Advent.🕯

 

Radiant Creator awaken me to Your Presence. Jesus, Light of all lights, kindle love in my heart. Spirit of illumination guide my path today. Amen

Waiting and longing for the Birth of Christ, Advent is upon us. The darkness that abounds renders this time all the more special, no mistake that Christmas falls in deepest winter. Cosily conducive to prayer and silence, time of candle light, open fires and rest. Stillness, expectation, heightened awareness.

This morning’s entrance antiphon at Holy Mass; ‘The Lord is coming and will not delay; He will bring every hidden thing to light and reveal Himself to every nation’.

Through the years, Advent held little spiritual meaning for me, much to do and fret about, race against time. Christmas exciting but expensive. I knew what Advent meant, it just never really registered with me.

Nowadays a tad older (and hopefully a smidgen wiser), my Advent journey is a reflective one, my preparation for Christmas soaked in meaning and majesty. Better Advent - better Christmas! 

I’m like a child again awaiting Santa’s arrival as I savour every moment. Jesus, my Lord and Saviour, my best friend, rest, and consolation will be reborn in the stable of my heart and soul, just as He was born in history in the Crib at Bethlehem. What joy, what grandeur, how can I speak of such wonder, there are no words, my heart is full to overflowing.

‘Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings Hope’.                             (Pope Benedict Emeritus)

‘It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of Hope’. (Pope Benedict XV1)