Sisters Jeanne Rodgers, Dolores Partsch, Rosella Lacovitch and Dorothy Pashuta offer weekly Advent reflections to prepare our hearts and homes for Christ’s birth as we wait, with joyful anticipation, for His return. Reflections will be added each week.
First Sunday of Advent
We are graced with an invitation to pray daily about the mystery of God’s presence within and among us. Through the darkness and light of earth time we wait, we pray and silently listen for the grace of each moment.
The Season of Advent grants us a special time to “make ready with renewed spirits,” to “attentively listen” for the voice of God in the daily scriptures, and to “reverently wait” for the gift of “God with us.”
May this time of waiting give us a desire to slow down, place ourselves in right relationship with God, the dear neighbor, ourselves and all of creation, free us of the trappings of human consumerism, and enable us to “contemplate the great gift of the Incarnation,” the coming of Christ Jesus within and among us.
May we be deeply grateful for the “God” who has chosen to be “within us” all the days of our lives.
May we say “yes” as Mary the Mother of God did, that we may bring Incarnational Love to our world for as long as we live in earth time.
-Reflection by Sister Jeanne Rodgers, CSJ
Second Sunday of Advent
St. John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ to enter our world. He opened hearts by his message to receive, for the first time, the true light of Christ. We are called to do likewise. We become light for others by loving and listening to them with our hearts.
Am I able and willing to cast out the darkness of my egotism, prejudice and self-centeredness by allowing Christ’s light to enter my own darkened soul?
In this second week of Advent, may we pray to become Christ’s light for and to each other.
-Reflection by Sister Rosella Lacovitch, CSJ
Third Sunday of Advent
As the psalmist says, “cry out with joy. . . come before God singing for joy.” This third week of Advent invites us to reflect on what it means to sing, rejoice, and be glad for our God is near.
As we ponder our journey of these past two weeks of Advent, we enter into the joy of anticipation, as children. Each day we are more and more vigilant, more sincere in our actions and prayer, deeper into the mysteries of God’s great love, a God who would take on human flesh and become one with us – Emmanuel!
Let us renew the gifts we had as children of simple trust, joy in anticipation, a longing for the coming of that special gift who we now know to be Emmanuel, the fulfillment of all our desires, hopes, and dreams. Our heart should burst with joyful anticipation.
Come, Lord Jesus, Come.
-Reflection by Sister Dolores Partsch, CSJ
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Let us pray, as Advent draws to a close, that Jesus will truly come into our hearts. We long to savor, dear God, this joy, this anticipation of the great gift You give us. You who loves us with such intimacy and tenderness, kindly give us momenst of quiet this day and in the days ahead. We ask for the peace and joy of “watchful hope.” Give us the grace to carry in our hearts the soul-lifting awareness of Emmanual – God with us!
What joy! What peace! What a gift!
-Reflection by Sister Dorothy Pashuta, CSJ