ADVENT-A WAKE UP CALL!

By Canon Tony King (Parish Priest of Athenry 1993-2013)

Source: Athenry News and Views (November/December issue 2011)

Advent is about a new beginning, a fresh start.  It is about being alert and awake to mark this new season – a season of waiting when we take time to reflect and prepare.   The truth is that this Advent is different for each one of us.

Why?  It has never come before.  Since last year, we have travelled further on the journey of our age, our work, our family – we have been changed by the experience of people that we met – we are different because of what shaped our lives in the past year.

What way?  The waiting for the birth of your child, the death of a loved one, like so many in our parish the experience of bereavement in the loss of a mother,  or some friend or family member.  What I am trying to say is that this Advent is different in that it is calling us to face ourselves and the opportunity of this season with a fresh awakening in our lives to prepare for the Lord’s coming, nd to be open to where He is leading us. “Lord, you are our Father;  we the clay, you the potter, We are all the work of your hand…”

Where does the Lord wish to lead us?   One of the reasons we do not get a deep experience of Advent is because we may not understand what the season of Advent is about.   We are invited to pay special attention to the “mystery” of waiting.  “Waiting” so often annoys us; it bores and irritates us – waiting in queues, waiting for a bus, waiting for a family member.   But waiting can be a very creative and empowering moment – when we settle down and realise how dependant we are on God – to breathe, to move, to listen to what is happening deep inside in our own soul and how dependant we are on one another. It is also an act of love for a person, since by waiting for others, we pay them the respect of letting them be free. God and nature wait.

Nature waits and rests until the rising sap of spring will gently push out the buds on trees, the bulbs in flowers, the surge of the grass in growth, the birds to return and sing their song.

God waits.  We do not possess God, none of us.  We wait on God.   God comes in his own time.   So this season of Advent, a time to wait and reflect and prepare for the one who comes – the one who is reborn again this Christmas.

So Advent, with purple colours like Lent, is a penitential season as we invite the Lord to redecorate our hearts and spirits.  To refresh the depths of our lives – a call to prayer, giving to some charitable cause – St. Vincent de Paul.  The heart of it all is a change of direction in our lives.  We turn from sin so that we may turn to God.   Advent is a time – a time to take a few moments every day to talk to the Lord – quiet time for an intimate chat. Take a look at your family situation! Could I suggest that you pose the question to yourself?  What can I do that would make life better for my wife, my family?   If you have fallen out with someone –find the opportunity to make it up!

During Advent a series of Lectio Divina evenings are being arranged by Fr. Benny and there will be information in the Newsletter.  It would be time well spent to make space for them.  Keep the Advent call in a prayer around your heart. Maranatha Come Lord Jesus.