Second Week of Advent - 2022

“It comes around each year.” Those special times of the year have a cyclical character to them, they come around each year. We may think of Advent in this way. While we do celebrate Advent annually in a similar way, each new Advent has something uniquely different than the previous one. It has progressed forward, upward in both time and urgency. We are ascending the spiral staircase of salvation. All around us people are starting to get ready to celebrate the “holiday season” once again. Unfortunately, what is lost in all of this is the voice of urgency that Advent is announcing. “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Ro. 13:11 Advent begins a new liturgical cycle. Once again, we will be guided through the mysteries of our faith, hearing again the call of Christ, “come follow me.” Follow him where – up the staircase of holiness, ever higher, ever closer to sainthood. The scriptures for the first sixteen days of Advent instructs us on the necessity to embrace with new urgency the work of attaining  an ever deeper union with Christ, and how important it is NOW to get serious about the priority of our religious life. Then on the seventeenth day of Advent the scriptures open for us a new door  into the mystery of Christ with us, why this new coming is so important, not to be missed. This is the season when we find ourselves with all those to-do lists we have to deal with, gift lists, card lists, invitation lists. What about my spiritual life list, my definite plans to go deeper into my religious life?

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