Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. (Mark 13:33)

We arrive again at Advent. We anticipate Christmas. This might cause excitement, anxiety…or a little of both. This passage shows an awareness of human nature. We can be so busy making plans that we forget to live in this moment. We fail to ask: what’s going on? In so doing we can miss the joy and pain of our fellow human beings – the stuff of life. If we pay even closer attention, this is where God is at work – the Love weaving the tapestry of the universe.

So our task, for ourselves and the young people in our care, is to learn to be awake and aware. Aware of God at work in our lives: through prayer, through life’s events, through the love of family and friends. Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Incarnation but like a spiritual Big Bang, the Love continues to saturate us with its radiance. In the words of Michael Leunig: ‘love is always born’.

Have a great week!
Patrick