2nd Sunday of Advent 9th December 2012

Antisocial Behaviour From next week until Christmas the priest won’t be going to the back of the church to greet you. This is not because we’ve become grumpy old men but because we will be going into the confessional to give you the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In addition, we’ll be offering the same after Masses during the week and a visiting priest will be available in the church from 7:00pm-8:00pm on Wednesday 12 and Tuesday 18 December. In the run up to Christmas it may seem odd to be offering extra confessions while the rest of society is focussing on shopping and parties. But Advent is a penitential season although not as “strict” as the time before Easter. Indeed, it used to be known as St Martin’s Lent because of its proximity to the feast of St Martin of Tours. That sense of a dilution of the normal joy of a Sunday celebration is still much in evidence as the priests wear purple vestments for example, and we suspend the Gloria until we join with the angels in celebrating the birth of our Saviour. Moreover, the scriptures provide us with the Second Coming of Christ when we will be judged on the way we live. They also confront us with the challenge of St John the Baptist to examine how easy we make it for Christ to come to us. And how right he is since at times we create massive detours for the grace of God to enter our lives and sometimes plumb the depths of our own moral standards and feel far from God. Yet Christ still comes and as that voice in the wilderness says, “all mankind shall see the salvation of God.” However, while we may see it, St Paul warns that we must strive to be “pure and blameless” in preparing for the Day of Christ for only then will we “reach the perfect goodness.” As Blessed John Paul II said, “When we go down on our knees in the confessional because we have sinned, at that very moment we add to our own dignity. The very act of turning again to God is a manifestation of the special dignity of each person, of their spiritual grandeur, of the personal meeting between each person and God in the inner truth of conscience.” That sounds to me like a really good present to get ourselves for Christmas. Fr Kevin