First Sunday in Advent - A Reflection by Fr. Leo

Christianity is a way of living grounded in prayer.  Our goal as Christians is to enter the Kingdom of God in it’s fullness. The Kingdom as defined by Jesus is the fullness of the presence of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and since God is present now the Kingdom is here and the door to living in the Kingdom of God is prayer.

Prayer is also an ongoing development as we grow in our awareness of God.  Our communication becomes more direct and more a practice of presence than of words.  We may begin by talking at God like children who talk at adults but don’t really listen.  Later we may come to dialogue with God and then finally know that just being with God is the most profound prayer, like an elderly couple sitting side by side perfectly content with “being” together and not needing to be talking at all.

When we reach that level of prayer we are more and more living in the presence of God and our unity with God will be reflected in our love, empathy and compassion for all things.  At that point, Christ is our way of being in the Lord.  Our unity with God will make us aware of our unity with all things and we will come to love all things. We will come even to love the darkness into light!

Advent is the time for us to wake up if you will.  To not let ourselves become “drowsy and distracted” in our spiritual life with carousing, drunkenness, or worldly anxieties, as Luke says in today’s gospel. A call for all of us, since we all worry at times about something. 

My advice would be to make a “Holy Time” everyday during Advent.  Take some time, fifteen minutes to an hour, at some point in the day and pray.  Be with God in contemplation.  Relax, breath deeply, quiet the mind and “be.”  In that practice God will transform you and raise you up into his self until someday you will be one with God and be able to say with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives within me!”