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Dear brothers and sisters,

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This Sunday sees the Church begin a new Liturgical Year. The First Sunday of Advent heralds the time of preparation for our celebration of the Lord’s birth. It is, also, a ‘season of two parts’.  We begin with a focus on the coming Kingdom of God. The second part, beginning on 17 December, provides a more intense preparation for Christmas.

In this first part of Advent, we reflect on our hope in the coming Kingdom. This carries a particular resonance this year, perhaps, as we enter the final month of the Jubilee Year of Hope.

Advent calls us to be open to the gift of Hope. Hope is a virtue. Hope is a gift. It is a mark of the Christian, for our lives are a preparation for the coming of the Lord. We proclaim, every time we profess our faith in the Creed:  “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”  The Christian life looks forward all the time – in hope – to the wonder of the experience of total love in the Kingdom of the Father.  

This hope must inform our actions, our encounters with others, our words, our prayer. It is this hope that enables us to live our Christian life, sometimes in the face of opposition and not without suffering and difficulty, here and now – to be Christ’s people each and every day, as we await His coming.

May this season be a time of renewed hope for us all, bringing us to be ever more effective in the work of mission that the Lord has given to us as beacons of hope, witnesses to the coming Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

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With every blessing,

+Richard

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