Anticipation

Yesterday marked the first week of Advent! For Catholics, and many Christians, Advent is a holy season of anticipation. Each Sunday, during the celebration of Mass, we gather as a family around the table and light one more candle on our parish Advent wreath. This action symbolizes our excitement and anticipation for the coming of the light of Christ into the world. It is also a physical representation, an X off of the calendar if you will, of our nearness to the glorious celebration of Christ Mass.

Because we get excited about the coming season of Christmas, our rituals, and family traditions, it is easy to forget what we are anticipating. Many of us bring out our Christmas decorations, put up the tree, and tell stories of seasons past. (Like having the cops called on Christmas Eve.) Others shop till they drop in order to provide our family and friends something nice for the Holiday. All of these things can be a distraction to what God and the Church are calling us to do. We are called, especially during the season of Advent, to stand in greater awareness that God has come into the world. This is what we celebrate on Christmas day and during the Christmas season. 

So, amidst all the shopping, decorating, and story telling I hope that we recognize the AH HA! moments where we see God so clearly and completely. Often He is in the whispers or just beyond the surface. God reveals himself not only in our loved ones but also in the stranger. Or as Blessed Mother Theresa says, the "dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved--they are Jesus in disguise."

Pope Benedict XVI writes, "The purpose of the Church's year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart's memory so that it can discern the Star of Hope. It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness, and thus to Open Doors of Hope."

Like finding our partners or having a child, God came into the world and into our lives making everything different. It is my prayer that we will be attentive during this season! It is my hope that we all will anticipate Christmas!

+ Pax Tecum