Receiving the gift is the last stage of Advent becoming Christmas. Jesus arrives and we receive the One we have awaited. The seasons and feast days of church calendars exist not only to change the colours and routines of faith life, but also change the way we live our whole lives. We learn to practice waiting — in joyful hope — for Jesus to arrive. And this practice waiting and receiving is meant to help us get better at waiting and receiving in the rest of our lives too.

The weather had suddenly turned cold. What had promised to be a pleasant walk on the street had slowly but consistently chilled throughout the day until several layers of clothing were required to repel the harsh winter wind. It was certainly no evening for a man to be shuffling along George Street agonizingly slowly. 

What happens to a society in which killing replaces care? What happens when ending a life is considered compassionate and the preserving of life cruel?

Advent has always had a special importance to me, a type of monumental weight signalling what is unquestionably the most consequential moment for humanity: the arrival of Jesus. It is a time of waiting and preparation, marked by the gradual lighting of the candles on the Advent wreath.

A simple stable is where God chooses to be born into the world, a helpless infant child. Many Christian households display creches with baby Jesus figurines as part of Advent preparations for Christmas.  There is another kind of “stable” though where Jesus wants to be present as this particular Christmas approaches, the stabilization centres of Somalia. 

Fr. Gabriele Amorth, SSP (1925-2016) was the chief exorcist of the Vatican and a member of the Society of St. Paul (one of the congregations founded by Blessed Fr. James Alberione). I had the privilege of interviewing Fr. Amorth in 2011, while filming a documentary on Fr. Alberione (MediaApostle.com). 

As the COVID pandemic began three years ago, many asked what the new normal might be once it subsided. In that question, there was an optimism, even hope, that a massive amount of suffering and death would smarten us up, spur us to become more concerned for the needs of others. 

With the ending of another year, we celebrate Jesus’ birth, the beginning of a life that leads to life for us all. As we ring in 2023, we need the new life of Christ to combat the culture of death.

In the early 1970s there was a movie called Soylent Green. It starred Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson. It was the first film I saw that was a dystopian vision of the future. It took place in a New York City in which the population has exploded to the point of anarchy. In response, the state came up with a voluntary suicide program to lessen the crowding.

It has been more than four months since the end of Pope Francis’ visit to Canada to meet with Indigenous people and apologize for the Catholic Church’s involvement and acts of terror in the Indian residential school system. It’s long enough for the next steps in the journey of reconciliation to have been at least discussed. Yet, there has been next to nothing.