Reflection

Today the new liturgical year begins. Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Today, I am enjoying a couple of moments of silence while looking out of a second floor bedroom window at a half dozen rear yards still green and manicured, each uniformly enclosed by similar unwhitewashed wooden fences. The yards are empty. There is a factory made plastic doll house that a little child could walk into and play inside and some other removable slide or bridge thing.

As I approach Advent this year, I must do everything to minimize the allure of secular Christmas. I must make myself go to confession. I must do everything to clean and purify both my heart and mind.

I must be silent and employ the silence to observe how God communicates with me. I must not be afraid of sacrifice. I must help and support others who are doing good and those who are serving God.

There is always a millisecond of doubt, a moment of hesitation which is totally natural, totally human when I analyze the current situation, my appearance before Christ, hopefully with effort and thought I will live a life of quiet charity, quiet humility so completely, so simply that this appearance has been inveterate as a faithful believer, a simple Christian whose life reflects Christ’s social justice teachings; I pray that my life be lived as of vessel of goodness, compassion, mercy, and love will in fact be my guide; all the favorable and good things be first and always associated and acknowledged to be the work done by a humble servant of God, anonymously asking only to do more work, not asking, not wanting any earthly reward, any earthly praise.

May all labors done honestly and truly in God’s name inspire others to follow on the road to goodness with prayer, thoughts, and action and inspire others to build lives filled with universal hope and love ready to share with their neighbors, ready to share with anyone in need.