Dear Saints,

Advent Blessings!

It’s a mainstay of my Advent preparations to focus on one of the main themes of this season: Christ’s Kingship. From the color of the vestments to the selection of liturgical readings, prayers, and hymns, everything points to the fact that we await a newborn KING.

In Advent, we await the birth of Jesus, the ruler of our hearts and minds, the Lord of our lives. Our preparations are ordered to bringing ourselves under his rule, to submitting our whole life - everything we are, everything we have, everything we think, and say, and do - to him.

We observe this season well by growing in allegiance to Christ the King through the Church’s traditional penitential practices. Because Jesus’ reign is the rule of self-giving love, we submit ourselves more fully to his rule by growing in love of God, neighbor, and self. Do you remember which penitential practice lines up with which aspect of love? Okay, I’ll give you the first one. We grow in love of God by praying.

One of the ways to think about prayer is as the submission of my heart - of my will - to God. Yes, it can be as challenging as it sounds. Think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: Sweating blood, he prays, “Not my will, but yours be done!” This is one of the reasons why I love lying prostrate in front of the tabernacle: it is a prayer posture of total submission to God, a posture that promotes my submission to him in every fiber of my being.

To submit ourselves to God in prayer, we must make the time and give it to him. Start with five or ten minutes a day and work your way up to 30. Yes, every day, and preferably the same time every day. In those few minutes of silence, pour out your heart to Jesus. Turn over to him what you’re thinking and feeling with real honesty (he knows the truth anyway).

How do you know when you’re doing it right? When we open our hearts and share our lives with God in prayer, he shares his life with us. His life at work in us brings about growth in love and joy and peace!

As always, if you’d like to talk this through just let me know. I’m always happy to make time for you. We also have a handful of people who serve our parish as mentors in the life of prayer, and they’re eager to accompany you as well.

In the Peace of Christ,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ