May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send you grace and peace. (1 Cor. 1:3)
I never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ. I thank him that you have been enriched in so many ways (1 Cor. 1:4-5)
God is faithful (1 Cor. 1:9)
We wait
In eager anticipation
We empty our minds
Let the noise stop
Silence stilling our hearts
Listening in hope
Looking in expectation
For the birth of Love
December is a beautiful, yet contradictory, month. Christmas and holidays are just in front of us. You can feel them, smell them, anticipate the release. Especially after the year we’ve all had, the warming world and gentle summer breezes, the outrageously successful COVID-19 numbers, like sirens, sing a song of seduction that we have made it!
But not yet…
The last weeks of school mirror this contradiction. As the body and the mind wind down at the end of this extraordinary year, there are final corrections to be done, reports to be written and proof-read, new classes to take up, prepare and teach. And not to mention all the preparation involved in bringing a year to an end. Celebrations are busy and complicated occasions.
In amongst it all, the season of Advent invites us to pause, take time and, like Mary did, “ponder all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) In silence and the stillness, simply being present to the moment, discover the deeper meaning in it all. What is the message in this year from the God who promises us fidelity in this weekend’s second reading (1 Cor. 1:9)? To know that grace and peace are offered, and are ours if we but give ourselves over to the moment (1 Cor. 1.3). In this time of waiting, Advent is an opportunity to appreciate all that we have been given and in return to give thanks as we anticipate again this Christmas, the birth Of Love, renewing and revitalising our world.
