Tag: Advent

January Reflection (2020)

womenyouthapostlesLeave a comment

One of my favorite Christmas Hymns is “In the Bleak Midwinter”, setting text by English poet Christina Rossetti to a tune by Gustav Holst. There’s something so simple and beautiful in the poet’s reflection on the birth of He whom neither heaven nor earth could contain. For me, the most arresting line is one of the hymn’s firsts: “Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.” It is a mere statement of fact, attesting to what we all know about winter (though maybe not one here in Northern Virginia) – the earth is cold, hard, barren, and sparse. And yet, in the same month of our Savior’s birth, we are reminded of that miracle at Tepeyac when our Blessed Mother brought forth the most beautiful roses from that frozen earth.

Throughout Advent and the Christmas season, I have often paused to think of how my own heart is like frozen earth. It has grown a little hardened through trials and insecurities, a bit colder towards others due to pride and past hurts, sparse by not tending to it wholly and diligently in prayer, burdened and almost barren. I was encouraging our high-schoolers at St. Anthony’s to invite Jesus into the messiest parts of their lives and allow Him to work in their hearts during these liturgical seasons, while at the same time noticing how impervious I had allowed mine to become. It is in these moments of reflecting on my own inadequacy that our hymn comes to mind. “In the bleak midwinter, a stable-place sufficed”, the second stanza continues. Perhaps my heart is also stable-like as well as frozen: dimly lit, messy, uncomfortable. And yet, if the Lord Himself deigned to be born in such a place, would he deign to reside in me? To take his place among the muck and mire there and shed his Light into its drafty and dark corners? This has been a crucial part of my prayer, that rather than paper over the cracks and soldier on, I might be able to offer my heart, poor as it is, to our Lord that he may sanctify those cracks and other insufficiencies within for his glory and praise.

It is fitting that the first day of the new year is a solemnity honoring Mary, Mother of God. I’m reminded, again, of Our Lady at Tepeyac, who said to Juan Diego, “Am I not here, who is your Mother?” There is a gentleness in Mary that is so approachable, especially in times when things seem bleak; the Dawn given to us in spiritual motherhood, she awaits the chance to bear fruit in our hearts that most Radiant Day that is her Son. I think, perhaps, the Lord has been inviting me into deeper relationship with his Mother, that in her gentle care I may see that though the soil be frozen, does not mean it is incapable of bearing fruit. That I may be guided by her and continually offer what little I am to the Lord. As we welcome this new year, this new decade, I pray we are able to look forward in hope to what the Lord has in store for each of us, that we may entrust ourselves to his mother’s care, and that he who made flowers bloom in the desert may take root in the soil of our hearts (frozen or otherwise) just as he did that midwinter night long ago.

Sincerely in Christ,
Amelia Gil Figueroa
Missionary & Council Member At-Large, Women Youth Apostles

December Reflection

womenyouthapostlesLeave a comment
Happy New Year!

This past Sunday was the First Sunday of Advent, and the start of a new liturgical year!
I was reflecting on some of the themes of this special liturgical season which begins this next year for the Church– hopeful expectation, waiting. And for what? For whom? For Jesus, who is not yet come, and yet already here?


This spiritual reality can be confusing and hard to grasp. Not to mention waiting can have a very negative quality in our human existence today. Waiting tends to bring about feelings of boredom, restlessness and a sense of being punished somehow by withholding the good.

Yet the ‘waiting’ of Advent is a lesson Jesus and His Church may desire to teach to us this season. I have been sitting this week in my holy hour with the question, “Jesus, what do you want me to know, to rediscover, to receive, to rest in this season?” So far, He has started working in my heart with the concept of ‘waiting’ fundamentally. This ‘waiting’ is not a lacking, but a full, active and present place for Jesus and I to spend some time together. Waiting in the spiritual life holds a richness we can be too quick to dismiss or rush through.

Advent is a time of preparation and renewal. Waiting is a time to take stock of where I am and where Jesus is calling me to go– and, how we are going to get there together! Jesus is in the waiting, not just the prize at the end. This is the mystery of Advent! This is the earthly pilgrimage of Heaven-bound Christians. All waiting is an advent season marked by Christian hope, love, joy and Christ’s peace.

No matter where each of us is this Advent and Christmas– where we are spiritually, professionally, relationally with friends and family– Jesus comes to that place where you and I are. This should expel any temptation to think that in times of waiting, or preparation, or transition, that there is nothing of value or worth; the temptation to think there is only “almost” or “not quite” or “someday” or “not yet“.

There is a “today” and a “now“, and it is on purpose, for a purpose. “Now” is an inn, (or maybe a stable)– prepare Him room!

Sincerely in Christ,

Krysti Patient
Assistant Director, Women Youth Apostles

A Reflection on the 3rd Week of Advent

womenyouthapostlesLeave a comment

By: Kelly Power

I absolutely love Christmas music this time of year (and yes, I listen all the way from the beginning of Advent to The Epiphany!). Although as I sing the lyrics of these songs on my way to school to drop off the kids or have them as background while we play and decorate, I cannot help but feel that they are doing a disservice to my Advent preparations. Are they helping me to enter in to the REAL Christmas story and encounter the REAL Christ child? These are the lyrics I hear…

“Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm all is bright” and “All is merry and bright,”

“The baby awakes, no crying he makes” and “O Little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie,”

“Tis the season to be jolly,” and “Children laughing, people passing meeting smile after smile,”

All these carols we hear repeatedly throughout Advent are supposed to illustrate the true feelings and images of Christmas. Right? A Christmas that is quiet, jolly, still, peaceful, joyful and frankly perfect. So this is what we all strive for during the holidays.

But as I was praying recently and reflecting on the REAL Advent – Mary pregnant and unmarried, journeying by donkey to Bethlehem to ultimately give birth in a stable, and Elizabeth pregnant and though happy, was very old and I am sure facing challenges from both her age and judgments of others. It hit me as two of my babies were crying, one had a dirty diaper, and I was trying desperately to create the perfect peace and joy-filled Advent experience for them that I was probably experiencing many of the REAL feelings of the biblical Advent that of Mary and Elizabeth. The REAL Advent was full of worry, is was messy, it was smelly, it was loud and far from “all merry and bright.” As someone who just experienced pregnancy and birth and is currently caring for a newborn, Jesus probably cried when he woke up and the stables were loud and smelly, not calm and bright, and certainly not silent at night.

I have been looking a lot at miracles this and how God brought about these miracles – the root of Jesse, the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus. He makes possible from the impossible. Mary and Elizabeth experience these Christmas miracles not in the midst of perfect peace, or joy, but Jesus comes in the chaos, the worry, and the mess. “Prepare ye the way,” is a phrase we hear often in Advent, though I began to realize this Advent that as I was getting frustrated, trying to prepare a quiet and perfect Christmas like the ones I hear in the songs for my family, that I was actually missing the miracles – the joy that God was already doing in the midst of my crazy, messy, not so silent nights.

So I am embracing the chaos, the mess, the imperfection and looking for the miracles, the grace, and the joy God is already bringing despite any preparation I may do. He is already here, the REAL Christ child. He brings the Peace, as the Prince of Peace, not me, and He brings the Joy, a joy that cannot be shaken by even the biggest tantrums or my own foiled plans. What all the characters of Christmas knew, whatever their state in life – Mary full of Grace or the rough life of a Shepherd – was that whoever this baby was He was special and they needed Him in their lives just as we all do right now.

So let us not lose sight as we prepare for the coming of our Lord, that He might be right in front of us! He is the only REAL thing we need this season! He is the only one who can bring us the REAL Peace and Joy we desire in our lives and the lives of our families.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Welcoming the Quiet, Preparing for Christ

womenyouthapostlesLeave a comment

A First Week of Advent reflection by Krysti Patient:

I’ve always had a problem with silence, with quieting myself.  I am a natural extrovert, a social butterfly. I feed off others’ energy and I’m a champion talker.  It’s no wonder it took me so long to meet my Lord, to know Him and to trust Him, amidst all the noise.  It took a lot of practice but I can look back on my conversion and the gift of my faith and see that all of the most beautiful moments between God and I have been in the quiet.

Even now however, I often struggle to imitate Jesus in the way he would often go off alone, away from the disciples, to pray. Silence AND solitude- two of my least favorite things! I’m the kind of person who when faced with the opportunity to do so, or to spend time with others, I’ll choose the latter and make some excuse as to why this was all the more charitable- building relationships and all that, you know.

My spiritual director often challenges me just before Advent to ponder what it is I would like to bring to Jesus on His birthday.  This simple concept, to gift something of myself to Christ at His annual coming on Christmas, is one I rather like, because when it comes to the season of Advent or Lent I often think in terms of the challenges and sacrifices I will make. Though these practices are a beautiful example of self-control and self-denial, my spiritual director’s take on these actions brings the focus where it should be- to make myself a gift to my God, who is all deserving of my time and of my love.

My reflections this Advent brought me to ponder this gift. What would make my Jesus happiest this year? What should I bring Him?  How do I prepare?  At Sunday Mass for this first week in Advent, the priest spoke of those three times Christ comes to us- In Christmas, His “first” coming each year; at the end of days, when He will come again; and each and every day when He desires to come into our hearts, to make His home within us, and each day in the Mass in the most Blessed Sacrament. I thought about how this gift of mine might as well help me to invite Him into my own heart.

“A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but he Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound…” 1 Kings 19:1-2

Christ is the tiny whispering sound. To hear Him, we must create the proper disposition within ourselves, a place of silence in our hearts to be attentive to the gentle whisper.

For Jesus’ birthday, I hope to give Him more of myself. I hope to give Him time and create room in my heart for Him to speak.  This Advent, I am challenging myself to reduce the noise that surrounds me and to come to the quiet.