Today is the second Sunday of Advent
The candle for the first Sunday of Advent, last week, represents hope. This week’s represents peace, the following candle, which is rose colored (never pink), represents joy, and the candle of the final week of Advent, which is only one day this year, represents love. If you also have a white candle, lit at Christmas, it represents the Light of Christ.
I’ve been thinking, and reading, about hope this week. St. Peter, in his first letter, tells us to always be ready to give a reason for our hope. For me, and I think for most of us, that reason revolves around God’s love for us, a love that caused Him to come to earth in human form so that we might be saved. That incarnation, that we celebrate at Christmas, gives us hope for our future since we know we have a God who loves us so much that he went to extraordinary lengths for us.
I think the resurrection is another reason for our hope. St. Paul said if Christ wasn’t raised from the dead we are to be pitied and are foolish, but of course, He was raised. That should give us hope that the same can happen to us.
I’m about 2/3 of the way through reading an encyclical on hope from Pope Benedict XVI called Spe Salvi. As with everything Ratzinger/Benedict wrote it’s not an easy read but it’s good to hear what this brilliant theologian says. If you’re interested in reading it for yourself here’s a link: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi.html
With all that is happening in our world and our country it’s easy to feel that hope is lost. It’s important to separate hope related to temporal things from our ultimate hope. We should never lose hope in the ultimate things, the things of heaven. God has made promises to us and He can be trusted.
This week’s candle represents peace and boy does our world need more of that. While you and I can’t affect peace between others we can live more peaceful lives ourselves. Peace is a fruit of living life in the Spirit as St. Paul talks about in Galatians chapter 5. I’ve written about these fruits a number of times in the past. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we want the world to change we need to be that change ourselves as a starting point. When we lived near Blessed Sacrament and heard the music of the “bells” one of the songs we would hear at this time of the year would be Let There be Peace on Earth. There are a lot of good versions online. This one is from the Childrens Choir of St Louis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fjh6R8GixM
I came across a couple of new reflections for Advent this week. One I like a lot is from the Jesuits. It features a different author each day (so far) and is about real world things we can all relate to. It’s nicely done. You can sign up here:https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/vNGg2Mj?source_id=a03b85dc-1172-4137-b2a6-364116893a16&source_type=em&c=TnAl4gChpvdP2dzhdJKttR1NzFTc7VK9NjE01CMynS2mmb4V6JQXAQ==
The next resource is from the Jesuits as well, though in a different way. Loyola Press has a variety of resources for Advent but the one I’m specifically recommending is a daily reflection on the Examen method of reflection. You can sign up for that reflection here: https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/liturgical-year/advent/advent-year-in-our-church/
Finally there is the Hark! podcast from American Media. It is the story behind some of our favorite Christmas carols. America has done this for the two prior Advents and they’re doing it again this year. They consider a different carol each week for the four weeks of Advent. If you are interested in music, or maybe just Christmas carols, you should give it a listen. It is really well done. https://www.americamagazine.org/hark-podcast
My prayer for all of us is that we have more hope, peace, joy, and love in our future and that we act intentionally to make that true for ourselves and those we love.
After writing this earlier in the week I have a couple of Sunday afternoon additions.
At Mass this morning the priest focused on preparation. He pointed out the use of the word prepare once in the first reading and twice in the Gospel and made the point that we prepare for things that are important to us. Things like a coming child, a project at work, remodeling a house, a vacation, etc. He asked how much time we’re spending preparing our hearts for the coming of the Lord, both the Second Coming as well as Christmas. He made a good point for all of us.
Finally, I was watching the South Carolina-Utah women’s basketball game this afternoon. South Carolina really is the best team in the country. Utah played them tough but they are a good team with one great player, kind of like Iowa. South Carolina is a team full of great players. Anyway, I saw an ad on the electronic sign courtside that said “Jesus took timeouts too- He Gets us!” I really like that I really like that campaign. I know it’s not from the Catholic Church but of it causes people to think about Jesus and their own lives that’s a great thing. https://hegetsus.com/en
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a great week.
Peace, Bob
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