Let us speak plainly: we stand on the horizon between the present and eternity. With each passing moment, our journey across the sea of earthly life nears its inevitable completion.
Advent: Prepare to Receive the Risen Lord
Ultimately, Advent finds its completion in our union with God, as we are swept up into the supernatural life of the Holy Trinity. Yet such an incomparable event is not something which merely dwells in a yet-to-be-realized future; nor is it something accessed only after we pass through the thin veil of death which soon awaits us all. As members of holy mother Catholic Church, our thirst for communion with the Triune God is satisfied by the Risen Lord himself, who both announces the great eucharistic feast at his altar as well as provides for it, in order to enable us to consume his own flesh and blood—the food of eternal life.
Advent: Mary Leads her Children into “The Way” of life in Christ
Mary urges us to enter into Advent, into “the Way.” As we gaze with the eyes of faith upon that mystery which is anticipated in Advent, looking ahead toward the Child who lay in the manger, Mary whispers: look at my Son. “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).
Pope Benedict XVI: Faith Transforms The Abyss of Suffering Into a Source of Hope
“This cry of anguish is transformed and transfigured in the mystery of the Resurrection. With these words, Jesus gives us the weight of his unspeakable suffering, beyond which the certainty of glory opens. Faith transforms death into a gift of life, and the abyss of pain into a source of hope” — Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI: Commit Yourselves Day after Day with The Affirmation: “I Believe”
Pope Benedict XVI: “This evening, you caused us to turn our hearts to Mary in prayer, the most beloved prayer of Christian tradition. Yet you also led us back to the beginning of our journey of faith, to the liturgy of Baptism, the moment in which we became Christian.