"It's Advent Season Again"

Advent?

Christmas is fast approaching and  love... love... love... is in the air! Glittering Christmas decors and lights are all over around us may it be outside or inside our house, town, city etc.... Thus, it is but fitting to say that  the cold breeze of December embraces our heart and mind with peace and harmony to the anticipation of the coming of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.

BUT? ..................BUT?.....................BUT?????????

Have you ever ask your self of what's the meaning of advent into your life, yourself, relationship to others and above all to God? I'm pretty sure that there must be good reason and meaning which this season brings to us. In respond what could be our proper and most loving action unto it. Perhaps, the common chance is that we're getting busy preparing the physical looks around us and most often taken for granted the most essential thing: our very own self with God.

Advent is a season that seems to get lost in other culture such as in European countries.  Perhaps, because they so often think of the month of December as “the Christmas season” and use this time to busily prepare their homes for the holidays, they often neglect to prepare their hearts for the coming of Christ.

 F. K. Bartels, one of the Catholic writer wrote about his reflection on the advent season and he said: 

"The meaning of Advent is preparation. Let us enter into the mystery of the Christ Child who is soon to be on his way to Bethlehem in the sweet Virgin's womb. Let us prepare our hearts to accept the Word made Flesh, who himself became small enough to be laid in a manger in an unknown cave. Yet if we are to accept this Child who is at once small and infinitely great, we must be prepared to place all our confidence in him, becoming ourselves smaller and smaller in abandonment before his greatness, that he may accomplish in us his desire -- which will be for us the very greatest of things. Our Savior knows we yearn deeply to be with him in glory -- and he will not deny those who love him this end."

After many long days or years on the rough stairway of perfection, when we become weary and impatient, perhaps laden with those questioning doubts which occasionally plague us all, let us place all our faith, hope and love confidently in the Christ Child whose tender compassion knows no limits. The arms of Christ will be our elevator to the heavens, for he will lift us beyond our weaknesses, making us holy and irreproachable that, burning with the light of sanctity, we may shine in his love for eternity.

Our Beloved Pope Francis

       Advent Message

The Pope’s Sunday Angelus message for the start of Advent focused on the importance of hope during the liturgical season dedicated to preparing for Christmas.


“For the great human family it is necessary to renew always the common horizon toward which we are journeying. The horizon of hope! This is the horizon that makes a good journey,” Pope Francis said on Dec. 1 to the crowds in St. Peter’s Square.

“The time of Advent that we begin again today returns us to the horizon of hope, a hope that does not disappoint because it is founded on the Word of God. A hope that does not disappoint, simply because the Lord never disappoints! He is faithful!” the Pope emphasized.

The time of Advent that the Church celebrates in preparation for Christmas, explained the Pontiff, is “a new journey of the People of God with Jesus Christ, our Shepherd, who guides us in history towards the completion of the Kingdom of God.”

“Let us rediscover the beauty of being together along the way: the Church, with her vocation and mission, and the whole of humanity, the people, the civilizations, the cultures, all together on the paths of time.”

“But on the way to where?” queried Pope Francis.

In the Old Testament, the People of God journeyed toward Jerusalem where the temple of the Lord was, “because from there, from Jerusalem, came the revelation of the face of God and His law.”

At the fullness of time, however, “revelation found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and the ‘temple of the Lord’ became God himself, the Word made flesh.”

It is the Lord himself who guides our journey, the “pilgrimage of all of the People of God; and by its light even the other peoples can walk towards the Kingdom of justice, towards the Kingdom of peace.”

“What a great day it will be, when the weapons will be dismantled in order to be transformed into instruments of work!” the Pope reflected, noting the scripture passage from the prophet Isaiah which referred to such peace.

“And this is possible! We bet on hope, on the hope of peace, and it will be possible!” he exclaimed.

“The journey is never finished,” advised Pope Francis. “Just as in each of our own lives, there is always a need to restart, to rise again, to recover a sense of the goal of one’s own existence.”

Mary serves as a “model of this spiritual attitude, to this way of being and of journeying in life.”

Although she was just a “simple girl,” she “carried in her heart the hope of God,” explained the Holy Father.

“In her womb, the hope of God took flesh, became man, and made history: Jesus Christ.”

 

Mary’s song of praise in the Magnificat “is the canticle of the People of God on the journey, and of all men and women who hope in God, in the power of his mercy.”

“Let us be guided by her, she who is mother, she is a ‘mama’ and knows how to lead us. Let us be guided by her in this time of waiting and active vigilance.”

Pope Francis then led the crowds in the traditional Angelus prayer and closed by greeting the various groups who had come to pray in the Square.

He took a moment to remember those who are affected by HIV and AIDS, since “today marks the World Day for the fight against HIV/ AIDS.”

“We express our closeness to the people who are affected, especially children, a closeness that is very concrete in the silent work of many missionaries and workers. We pray for everyone, also for physicians and researchers. That every sick person, without exception, may have access to the care they need.”
Vatican City, Dec 1, 2013 / 09:09 am (CNA/EWTN News )


Our beloved Pope Francis reminds us about the true essence of the spirit of advent.  Make it re-known to everybody that preparation rest on both internal and external, at the same time it is a journey, a journey of faith, hope and love. :) 

May we showcase the true essence of Christmas and live it into to the fullest every minute.