Advent begins

A-M writes:

Advent is here and I thought I would send you a wee photo to start your advent journey.

Every Saturday I take my Aunt out shopping and as she is in a wheel chair we have a picnic in the car.

Sitting beside Hogganfield Loch today was quite magical as it was very cold and the loch was shrouded in mist.
I don't like birds very much but I was very brave and took a few snaps as they went from feast to feast from
passers by.

Hope you have a Happy and Holy Advent.
God bless now and always.
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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT Year C

Gospel: Luke 21 21:25-28, 34-36

From a sermon by Saint Bernard (Sermo 4 in adventu Domini I, 3-4: Opera omnia, Edit. Cist. 4 [1966] 182-185)

Advent celebrates Christ's first coming and his continual presence with the Church. It also looks forward to his final coming when he will complete his work of redemption.

It is surely right that you should celebrate our Lord's coming with all your hearts, and that the greatness of the consolation which his Advent brings us should fill you with joy. Indeed one can only be amazed at the depth of his self-abasement, and stirred up to new fervour by the immensity of his love. But you must not think of his first coming only, when he came to seek and save what was lost; remember that he will come again and take us to himself. It is my desire that you should be constantly meditating upon this two-fold advent, continually turning over in your minds all that he has done for us in the first, and all that he promises to do in the second. It is time for judgment to begin at the house of God. But what will be the fate of those who do not obey the Gospel? What judgment will be reserved for those who will not submit to the judgment taking place now? In this present judgment the ruler of this world is being cast out, and those who seek to evade it must expect - indeed they must greatly fear - the judge who will cast them out along with him. However, if we are fully judged now, we may safely await the Saviour who is to come, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly bodies into the likeness of his glorious body. Then the just will shine forth so that both learned and simple may see it; they will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. When our Saviour comes he will change our lowly bodies into the likeness of his glorious body, provided that our hearts have been changed and made humble as his was. This is why he said: Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart. We may note from this text that humility is two-fold: there is intellectual humility, and a humility of one's whole disposition and attitude, here called the heart. By the first we recognize that we are nothing; we can learn this much of ourselves from our own weakness. The second enables us to trample the glory of the world under our feet, and this we learn from him who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. When the people desired to make him a king, he fled from them; but when they wanted to make him undergo the shame and ignominy of the cross, he gave himself up to them of his own free will.