Gaudete (Joyful) Sunday

Lately I have been watching the children preparing for Christmas. Such enthusiasm, joy and excited anticipation. Their preparation seems to involve going to parades, shopping with family, making cookies, making lists of special things they want from Santa and telling everyone they see how many days left till Christmas.

In some school settings there is a similar excitement brewing as Christmas cribs are built, pageants rehearsed and joyous songs practiced for the welcome of the Christ child.

Image: Unsplash/Austin Schmid

As we approach this third week of Advent I delight in the invitation to also prepare joyfully for the rebirth of Jesus in my whole being.  Isaiah’s (35: 1-6,10) vision of the desert blooming abundantly challenges our own dryness to rejoice and sing aloud the goodness of our God. The reading from James (James 5: 7-10) invites us to be patient and strengthen our hearts while waiting for the coming of the Lord. Jesus, in Matthew’s gospel, (Matthew 11:2-11) reminds us to go tell each other of the wonders we see.

Could it be that our call this Gaudete Sunday is to announce the presence of God all around us with great Joy? Would the sharing of the wonders we have seen and experienced help someone else to prepare to receive Christ into their hearts in a new way this Christmas? This week I will plant Joy!

-Maureen Condon, CSJ Associate

A Shift in Perspective

Image: Unsplash/Vicky Sim

A recurring line from a TV commercial caught my attention. Repeatedly, we are asked, “What’s strong with you?” Not wanting any viewer to miss the query, the line is printed several times across the screen.

Upon reflection, I decided to adopt this line as my focus this Advent. What insights might I gain if I sat with the question,

“WHAT’S STRONG WITH ME?”

How might my experience of Advent change if I stopped asking “What’s wrong with me?” and started to ask, ‘What’s Strong with me?’ Placing the focus on my inner strengths and the graces given to me by the sacred strength Giver. How might this shift in perspective open my heart to new graces? What might I discover about what buoys up my spirit? What messengers of new strength might I identify as the ones who bring tidings of good news and encouragement into my daily life? Who in my circle of interactions might I find an opportunity to thank for their recurring strength?

During this season of Advent, I challenge you to join me in reflecting upon your own life and asking,

What’s strong with you?

Sister Nancy Wales, csj

Prepare The Way

“Prepare the Way”. This familiar Advent refrain wakes us up from our everyday complacency and evokes in us a much deeper interior challenge and invitation. As our preparations for Christmas get underway these early December days, thoughts often turn to plans for setting up home decorations, baking goodies, writing cards, creating gifts, singing carols, and finding ways to help those less fortunate.

What if… all of these actions flowed from minds and hearts radically transformed in the Great Love and Divine Light of the Prince of Peace? 

What if… the coming of God in 2022 meant seeing and hearing the Divine compassion lifting up the wearied, poor and broken-hearted?

What if… you were that prophetic voice, authentic witness, bringing the Good News to life anew?   

In days of old, John the Baptizer, an austere hermit, came forth from the desert of Judea and began to preach on the banks of the Jordan River. Awakened by his unique calling, John embraced being the humble forerunner, the prophet sent to prepare the way, mandated with the mission to announce that the day was drawing nearer. Prepare your hearts. Soften the divisions and break down the barriers, roll out the carpet for the expectant arrival of the King of Peace. John proclaims a way of justice and peace and love is coming upon the earth. The new WAY was going to be given in the person of Jesus, the Christ. John was chosen to bear witness and proclaim that the One who is coming was greater than he and “he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” into a brand new way of seeing and being.

“Jesus ...the One who came to heal broken hearts, to give peace and to lead us further into the truth”

From his pulpit on the river banks, he called for repentance and baptized people in the river waters. John’s repentance, metanoia, meant having a radical change in one's thinking. It meant seeing the world in a completely different way and embracing a whole new set of values. He was the “voice crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” John pointed to Jesus as the One who came to heal broken hearts, to give peace and to lead us further into the truth. We can only imagine John’s surprise when Jesus just "showed up" in the crowd by the river one day and asked John to baptize him.

Photo of Pope Francis by Eric Gay/Associated Press, July 26, 2022.

This image of our humbled and repentant Pope Francis alone in prayer by the shores of Lac Ste. Anne in Alberta is a striking prophetic, healing voice in our time. On July 26, it is estimated that 10,000 pilgrims gathered at or around the lake to witness his words and actions that day. Both Indigenous and Church elders challenge all of us to “Prepare the Way” for God’s love and healing mercy to restore hearts through conversion and reconciliation. Pope Francis traveled to Canada on this “pilgrimage of penance” to apologize to Indigenous peoples for the abuses committed by the Catholic Church and its missionaries in our country’s notorious residential schools. When Pope Francis ‘showed up’ on our Canadian shores, the crowds mingled in sharing stories with gestures of welcoming and generosity, supporting the healing and hope long awaited.   

How are you preparing the way for God’s coming? The challenge of repentance is to put on the mind and heart of Christ. It must begin with the truth: if there are old wounds and potholes in your heart, take courage, face the consequences of hardening the arteries and energies of loving, seek restoration and communion. If your mind is cluttered and disturbed by its righteous opinions, take courage, face the consequences of division and disharmony, seek wisdom and right relationship with all.  

Advent challenges us to spend time in solitary prayer asking God to comfort, restore, and heal those bumps and bruises that life’s circumstances have caused. The new highway of world peace is being paved with good intentions, right actions for systemic justice and nonviolent communication. It is coming slowly but it is coming. It is for each one of us to play our part.

-Sister Rosemary O’Toole, CSJ

¿QUÉ ES EL ADVIENTO?

Sister Gloria in Peru shares with us what Advent means to her and the community in Peru.

¿QUÉ ES EL ADVIENTO?

El “Adviento” para mi es de esperanza, esperar la llegada de una persona muy especial, importante y amada en mi vida. En esta etapa me gusta alimentar mi alma con mucha alegría y confianza para recibir al Niño Dios en mi corazón. Es un tiempo que me ofrece prepararme para vivir a plenitud la Navidad. En este acercamiento de la Navidad veo el Servicio como una revelación de Dios, porque en el corazón de cada persona se alberga una promesa de paz y amor. Todos nuestros anhelos se renuevan. En los ojos de los niños y de todos brillan las ilusiones. Por un instante el mundo se detiene… y celebra en armonía el nacimiento del Niño Dios.

Este tiempo me lleva a mi pequeñez a Recordar el pasado: a prepararme para celebrar y contemplar el nacimiento de Jesús en Belén, reflexionar en cómo fue su venida en la carne, lleno de humildad y pobreza.

Al Vivir el presente: trato de vivir en el presente de mi vida diaria la "presencia de Jesucristo" vivir siempre vigilante, atenta, a caminar y encaminar a otros por el camino de justicia, paz y amor. A Preparar el futuro: Prepararme, preparar al pueblo, a las familias para que tengamos un espíritu reconciliador para la segunda venida de Jesucristo. Animar a los niños y a la juventud a vivir en valores según el evangelio y lo que hagamos sea con alegría. Lo fundamental es comprender “CÓMO VISITA DIOS”.

Aquí en Chincha nos animamos mucho en preparar las coronas de Adviento con una base circular, ramas verdes y cuatro velas al rededor, este símbolo nos ayuda e involucra a toda la familia a armar la corona, se unen todos para orar, compartir una lectura bíblica, y motiva a los niños a querer participar en el encendido de las velas, en hacer alguna petición o agradecimiento y lo hacen con mucho respeto, cariño e ilusión para vivir el Adviento y su significado.

También hacemos las Posadas: donde tratamos de concientizar a la gente que la unión hace la fuerza: nos ayuda a reafirmar los valores en las familias y de amistad nos ayuda a ser solidarios, sencillos y confiar que Dios está siempre.

Todo aquello nos prepara para la Navidad.

WHAT IS ADVENT?

"Advent" for me is one of hope, waiting for the arrival of a very special, important, and beloved person in my life. At this stage I like to feed my soul with a lot of joy and confidence to receive the Christ Child in my heart. It is a time that offers me an opportunity to prepare myself to fully live Christmas.

In this approach to Christmas, I see “my Service” as a revelation of God, because in the heart of each person there is a promise of peace and love. All our longings are renewed. Illusions shine in the eyes of children and everyone. For a moment the world stops... and celebrates in harmony the birth of the Child God.

This time of Advent leads me to my smallness to Remember the past: to prepare myself to celebrate and contemplate the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, A time reflect on what His coming in the flesh was like, full of humility and poverty.

I try to live in the present of my daily life the "presence of Jesus Christ" lives always vigilant, attentive, to walk and guide others along the path of justice, peace, and love. To prepare the future: prepare myself, prepare the people, especially the families I minister to.  Encourage children and youth to live in values according to the gospel, thus doing what we do with joy. The fundamental thing is to understand “HOW GOD VISITS” …continues to come among us.

Here in Chincha we encourage families to make an Advent wreath with a circular base, green branches and four candles around it, this symbol involves the whole family in assembling the wreath, everyone joins together to pray, share a biblical reading. The Family wreaths are brought to the Church to be blessed on the first Sunday of Advent. Each evening the family gathers around the wreath for a brief prayer, parents motivate the children in the lighting of the candles, in making a request or thanking God, and they do so with great respect, affection and enthusiasm to live Advent and its meaning.

 In the basic Christian communities, we also do the Posadas (This is a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph’s Journey to Bethlehem) where we try to make people aware that in union there is strength: it helps us to reaffirm family values and recognize the importance of friendship, to be supportive, simple and trust that God is always there.

All this prepares us for Christmas.

-Sister Gloria Muchaypiña Salhuana, CSJ, Chincha, Peru

ADVENT REFLECTION

‘As a Mother cares for her ailing child, our God cares for our ailing world.’

Sometimes it feels like our God likes to play hide and seek.  While I know that God never stays in hiding, my heart and desires get lost in the many places of darkness that cry out for light.  We are so little in the face of it all; hunger, homelessness, climate change and all the ways our earth cries out with floods, extremes in temperature and earthquakes.

During Advent this year I am drawn to pray to recognize that hope is still alive in the hearts of the many who seek to offer relief to our needy especially in our City of Peterborough.  One sign of hope that I have seen this Advent are the workers who tirelessly spend time at Kawartha Food Share gathering donations of food and other non-perishables that will sustain families during these times of economic downturn.  Another sign of hope I am noticing are the many non-profit agencies working to resettle refugees; other agencies providing monetary assistance for the flooded areas of the Maritime provinces; and of course, always I am mindful of what is happening in Ukraine where innocent people – especially families and children are being uprooted from their familiar surroundings with assistance coming from neighbors near and far.

Each of these events, dark as they initially appeared, have blessed me during these Advent days with gratitude as I see the goodness of many people working together to restore life and hope.

-Sister Sylvia Crowley, csj | Peterborough, Ontario

Header Image: Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash