Reflection
You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.
Romans 13:11
Advent prayer is filled with prophetic voices calling us to choose new life. To awaken, to open our eyes and to see what surrounds us.This is one of the major themes of Advent. There is a new vision and a new message, a message of hope, of love, of unity and a renewed relationship with God. We need to be awake to hear it. We need to be awake to shake off the torpor of our accommodations to the superficial values and violence in which we are immersed. Advent is a time of waiting in the darkening world alert to the signs of God’s presence in our midst, ready to respond to every ray of light which awakens us to truth.
Prayer
O God, make me receptive to your presence. Rouse me from insensitivity and lack of awareness.
Action
Be “awake” to the differences between the message of Jesus and the messages that are preached by the systems in which we are immersed daily.
Suggested Reading
“You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand”.
Romans 13: 11-12
Let us walk without fear, in the certainty that the Lord always accompanies us. And let us stay awake, lest it happen to us that we fall asleep while the Lord is passing by.
Pope Francis
They watch for Christ
who are sensitive, eager, apprehensive in mind
who are awake, alive, quick-sighted…
who look for him in all that happens, and
who would not be surprised,
who would not be over-agitated or overwhelmed
if they found he was coming at once.
John Henry Newman
The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece. The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning. The experience of spiritual power is basically a joyful one.
M. Scott Peck
Life is a constant Advent season: we are continually waiting to become, to discover, to complete, to fulfill. Hope, struggle, fear, expectation and fulfillment are all part of our Advent experience.
CONNECTIONS, 11-28-93, Life Is an Advent Season
The natural gift of wonder God gave us as children was meant to be kept alive.…Instead we let wonder go to sleep. We entered the typical dream state of most humans. Why else does Jesus tell us today, ‘Stay awake!’…Advent says, ‘Wake up and realize the gifts of love you have received.
Rev. Alfred McBride
No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. It would be a bit too easy if we could go about borrowing ready-made souls.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.
Frank Herbert
We need enlightenment, not just individually but collectively, to save the planet. We need to awaken ourselves. We need to practice mindfulness if we want to have a future, if we want to save ourselves and the planet.
Thich Nhat Hanh
A religious awakening which does not awaken the sleeper to love has roused him in vain.
Jessamyn West