The other day I went to visit Leondardo da Vinci’s “Adoration of the Magi” in the Uffizi. The painting was commissioned by the monks of San Donato, but Leonardo moved to Milan and never finished it. We are celebrating the First Sunday of Advent, and we are less than a month away from Christmas. Do you want Christmas to be half painted in your heart on December 25th? Or do you want the masterpiece of God’s love, God’s goodness, God’s mercy, God’s simplicity, to be painted and engraved on your heart, in your life, in your time, in your space, in your difficulties, in your darkness and in your joys?
Today we read, “watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation”. What is weighing down your heart? How can we create space and freedom in our hearts for God this Christmas?
I had a light after being at La Verna the other day, where St. Francis would go and pray and where he received the stigmata. We could make the prayer of St. Francis, our daily Advent challenge. Each day, I invite you to pray one line and make a concrete decision to live that virtue, starting with peace, moving on to love, then pardon, faith, etc.
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen”
- Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
God bless you and have a wonderful week,
Fr. Kramer Cameron, LC
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