December 1, 2021
Getting Ready -1
Dear Friends,
During December, most of the focus is on getting ready for Christmas.
Often enough, Christmas is presented as simply a holiday or week of holidays.
I realize that sometimes we say “Happy Holidays!” instead of “Merry Christmas!” We may do this out of respect for those of other faith traditions who are also celebrating special or sacred days during this month.
Our Jewish brothers and sisters are celebrating Hannukah right now, from November 28 to December 6.
African Americans will be celebrating Kwanzaa from December 26 to January 1.
In some public settings, we appropriately say “Happy Holidays.”
Having said that, our Christian and Catholic tradition calls us to get ready for something more than just holidays.
We are getting ready to celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ to us in Bethlehem.
We will celebrate that with great joy and sing Joy to the World.
In addition to that, Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, calls us to get ready for the second coming of Jesus, whenever that will be.
So, besides Christmas trees, red, green, silver, and gold decorations, streamers of lights, shopping for presents, baking cookies, and preparing for parties or special meals, we are invited, and even called, to do some personal preparation.
We are called to take a look at ourselves, at our inner self and at the quality of our outer living.
We are called to get ready for a fuller coming of Christ to us right now by opening our hearts more completely to him.
This is why, in our Church’s liturgy, we wear purple vestments during Advent.
Purple speaks to us of repentance, in contrast to the other colors of this season.
It calls us to get ready for the coming of Christ spiritually.
It responds to the call of the Advent prophet John the Baptist who was “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
I will continue these thoughts on Getting Ready in next week’s Inbox Inspirations.
Father Michael Schleupner
The quotation above is from the Gospel for this coming Sunday, the Second Sunday of Advent, December 5, Luke 3:1-6.
December 8, 2021
Getting Ready -2
Dear Friends,
The purple vestments of Advent call us to welcome Jesus more fully into our lives.
We are to receive him into every dimension of our being.
This will be our spiritual way to prepare for Christmas.
To respond to this Advent calling, I make several rather simple recommendations.
First, identify the number one fault or imperfection or sin in our life right now.
Don’t try to list all of our faults or imperfections or sins.
Just get in touch with what the number one thing seems to be.
That will be enough.
Then, every evening, review the day that is ending, or every morning, review the prior day.
Look at it through this lens of the number one area where you need to grow.
See how you have done and ask God for forgiveness for any lapses.
Follow this with what we call an Act of Contrition.
We might also call this a Prayer for Forgiveness or a Prayer of Resolve.
I recommend the following prayer, different from what I learned as a child, but I find it to be positive and ending with the focus on God and God’s love.
“My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good,
I have sinned against you, whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us.
In his name, my God, have mercy. Amen.”
Finally, I recommend that we bring this number one area for growth to the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass.
Do this every time you come to Mass.
In this way, allow God and God’s grace to slowly work in you on this.
Keep doing this for weeks and months and give God a chance to help you.
I will continue these thoughts on Getting Ready in next week’s Inbox Inspirations.
Father Michael Schleupner
The Act of Contrition above is from The Rite of Penance of the Roman Ritual.
December 15, 2021
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
No comments:
Post a Comment