From the Pastor’s Desk:
As I spoke last week in my homily, Advent is a season of expectation. However our society has taken the month of December and turned it into a hectic time of parties, traveling and overspending. Everyone has the same amount of time to spend each day. We have the time, but the struggle is deciding what really matters in our life and how we should spend our precious time.
We make time for what we regard as important. In the creation account from Genesis, “the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters”. Even before God created any living thing, God arranged the days and brought order from the chaos. One of the major obstacles for spiritual growth today is that people’s lives are in chaos rather than order. Many people struggle to find order amidst the chaos because we allow ourselves to be pulled in many different directions. Our prayer life is overcome by immediate and unexpected demands from family, work or over tiredness.
We falter in our spiritual lives because we do not keep to prayer plan which can quickly become words and wandering without a purpose. True prayer is building and strengthening our relationship with God. It takes work to truly pray, just as it takes work to maintain a good friendship or relationship within marriage.
Within our Catholic Faith there are many different forms of prayer. The celebration and attending of Mass is the highest form of prayer/worship. But there are many other forms of prayer, reading/mediating of Sacred Scripture, the rosary, spiritual books, personal type of prayer, Stations of the Cross. As Advent is quickly moving toward Christmas, take the time (long or short) to pray each day.
On Sunday December 17 we will begin our Christmas Novena. Beginning at 7 pm it will conclude about 7:35 pm. In the quietness of the Cathedral, in candle light and white Christmas lights, different scripture readings are proclaimed all pointing to the coming of the Messiah. Use one or more of these evenings to slow the pace and listen to the Lord speaking to us down from the ages.