If you were in church this weekend, you might notice
that things were different. The sanctuary was bare except the Advent wreath was
present and one candle was lit. This signals the beginning of a new church year
and our faith community started with an old fashioned Advent Penance Service.
Now this isn’t a moment to get upset how you go about
confession, or worse, worry that the last time you made your last penance was
decades ago. Rather, let me point out a heathy way to embrace this sacrament of
peace.
Are you in a situation where it appears to be the "same old, same old"?
"Did you ever notice," said an old lady, smiling into the troubled face before her, "that when the Lord told the discouraged fishermen to cast their nets again it was right in that same old place where they had been working all night, and had caught nothing?"
If we could only go off to some new place every time we get discouraged, trying again would be an easier thing. If we could be somebody else, or go somewhere else, or do something else, it might not be hard to have fresh faith and courage; but it is the same old net in the same old pond for most of us.
The old faults to be conquered, the old trials and discouragements before us.
If we are going to change “where we are” then we have humbly put ourselves in the hands of the Lord despite our past failures and “try again.”
God is present to us in joyful times and in times of despair and frustrations: as we reflect and pray: "As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered." James 5:11.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that as we start another new church year and Advent Season you bless this one to "hang in there" and to know that you are with them. We are where we are at this moment. May this one make the best of it without complaining in the name of Jesus.
