Advent with the Holy Fathers

Christmas with the Holy Fathers : It’s the title of a handsome little book just published by Paraclete Press. Edited by Peter Celano, it features a hundred pages of meditations for Advent, Christmas, the Solemnity of Mary, and the Epiphany, drawn from the writings of popes from Leo I through Benedict XVI. As Thomas Howard writes in his forward, “The yearly return of Advent offers to us a sequence of days in which we may turn our thoughts to a particularly rich series of events touching on the drama of our Redemption. Each event discloses a mystery, since in each case we find that what is played out on the stage of our own history reaches through the scrim that veils eternity from time, and presents to us mortals, in effect, the Love of God at work.”

Among the many fine meditations is this Advent reflection of John Paul II:

Advent . . . helps us to understand fully the value and meaning of the mystery of Christmas. It is not just about commemorating the historical event, which occurred some 2,000 years ago in a little village of Judea. Instead, it is necessary to understand that the whole of our life must be an “advent,” a vigilant awaiting of the final coming of Christ. To predispose our mind to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the Creed, one day will come to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize him as present in the events of daily life. Therefore, Advent is, so to speak, an intense training that directs us decisively toward him who already came, who will come, and who comes continuously.

The annual pleas to resist holiday commercialization have begun once again; these contemplative reflections remind us that we can only do that, in the joyful spirit of Advent and Christmas, by giving priority to the long-expected Christ.