From the Pastor’s Desk
Here it is Advent 2014, the beginning of a New Liturgical year. We will hear from the Gospel of Mark the first two Sundays of Advent and throughout the year as we move to the Year B cycle of Sunday readings. I always feel sorry for the season of Advent. It is caught between the tension of what it “wants” to be and what it “needs” to be.
With Christmas stuff being out in the stores before Halloween it seems like a losing battle. But complaining against the commercialism that overshadows the religious observance of Advent is futile at best. I think what we need to do is recognize the fullness of this complex season and celebrate that fullness amidst all that is going on around us. Let us all remember the center of all this is Christ, the Word that came and dwelt among us. It is a time to celebrate God’s love for us.
Advent is a time of joyful anticipation. It is not a mini-Lent even as it has a penitential element about it. Let us not then get dragged down about all the commercial stuff around us; but, rather let us see all the decoration and lights as a pre-celebration of the real celebration of how the Light of Christ came to shine on us and show us The Way. Let us greet one another with the traditional Advent phrase “MARANATHA”: Come Lord Jesus Come!
-Fr. Wayne