I have a confession.  I love the season of Advent; I love Jesse Trees with all of their scriptures and Advent Wreaths and the color PURPLE.  But… I am having a lot of trouble this year doing some of the devotions that have been a staple around the Johnson home for decades.  The family Advent Wreath is still in a box in the garage.  This is the first year my husband and I have no kids at home in the weeks before Christmas, and I miss them.

Entering a new phase of our marriage and family life is clearly having an unexpected effect.  I am in a slump, and not at all into Advent this year. The familiar daily scripture readings of Advent are my only real connection to the season. The themes of the scriptures during this time remind us to prepare and to be ready for the coming of Jesus, both in the commemoration of His birth, and in the hope of His Second Coming. 
 
This week’s Gospel readings focus on Jesus’ miraculous healings. Jesus heals a Roman Centurion’s servant, He heals the blind, the mute and the lame, He miraculously feeds thousands, prefiguring the Holy Eucharist, and our Lord has a powerful admonition for his followers, just in case they’re starting to get comfortable and make assumptions about their own salvation… "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in Heaven,” says Jesus. Yikes. While I would like to think I am doing the will of my Father, there is no guarantee that I actually ever am.

The monk, Thomas Merton penned one of my favorite prayers in that vein. “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your Will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.” 

Lord, grant me the desire to please you.

So, if you are like me and you’re having trouble starting your Advent engine, let’s ask our Lord for a spiritual jump-start. Let’s pray, and push through and make the second week of Advent better than the first.  Dust off that Advent prayer book, pull out the Jesse Tree, or bring out that Advent Wreath and candles out of the box. Let’s enter this glorious season.  It can be our own little miracle, and Jesus is very good at those.