Advent – A New Season: Weekly Message for 11-29-16

Dear Fellow Digital Pilgrim, pax Christi:

Another Advent is upon us! Ever darker grow the winter days (at least up here in the northern hemisphere), but new light is coming as the Church launches out on a new adventure – a new liturgical year. Ever since I become a Catholic, I have loved the liturgical seasons, which we really didn’t celebrate in my evangelical church before my conversion.  The

Ever since I become a Catholic, I have loved the liturgical seasons, which we really didn’t celebrate in my evangelical church before my conversion. The rhythms of the liturgical seasons echo the rhythms of the natural seasons – or maybe it’s the other way around? In any case, every time we begin a new season, we are given a fresh start. Just like a sports team has a clean record at the start of its new season, so we get a spiritually new beginning each season.

And it’s just not wishful thinking. If we make a decent effort to adjust our daily lives to the rhythms of the liturgy, we actually receive graces that God wants to send us through them. We still have room to grow, spiritually speaking, and God wants to help make that happen. We just have to do our part.

What does that look like? I think it’s basically a question of attention. If we can pay a little more attention to Our Lord and Savior, whose coming at Christmas we prepare for during Advent, he will find a way to give us new insights and energy, to deepen our friendship with him.

My hope and prayer is that our growing library of Retreat Guides (especially our four Advent and Christmas Retreat Guides: You Matter, The Hidden Treasures of Christmas, The Art of Waiting, Starlight, and our newest one, Do I Need a Savior: A Retreat Guide on the Prophet Isaiah, will help you do just that.

And if you also like to curl up by the fire with a good book and a hot cup of cinnamon tea, I also want to recommend the fourth and final volume of my seasonal meditation series: Winter Meditations. In this series, I try to make connections between the characteristics of the natural seasons and the perennial values of spiritual growth. I think it’s a great way to get on God’s wavelength as we launch out on the adventure of another Advent.

In addition to assuring you of my prayers for a grace-filled season, I also would like to thank all of you for your prayers and your continued financial support. We are more committed than ever to evangelizing the digital continent, and you are making it possible for us to keep doing so. Thank you!

Peace in him,
Father John Bartunek, L.C. SThD
contact@rcspirituality.org