Tag: Advent

Christmas lights and markets: what a contrast to a liturgical Advent! What we say in catechesis loses all meaning in the streets decorated for ‘feasts’. Should we resign ourselves or rejoice, adapt or resist?

Advent means “coming.” Our Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that there are three comings of Christ.

For us postmodern people who are living in a permanent state of distraction, constantly multitasking and browsing our devices with scattered minds, the faculty of attention is rapidly deteriorating. Someone wrote that “attention is really another word for love,” because only when we pay attention do we take the attention off ourselves and we become less self-centered, less self-fixated. Any true encounter – and any genuine act of love – needs this movement from the self to the other. It’s the only worthy way to live, to work, to build relationships.

“The Lord is present in the passage of our lives, he accompanies us and will one day also dry our tears. One day, not far off, everything will find its fulfilment in the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of justice and peace.”