Advent: Time for personal growth

These days of Corona Crisis, life seems to be a little bit tense, filled with worries and tensions, fear of death, etc. The Church is offering us quality time as a perfect gift to reflect on the meaning of Christ’s birth during these bad days. This time of the year is emotionally stressful times for many people and have to manage the stress, struggles, and challenges of COVID. Advent and Christmas seasons will give us the grace to discover ourselves in order to grow spiritually and emotionally so that we can face the challenges of the present-day crisis.

There are so many great ways to live out and celebrate advent and Christmas. These ways that the church offers are more spiritual rather than secular. These sources like rich scripture material, retreats, spiritual talks, confessions, etc. are sources of joy and happiness. 

 

Advent season invites to look at our inner life which at times is neglected due to some unnecessary priorities in life. The soul doesn’t get proper spiritual food so the soul slips into a negative mode. Advent season allows reflecting on the condition of our soul which gets marred by sin throughout the year and reminds us that God sent Jesus for our well-being and salvation. Advent prompts us to acknowledge and shape our inner and outer self which becomes weak due to the non-existence of prayer and charity. Sometimes our out life is dominated by too many anti-God activities which do not allow us to build

up communion with God and others.

 

Advent Liturgy invites us to be ready, watchful, to be self-aware, and undertake self-development decisions which leads us to build up our inner life based on the word of God. Our inner life will grow when we accept that Jesus was born for us and allows us to overcome our many emotional challenges, anxieties, and imbalances. The darkness of the inner life is removed by the grace of God that is offered to us during the Advent season. This season,  inwardly, prepares you to do a compassionate and objective review of our spiritual lives as preparation for receiving the Lord Jesus and also new discovery of ourselves. 

 

Advent will allow us to do a soul searching for living our faith commitment to Jesus and the difference that made in our spiritual and prayer life due to our communion throughout the year. The Liturgical year has the power and energy to fill our lives with meaning and purpose and make us objectively aware of our true selves in union with the Saviour. 

 

Let this coming advent season be a time for self-giving to the Lord and others, be a moment of searching the true meaning of our being disciple of Jesus. Advent will offer us time to get deeper into our relationship with Jesus and receive his grace to be creative in living out our faith.