Dear Friends,

We are about to begin the season of Advent, a time of waiting and preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ, both in the manger at Bethlehem and his second coming at the end of time.

As we look around our world at the serious situations of conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine and various other places, we know that we are more in need than ever of the coming of the Prince of Peace at Christmas.

For me, Advent, which heralds the start of a new liturgical year, is a chance to both slow down and have a ‘spiritual breather’, as well as to make a fresh start. Advent gives us the time and space to step back from all the activity of “the silly season” and to reflect on the story of salvation history and our own place in that ongoing story.

Over the Advent season we will hear in the readings, calls to “Stay awake!”, to “Prepare the way of the Lord”, to repent and turn back to God and to be ready for the coming of the Messiah.

Like Lent, Advent is also a time when we are called to look outward, to our neighbour, to reach out to those in need, whether it be by giving to a Christmas appeal, a war-relief appeal, paying a visit to a family-member who we know is lonely at this time of year or inviting somebody to share our Christmas table.

This Advent, it is easy to look at our conflict-ridden world and ask, where is God in all of this? How can we talk of preparing for Christmas when so many people are suffering so much?

War is a sign of the ongoing brokenness in our human nature and, as we see so graphically on our TV screens, it results in enormous human suffering. It can all seem overwhelming, and we ask ourselves, what can we do to make a difference to all this going on?

I invite you during the Advent season to enter into this time of prayerful waiting, with all of the uncomfortable uncertainty that this involves. As we prepare our hearts for the arrival of the Christ-child, let us remember the truth of Christmas. That God became man and dwelt among us. He didn’t remain forever aloof from our problems, but came among us, born into persecution, homelessness and strife and destined to die for our sins on the cross, bearing all our pain and suffering and redeeming it.

As we continue to pray for peace in our world this Advent, may we look forward in hope to the coming of Immanuel, ‘God-with-us’. May our prayer, repentance and almsgiving open our hearts to make room for God’s self-gift to us at Christmas and may we share this gift with all those we meet, bringing the peace of Jesus to our families, our communities, and our world, one heart at a time.

“O come, O come Immanuel.” Amen.

Yours in the Word,

Fr Asaeli Rass SVD,

Provincial.