Beloved Advent Season

by Brother Boniface
(Muensterschwarzach Abbey, Germany)

Christmas to most of us is a feast that connects us back to our childhood and to our earlier years in life when we had all so much fun. Of course, the care and worries of life had not overcome us yet. They came later on in life when we got older and our responsibilities increased. Some of our dreams and aspirations have changed also during a life time that saw ups and downs, joy and sorrow, life and death change hands frequently.

Later on in life our perspective may have changed to Christmas and the holidays being a time when we did not expect gifts but were able and needed to make gifts to loved ones and grandchildren.

However Advent and Christmas must not become only a commercial event centered around material things. It is to be a time of grace, a spirit filled time with peace and joy and loving relationships. After all Christ did not come to make people happy but to bring salvation. He wanted to reconnect us with his Father in heaven.

Humankind had lost touch with the divine and become absorbed in all things earthly instead of lifting eyes heavenward. We cannot reach heaven our final destination unless we pay some attention to our Maker. And my feeling is that it is this loving relationship that God cherishes most when we keep it up.

So in this spirit I wish you a blessed and joyful time of Advent and a holy and happy Christmas.