Week 1: Thursday

A nation of firm purpose You keep in peace; in peace for its trust in You. Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal Rock. (Isaiah 26: 3-4)

Reflection

We cannot eliminate upsets and anxiety from our lives, but Advent is a good time to slow down and remember where we should look for stability and peace. Throughout these weeks of preparation for the celebration of Jesus' birth, the Scriptures for our liturgies tell us again and again to turn to God, to build our house on the rock of Jesus. Only there we will find peace.

Heaven is in here

by Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Too often we think of heaven as being way out there. We draw all kinds of pictures about heaven. Most of them are quite unreal, and because we think of heaven, and even hell, as something that happens to us at the end of time, we keep on postponing it. As a matter of fact, heaven is not way out there; heaven is in here. Hell is not way down there; hell could be inside of a soul. There is no such thing as dying and then going to heaven, or dying and going to hell. You are in heaven already; you are in hell already. I have met people who are in hell. I am sure you have too. I have also seen people with heaven in them. If you ever want to see heaven in a child, look at that child on the day of his first communion. If you want to see how much love is related to heaven, just look at the bride and groom at the altar on the day of the nuptial Mass. Heaven is there; heaven is there because love is there. I have seen heaven in a missionary nun who was spending herself among the lepers.

Sometimes you see a virtuous young person and you see heaven there. The beauty of such a person is not put on the outside, it is a kind of imprisoned loveliness that comes from within, as if it were breaking down the bars of flesh in order to find some outward utterance.

Source: Through the Year With Archbishop Fulton Sheen. IgnatiusInsight.com

Gospel Reading: Matthew 7:21, 24-27

Jesus said, "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted his house. But it did not collapse. It had been set solidly on rock.
Matthew 7:21, 24-27

Jesus says that if we take to heart his words and make them the basis of our actions, our lives are built on a rock solid foundation.

This raises some questions. First have I built a set of convictions that I try to live by? (These would be comparable to the house in the parable above.) Or, do I more or less operate of a vague desire to do right?

If I do have convictions, then another questions is this: What are they based on? The "rock" of God's word? Or the sifting sands of what seems generally acceptable to our society.

When the rain and floods and winds come into my life – and they do – I need solid footings. As a disciple of the Lord, I commit myself to more than following the Gospel whenever possible, regardless of the convenience to me.

Just for starters…Do I forgive when I feel like it, or do I have a conviction based on the "solid rock" of what Jesus taught about forgiveness? Or, prayer. Do I pray, "when I get a chance," or do I have a rock solid pattern of prayer?

I need to spend some time taking stock of the foundations on which I have built my life.

Spend some quiet time with the Lord.

Advent Action

Make a phone call. Call someone you have been meaning to speak to, but for some reason you have not done so.

Prayer