Dear Brothers and Sisters of the 4th Day,<\/p>\n
Once again, our Christian journey finds us at the beginning of the Blessed and Holy Season of Advent.\u00a0 The weather is getting colder, the trees are bare, and the days are noticeably shorter, and there are obvious signs of change all around us.\u00a0 The new Liturgical Year is another sign of change.<\/p>\n
Advent gives us the opportunity to use the stillness and quiet of these weeks before the Incarnation to reflect, pray, and to accept Jesus in our lives in new and amazing ways, while we anticipate and await His return.<\/p>\n
But despite our best efforts, the time leading up to Christmas is often filled with business, distractions, and stress.\u00a0 We have our family traditions and gatherings, shopping, baking, wrapping, and yes all those \u201choliday\u201d parties to attend.\u00a0 So much for the stillness and quiet of Advent, right?<\/p>\n
Such is the world we live in today, and this is what our culture has embraced as the norm for celebrating Christmas.\u00a0 But these are not altogether sad reflections on society as much as they are occasions to show the face of Christ in an increasingly secular world.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n
As Christians, and especially Cursillistas, at Christmas we celebrate much more than the materialism and commercialism that has so taken hold of this most blessed result of God\u2019s love for us.\u00a0 While we do, and should, take part in the festivities of the season–we celebrate Emmanuel\u2014\u201cGod is with us\u201d<\/u><\/em><\/strong> (Mt 1:23).\u00a0 We celebrate the coming of The Savior who has come to us, is with us still and will come to us again.\u00a0 We celebrate the One who gives us answers to the trials and evils of our troubled world.\u00a0 This is truly cause for celebration!<\/p>\n We are not removed from the negativity of our world, we live as a Christian witness in it, embrace it with all its faults, and bring Jesus, and His unfailing message to it.\u00a0 And by the Grace of God, perhaps we change it one person at a time.<\/p>\n We pray that this Holy Advent season be a time of reconciliation and change\u2014change of heart for ourselves as well as our neighbor.\u00a0 May this be a season that brings hope to the hopeless and healing to the wounded souls of our time.\u00a0 And above all, may it be a season of the love and joy that the Prince of Peace makes ever possible, again and again. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0O Come, O Come Emmanuel.<\/p>\n Deacon Wayne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Brothers and Sisters of the 4th Day, Once again, our Christian journey finds us at the beginning of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":607,"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions\/607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}