Advent

No one is happy with the political and economic situation in which we and the whole world find ourselves. Yet this year it can be seen as a helpful background to the season of Advent. Today it begins a new year of the church. While much in the secular world is stale, God is constantly at work making all things new. And that goes not just for the church and our spiritual lives, but for the whole of his creation. Advent is a chilly time. It is a time when we look back to the ages when there was no Christ in our human history. We feel the emptiness, the craving for something better, for love. We all know moments, times when we feel personal loneliness. God sends these and gives us the antidote of the virtue of hope. So advent is the season when we exercise this virtue. A well-spent Advent nurtures even more the experience of real love that comes with Christmas.