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Click here for information on the Knights of Columbus Charity Golf Tournament held on Saturday, June 15, 2024.
Happy New Year! You know the First Sunday of Advent begins the Church’s new liturgical year, ordinary time is over so, Happy New Year.
The key in preparing a homily is to get a key word or idea and then build the homily around that. Usually it is from the readings, once and a while from a comment someone makes or something I heard. Take this week for example. I kept thinking of the song by John Mayer, popular about 9 years ago called, Waiting On The World To Change. It hit me, that is the theme for this week’s homily. Advent is all about waiting. Waiting for the world to change with Christ’s coming. I told Nancy and she just looked at me and said, “maybe it is all about waiting for us to change the world.” As always, she was right.
Maybe it isn’t that WE are waiting for something; maybe GOD is waiting for something. Waiting for us to change ourhearts, to change our minds. And then to change the world. Waiting for us to make the Kingdom of God real here and now. Waiting.
But God’s waiting is very different from ours. The fact is we hate to wait. That’s why Amazon and on-line shopping is so popular. We will do anything to avoid waiting. Why? Because we have lost the proper sense of time. All God’s creation has cycles, rhythms. And the key to all of nature, and us, is that every cycle includes a time of rest, a time of waiting. Night is the rest for day. Winter the waiting for spring. Our exhale is the rest for our inhale. All life has to have that rest, that waiting time. In Genesis God tells us we were meant to work for six days, then have a one-day sabbatical, a time of rest, waiting for the new week to begin. The idea is that our pressured, hurried, working days should be regularly punctuated by times of rest, celebration, and enjoyment. Our Liturgical Year is the same, we go through a regular cycle every year. And like our life, it has to have times of rest, times of waiting. And so we wait in Advent in order to have a Christmas, we wait in Lent in order to have an Easter.
The idea of Advent is to take time out for a Sabbath; that’s how we prepare for the coming of Christ. What should we do during Advent to make it a Sabbath? First, a Sabbath, and Advent, is meant to be un-ordinary time, a time when our normal activities and the everyday pressures of life are stopped. If Advent is going to be un-ordinary time we need to do the things that we don’t ordinarily do. Take some time to go to the adoration chapel and spend time with Christ, just sitting, relaxing, and enjoying His presence. You could pick up one of the purple Lenten books and take time in your favorite chair to read the 5 minute reflections every day. The three day parish mission that starts on December 7th could be a great “Sabbath” activity.
Next a Sabbath is meant to be a time for enjoyment, for high celebration. On a Sabbath we're meant to eat our best meal of the week, wear our best clothing, rest, and enjoy each other. Take time during the next 4 weeks to celebrate the wonder and mystery of Christ’s coming as an infant, taking on our humanity, to redeem us, to save us from death and nothingness. That is exactly what we celebrate at every Mass. Go to Mass during the week; make that part of your Advent Sabbath.
Finally, Sabbath and Advent is meant to be a time for reconciliation, for forgiving debts, for giving up grudges, for making peace with our enemies. We only truly celebrate the Sabbath, have a genuine holiday, if we forgive someone. There's a statute of limitations for all debts, including our personal hurts. Make a point of forgiving someone during Advent, not just verbally but in your heart.
Advent is meant to be a Sabbath: an un-ordinary time, a time of celebration and a time of reconciliation.
Take time during the next four weeks to make this Advent different.
The key in preparing a homily is to get a key word or idea and then build the homily around that. Usually it is from the readings, once and a while from a comment someone makes or something I heard. Take this week for example. I kept thinking of the song by John Mayer, popular about 9 years ago called, Waiting On The World To Change. It hit me, that is the theme for this week’s homily. Advent is all about waiting. Waiting for the world to change with Christ’s coming. I told Nancy and she just looked at me and said, “maybe it is all about waiting for us to change the world.” As always, she was right.
Maybe it isn’t that WE are waiting for something; maybe GOD is waiting for something. Waiting for us to change ourhearts, to change our minds. And then to change the world. Waiting for us to make the Kingdom of God real here and now. Waiting.
But God’s waiting is very different from ours. The fact is we hate to wait. That’s why Amazon and on-line shopping is so popular. We will do anything to avoid waiting. Why? Because we have lost the proper sense of time. All God’s creation has cycles, rhythms. And the key to all of nature, and us, is that every cycle includes a time of rest, a time of waiting. Night is the rest for day. Winter the waiting for spring. Our exhale is the rest for our inhale. All life has to have that rest, that waiting time. In Genesis God tells us we were meant to work for six days, then have a one-day sabbatical, a time of rest, waiting for the new week to begin. The idea is that our pressured, hurried, working days should be regularly punctuated by times of rest, celebration, and enjoyment. Our Liturgical Year is the same, we go through a regular cycle every year. And like our life, it has to have times of rest, times of waiting. And so we wait in Advent in order to have a Christmas, we wait in Lent in order to have an Easter.
The idea of Advent is to take time out for a Sabbath; that’s how we prepare for the coming of Christ. What should we do during Advent to make it a Sabbath? First, a Sabbath, and Advent, is meant to be un-ordinary time, a time when our normal activities and the everyday pressures of life are stopped. If Advent is going to be un-ordinary time we need to do the things that we don’t ordinarily do. Take some time to go to the adoration chapel and spend time with Christ, just sitting, relaxing, and enjoying His presence. You could pick up one of the purple Lenten books and take time in your favorite chair to read the 5 minute reflections every day. The three day parish mission that starts on December 7th could be a great “Sabbath” activity.
Next a Sabbath is meant to be a time for enjoyment, for high celebration. On a Sabbath we're meant to eat our best meal of the week, wear our best clothing, rest, and enjoy each other. Take time during the next 4 weeks to celebrate the wonder and mystery of Christ’s coming as an infant, taking on our humanity, to redeem us, to save us from death and nothingness. That is exactly what we celebrate at every Mass. Go to Mass during the week; make that part of your Advent Sabbath.
Finally, Sabbath and Advent is meant to be a time for reconciliation, for forgiving debts, for giving up grudges, for making peace with our enemies. We only truly celebrate the Sabbath, have a genuine holiday, if we forgive someone. There's a statute of limitations for all debts, including our personal hurts. Make a point of forgiving someone during Advent, not just verbally but in your heart.
Advent is meant to be a Sabbath: an un-ordinary time, a time of celebration and a time of reconciliation.
Take time during the next four weeks to make this Advent different.