Here we are at the doorsteps of another Advent. For many of us, it is the proximate preparation for Christmas. And yet it is really beyond Christmas that our hearts must yearn for.

Advent is waiting for God, waiting to see His power unfold, waiting to meet Him who bends to embrace His children in love and mercy. Even if we wait in pain and sorrow because of life’s toils and troubles, we still manage to wait full of hope because it is God who will come to meet us.

Today, we are invited to put on Christ, playing the role given us in baptism and sharing His destiny, just as in the incarnation Christ took on the role of the human race and played it to the end. We are called to live out our hope by welcoming and embracing one another as Christ has embraced all of us.

At Saint Raymond’s, we have started promoting the devotion to Sacred Heart of Jesus every First Friday of the month, with the 6PM Mass and the new prayer garden in front of the rectory. Very soon, we plan to enthrone homes to the Sacred Heart – claiming once more the homes as that place where Jesus reigns as Lord and King!

Also beginning December, we will have Anointing of the Sick within the First Saturday morning Mass, particularly invoking the intercession of the Blessed Mother. We hope to continue praying for healing and restoration of our whole mind, body and spirit.

Indeed, Advent is a time of preparation for the two-fold coming Christ: of His mercy and of His justice. This preparation is not complete without an examination of conscience and asking sincerely for the forgiveness of sin; and as we are forgiven, to have a firmer resolve to let ourselves be formed and transformed, and be instruments of forgiveness, justice and healing to others.

Sono semipro grate,
Father Erick

(For 1st Sunday of Advent)