On this last Sunday of Advent, we offer another important lesson from Fr. Michael Schleupner’s ‘Getting Ready’ series. Although this was presented for the 3rd week of Advent, it can lead us right into today’s focus on love as well. Let us know your thoughts as you reflect on the hope, peace, joy and love of the season. The week has arrived! Jesus is coming soon!
Getting Ready – 3
Dear Friends,
Last week I recommended that we get in touch with the number one area in our lives where we need to grow spiritually. Identify just this one behavior and then review each day and see how you did on this. Do this day after day and ask God’s forgiveness for any offenses. I also recommend that we bring this same item to the Penitential Rite at the beginning of every Mass. Do this week after week, probably month after month. The idea here is to open ourselves to God’s action.
Let God work with us slowly but surely, maybe over a rather long period of time. We may feel that we are not changing or growing and not getting anywhere. However, it is something like our lawns in the spring and summer. We don’t actually see the grass growing, but it is growing and all of a sudden, we know that the lawn needs to be cut again. Our spiritual growth often happens in the same way.
So, maybe our issue is patience. We are repeatedly impatient with someone and lash out in an angry way. Maybe over time, God will give us an insight into our impatience and anger. Maybe we will realize that we have some annoying habit similar to the other person’s, and that awareness will be a gift from God. It may well lead us to be more patient with that person, just as we want them to be with us.
So, let’s allow God to work with and within us. The English word Advent comes directly from the Latin word adventus which means coming. We are getting ready to celebrate the coming of the Lord that happened in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. In doing that, we are also getting ready for Jesus to come more fully into our lives right now.
My recommendations last week and above are intended to be a way to help us to do this getting ready. May the joy, hope, and peace that the birth of Christ offers be with you!
~Father Michael Schleupner