Dear Saints,

Today we begin Advent, a season all too often crowded out by Christmas creep, the mostly commercial phenomenon by which stores start to feature Christmas displays and air Christmas commercials midway through October. The hustle and bustle can be fun, but they threaten to overwhelm the real point of these weeks.

Instead of scurrying from one store to another, we should be focused on finding the perfect gift for our coming Savior, and for that we need to follow the example of St. Jerome. Pope Francis says that Jerome “consciously chose the desert and the eremitic [hermit] life for their deeper meaning as a locus of fundamental existential decisions, of closeness and encounter with God. There, through contemplation, interior trials and spiritual combat, he came to understand more fully his own weakness, his own limits and those of others.”

At one point, Jerome had a mystical encounter in which he asked our Lord: “What do you want of me?” To which Jesus replied: “You have not yet given me everything.” “But Lord, I have given you all sorts of things.” “One thing you have not given me.” “What is that?” “Give me your sins, so that I may rejoice in forgiving them once more.”

This Advent, let’s prepare like St. Jerome to greet Jesus with the one thing he wants. Let’s spend the time in quiet reflection, taking an honest inventory of those things that separate us from him. Let’s put in that work now, such that when he arrives, we’re ready to accept his saving gift to us.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ