“All of Life is Advent”
All too often, November finds many of us racing into the celebratory mood of Christmas, without a thought of Advent, that preparatory season of light penance and prayer. Father Delp, who wrote from his WWII cell in Nazi Germany, had many beautiful reflections on this holy season that are applicable today: "Advent is a time of being deeply shaken, so that man will wake up to himself…. Perhaps what we modern people need most is to be genuinely shaken, so that where life is grounded, we would feel its stability; and where life is unstable and uncertain, immoral and unprincipled, we would know that, also, and endure it… erhaps that is the ultimate answer to the question of why God has sent us into this time, why He permits this whirlwind to go over the earth, and why He holds us in such a state of chaos and in hopelessness and in darkness… More, and on a deeper level than before, we really know this time that all of life is Advent."
We don’t forget, during this month of November, our brethren the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Briefly meditating on their sufferings reminds us of the need to pray for them: “Purgatory, in all truth, the workshop of infinite justice. Divine severity and rigor are exercised there with an intensity that, to us on earth, is unknown... On the other hand, purgatory is the masterpiece of the heart of God, the most marvelous artifice of His love.”
In WEBSITE NEWS we touch on the history and symbolism behind the Advent wreath, a beloved Catholic custom during these days before Christmas. We also introduce our new relic badge of Our Lady of Guadalupe, briefly remember the story of this great apparition and patron of the Americas, as well as studying the intricate symbolism contained in Her image.
COMMUNITY NEWS contains the completion of our new shrine to Our Lady of Fatima. Read more…