We prepare in Advent not just for Christ’s coming but also for his returning. We say in the creed every week that it’s this event we await so joyfully. Life is all about how we will cope with endings—not just the end of life but the end of childhood, the end of a relationship, the end of good health. How we say good-bye matters more than how we say hello. Jesus wants us to view endings not with fear and sadness but with a sense of opportunity: will this ending bring me one step closer to fulfillment, completion, and bountiful harvest?
—Excerpted from 2016: A Book of Grace-Filled Days by Jessica Mesman Griffith
The 2018 edition of A Book of Grace-Filled Days is now available.
We prepare for an Advent season of preparation and readiness at a time when many are preparing themselves to survive another day as an unwanted refugee. Take this and roll together the Pope’s Year of Extraordinary Mercy and it should be a call to action for all of us. We all have time to post,blog,write e-newsletters or books about the actionable pieces of mercy. The question is… do we do any of them?