A Word from our Chaplain, Sr Josephine Canny OA, as we prepare to enter the season of Advent …

“You know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed ….” (Romans 13.11).

The Church invites us during this Advent Season to “hold ourselves ready” for the coming of the “Son of Man” – an expression that Jesus used when speaking of Himself. He insists there is no way of telling when this time will be, so the only attitude we can have is “to hold ourselves ready”.
But to hold ourselves ready is perhaps the best way to inhabit our lives since it implies being fully attentive to the present moment. This interior attentiveness helps us to be acutely aware of what is happening in our life, to our reactions, to our thoughts and, therefore, more open to welcome the Lord when He comes.

Advent is a time for us to learn how to welcome God already in the present moment, as well as an awakening of Hope as we enter a time of preparation for His Coming at Christmas – since it is into our lives, too, that He is to be “re-born”.

So let us pray all the more earnestly – not just for ourselves, but for all those whose lives we touch, for those who live without hope, and for those who still await the revelation of the Good News that we have the privilege to proclaim: “Come Lord and do not delay.”