Our Chaplain, Sr Josephine Canny OA, brings us a short reflection for the start of Advent…

“If there are days in life when everything goes well, each one of us has also known the experience of the desert, or days when we have had to live through a stormy period when the future becomes a source of anxiety and questioning. We have had to “find a foothold” once again.

As we enter into this time of Advent, the texts the Church proposes for our reflection seem strangely appropriate for a time of crisis – a ray of sunshine in the midst of the storm or a simple word of hope.

The words of the gospel ring in our ears “Thank you Father, what you have hidden from the wise and learned, you have revealed to the poor”. For those of us who engage with the poorly paid, the homeless, those weighed down by debt… perhaps we can place ourselves at their school this Advent by not seeking to escape our own poverty, by not seeking to mask it or by trying to appear stronger than we are.

Let us allow these “empty spaces” within us to be there, so that there is room for the Christ Child to make His presence known.”