Advent and new beginnings
Monday, November 29, 2010
Cheryl Whapham
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Members of the English Lay Ministry class of 2010 are shown here during their November 2010 retreat.
Advent. A new beginning. The beginning of a new liturgical year in the Catholic Church. The time when the scripture stories begin anew with John the Baptist proclaiming that another greater than he is coming…and a small baby is born in a manger and three men from the East come to pay him homage.
It’s a wonderful beginning of our faith journey and we are blessed that the Church allows us these weeks every year to remember how important this beginning is to us. These are the roots of our faith tradition.
I recently had the pleasure of witnessing people embarking on new beginnings in their own faith journeys. The Archdiocesan School of Ministry began on Sept. 15 and the harvest was bountiful this fall: 200 plus adults decided it was time to begin anew and dared to have their eyes opened once again to the beautiful teachings of the Catholic Church. They joined 150 disciples who began the two-year journey in the fall of 2009. These people come from every county in the archdiocese; they learn in English, Spanish, or Creole (but speak more languages than that); and they represent 69 different parishes!
What I have found most humbling is that they are just like you and me. They are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters and have many family obligations. They are employed and participate in every possible type of career: stay-at-home moms, engineers, air condition repair, medicine, business administration, hospitality, lawyers, computer techs, retail sales, lawn service, teachers, flight attendants, etc. They’ve experienced personal success and tragedy.
They are busy people but they have made growing in their faith and in their love for Christ and his Church a priority. They want to share the gifts and talents that God has given them in service to their parish community. In order to do that, they want to learn more about the Catholic Church, her doctrine, her teaching, so that they can be authentic ministers of Christ.
Advent is a good time to reflect on our spiritual life in preparation for Emmanuel — “God with us” — at Christmas. And since it is also the beginning of the Church year, it’s an appropriate time to begin some practices to enrich the fertile soil that God has laid within each of us. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has made it easy for us this year. Please go to http://www.usccb.org/advent/
They have lots of great resources for Advent and Christmas including a FREE downloadable 37-page book by Pope Benedict XVI for your personal prayer. The book contains a Scriptural quote and reflection for each day throughout Advent and Christmas. Perhaps we can use this text as our new beginning to prepare our hearts to receive Christ at Christmas?
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Members of St. Brendan's Spanish Lay Ministry class of 2010 are shown here during their October 2010 retreat.
Comments from readers