Action and urgency pervade our liturgy on this first Sunday of Advent. Grant your faithful, we pray almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ … (opening prayer); Come, let us climb the LORD’S mountain … (first reading); We will go up to the house of the Lord … (responsorial psalm); throw off the works of darkness … (second reading); Stay awake … be prepared … (Gospel). Spiritually we all need a little push occasionally, and so the church provides that during Advent and Lent. During Advent, however, the focus is not so much on sin and repentance as it is on time. Time, that mysterious entity that slips away from us as though stolen by that thief the Gospel talks about. Time — limited and irreplaceable. Time, so precious but so often just locked in our private bank vaults instead of being spent — spent in listening, spent letting ourselves be interrupted to serve, spent nourishing our souls, which we often don’t do because we are too busy spending our time on other things. If I were to ask Jesus, on this first Sunday of Advent, what He thinks about how I use my time, what would he say?
– Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
