have pierced.”  With this spirituality, we gaze upon the pierced side of Christ and receive from His pierced heart His love and mercy. Then we may go forth to give what we have received.  Throughout this Lent, this action of gazing has been foremost in both my spiritual reading and in prayer.  It also brought to mind a graced trip to Assisi in 2014, by which this “gazing” became so real to me.            While in Assisi, there are many things to see and let soak into one’s soul. The first place where I was moved to gaze was in the side chapel in the Basilica of St. Clare in Assisi, where the Crucifix from which Our Lord spoke to St. Francis is now housed.  What an awe-filled moment it was to kneel before this Crucifix and to gaze into the e...
Post a Comment
Read more