FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
3 DECEMBER 2023
We
live in a culture of speed, efficiency, and action. We connect with each other through instant
messaging. We consume fast food and use
microwave ovens to get our meals done faster.
At this time of the year, we are encouraged to get out there and do
everything we can to enjoy the “holidays.”
Our Scripture readings today are counter cultural. They tell us that waiting is important. We wait to celebrate the first coming of the
Lord at Christmas. We wait in joyful
hope for his second coming at the end of time and at the end of our lives. Waiting is difficult. But just as cooking together exposes the
wonderful aromas of the food we are preparing, waiting also makes the meal we
share together much more enjoyable. If
we wait through Advent to celebrate Christmas, that Mystery will have much
greater meaning in our lives.
Waiting
also opens our minds and hearts to recognize the presence of Christ in our
lives now. The Lord came the first time
as a vulnerable infant born in a stable.
He comes now in the form of ordinary bread and ordinary wine. He speaks to us in ordinary human words. In telling us to watch and wait in today’s
Gospel, he is not giving us a guide to calculate a deadline. He is giving us an inspiration and warning to
live our lives at each moment as we wait for his coming. In waiting and watching, we are more apt to
recognize the surprising ways he comes to us in the people and events around
us.
The key to
successful waiting is to spend quality time in prayer. In addition to Sunday Advent Masses, we offer
special liturgies every Tuesday evening to give ourselves the space to wait in
joyful hope, instead of frantically rushing around in the “holiday
spirit.” On this First Sunday of Advent,
we are all invited to renew our commitment to stewardship of prayer. Please read the materials we send home. But for now, please listen to Stephen Jagla,
who will talk about his own commitment to the stewardship of prayer.
Thank you,
Father. My name is Stephen Jagla, I’m married to my wife, Grace, and we have 3
beautiful children, Josie, Sophie, and Luke. We’ve been parishioners here for
about three years.
So, Fr.
Bill asked me to consider speaking to you. I asked, ‘what would you like me to
talk about?’ He said Prayer. And I said ‘Father! I have three kids under
the ages of four! Do you know what my prayer looks like nowadays? Our Mass
experience is somewhere between holy contemplation and WWE WrestleMania… mostly
the latter! And I’m lucky if we get through one decade of the rosary before our
two-year-old starts using our couch as a trampoline!’
It’s true,
prayer looks completely different for me than it ever has before. Having once
discerned priesthood, where daily holy hours were a fixture in my life, this
new, more distracted form of prayer seems different. That’s why I’m encouraged
by the Church when reading the Catechism’s section on prayer. One paragraph
struck me most: Regarding distractions it says, “To set about hunting down
distractions would be to fall into their trap, when all that is necessary is to
turn back to our heart…a humble awareness before the lord should awaken our
preferential love for him”. It’s this
humble awareness, this consistent turning back to the Source, that I know is
prayer.
In teaching
our kids to genuflect it’s often very distracted and very cute. One, genuflects
toward the back, probably because there’s donuts back there, the other doesn’t
quite get the knee thing yet, so she just squats toward Jesus. Imperfect, but
so beautiful, their little efforts. And each time, as a dad, I’m totally in
love with them and these efforts. Because despite the distractions, I feel like
I know their little hearts. If I, as a sinful father know this, how much more
does our perfect Father know and love us and our efforts to pray? This is the
essence of stewardship. Give yourself to a Giver who has already Given. Let
yourself be loved by Him through prayer.
Now, when I
think about stewardship, prayer hasn’t always been the first one that comes to
my mind. After all, I’m a fundraiser for a living, a “professional beggar” if
you will. But as I’ve grown in my faith, and especially as a father, I’ve come
to see that being strong in prayer is the single most important thing I can do
for my children, my parish.
As much as
it’s easy to put off prayer when you’re busy, to say ‘I’ll pray more when the
kids are older… when I’m sleeping through the night, nothing makes our
family happier or more peaceful than when we’re in the habit of our morning
prayer, our nightly rosary.
And that’s
why I’m especially excited to have recently joined St. Pius’s new ministry,
Eucharistic Praise and Worship where, once a month, we gather in the evening to
sing to Jesus in adoration. And if you’re tempted to think you’re too busy,
look no further for inspiration than Teresa Chase, who leads the ministry,
playing piano, all while her five kids under the age of six run around
her.
I’m just
thankful to be part of a parish that provides so much opportunity for prayer
and I encourage you to consider joining a ministry in this new liturgical year,
a kind of liturgical New Year’s resolution. But for right now I pray that we
might give ourselves completely in this, holy mass, the greatest of prayers,
and trust in Him as His beloved little children, distractions, and all.
No comments:
Post a Comment