John the Baptist is the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. His voice is a prophetic voice, and also the voice of Advent. It is the voice of repentance and spiritual preparation to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. This preparation to live Advent with deeper faith. We want to prepare ourselves to encounter Jesus our Savior. John proclaims the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. In his very person the Kingship of God is established in the world. A few weeks ago, we reflected is Jesus the King of the universe. Is Jesus the King of my life? We can use this as a starting point to examine our conscience. We are so blessed to have the sacrament of reconciliation. It is a concrete expression of our faith in Jesus as our Savior. John says the one who is coming will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire, which is the purification and judgement. Those who repent rely on Jesus’ forgiveness. Those who do not repent do not accept Jesus as Savior rely on themselves and face the judgement of God on their own. We want to let the voice of spiritual preparation of Advent get into our head We are preparing to welcome many guests here at Christmas. We are the hosts for these guests. We can help to create an atmosphere for them to help prepare the way of the Lord for Christmas. We can gift our seat, and our parking spot. Also, we want to extend an invitation to our guests and family and friends to encounter Jesus on their own by inviting them to Alpha. It is designed to introduce someone to Jesus and week by week it funnels down to a point where it invites them to become a follower as Jesus. Evangelization is a proclamation of Jesus and then an invitation to someone to make Jesus king of their lives. As a parish we will be inviting people to Alpha, but its so much better if the invitation comes from a personal invitation and an accompaniment to Alpha. In the meantime, you and I want to get the voice of spiritual preparation in our heads, so that we can encounter anew as our Savior this Christmas.
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“Parousia”