Advent Message from Pam Snyder, AMASC President

Advent 2013 Message (below) from AMASC website - (photo click here)

December 1, 2013


First Sunday of Advent
 Message from Pam Snyder, AMASC President 


In most cultures children look forward to the annual celebration of their own special day ...very young ones may not understand that their birthday or saint's day is really shared with others. While the young look forward to presents of toys...over time the joy which come from celebrating our special day changes so that we focus less on what gifts we receive and more on the opportunity to spend our special days with friends and family. It is much the same with Advent...the season set aside on the Christian calendar to prepare for Christmas. During Advent liturgical readings focus on the time of preparation for Jesus's birth, while offering us time for reflection upon the importance of Christ's birth for our lives. We encourage young children to welcome and pay homage to the Christ Child in the crib in Bethlehem, so that by the time the young mature they will understand what the true focus of the nativity celebration. The nativity is the annual observance of humanity's awareness that God wants a personal relationship with us..... so much so that God revealed Himself as an infant in that manger in Bethlehem. God's self revelation invites a response. Nurturing that response to God's self revelation ... spending time on that response...... that is our Advent.

REFLECTION 

from Lectio Divina


Matt. 24: 37-44  
For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of a house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.