Advent Video message from our Parish Vitality Consultant

23 Dec Advent Video message from our Parish Vitality Consultant

Season’s Greetings! A video reflection on the gospel for the second Sunday of Advent

Greetings Friends & Happy Advent!

Click here: Advent video message from Terrel Joseph!

I recently had the great privilege of being invited by the Archdiocese of Montreal to share a short reflection on the gospel for the second Sunday of Advent. The gospel passage for this Sunday is the opening verses of Mark (Mk 1: 1-8):

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In my message, I spoke about how John the Baptist is challenging us to prepare for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, both with the celebration of his birth at Christmas, as well as with his second coming at the end of time. I concluded my message by underscoring that John is also calling us to prepare to encounter Christ, today, in the midst of our ordinary lives, and in our parishes.

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI wrote in his encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est published on Christmas Day 2005, that “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

So I invite you to prepare with me this Advent to be ready for this encounter or re-encounter with Jesus Christ, and pray with me that our parishes can continue to increase their ability to be places where ordinary people experience this encounter.

And last but not least, my work this year in parish vitality and all the other good works in the English Catholic Community supported by the Pillars Trust, are only possible because of the ongoing generous financial support of ordinary Catholics like yourself.

So this Advent, I invite you to please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the annual campaign of the Pillars Trust Fund by clicking here (insert link to donate now page).

God Bless you all and happy Advent,

Terrel Joseph

Parish Vitality Consultant

The Pillars Trust Fund

If you’re excited by the work you’re seeing in your community, especially through those efforts of the Pillars Trust Fund, please consider donating to our campaign: Click here