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Buenos Aires, Sunday, November 27, 2005

Father Oscar Pezzarini

A Time of Hope

Advent is a time which the Lord grants us in order to prepare adequately for Salvation, which comes through the birth of Jesus, thus it is a time both of “expectation” and of “hope”. In this time we prepare for the coming of our Saviour, it is the time of hope. Being able to fully receive Jesus who shall bring us Salvation will depend on the way we prepare us and experience this time, otherwise this will be aanother time which goes by unnoticed, in which we may become distracted by many formalities which are peculiar to this time, without the inner experience which these moments provide.

This week we begin the so-called Advent time, a time where we wait for the coming of Jesus. Just a few weeks till one of the great Festivities of our faith, which is Christmas, and although at this time of the year we all start talking about “the holidays”, about the coming new year, about what we are going to do or about the holidays which many of us will not be able to take, we must not forget that above all this is a celebration which invites us to interior renewal.

Advent is a time which the Lord grants us in order to prepare adequately for Salvation, which comes through the birth of Jesus, thus it is a time both of “expectation” and of “hope”.

We expect the coming of the Feast of our Salvation, and this fills us with much hope and renews our life which frequently is flooded by anguish, worries, difficulties, which avoid our “seeing further” than what is right before our eyes.

The closeness of this celebration makes us revive the presence in the world of Jesus the Saviour Himself, who encourages our hope, invites us to transcendence and also is an invitation to the renewal of our lives.

If we consider the Word of God in the different celebrations at this time we will find a constant invitation to “being alert”, to be prepared “since the time approaches”; something that must not make us fear, thinking of “how much time is left” as if everything were some unresolvable fatalism, but we must receive it as an invitation to a firmer and deeper commitment to what we are and what we do.

When we are told to “be prepared” this does not necessarily mean we should think of what extraordinary, spectacular deed we should accomplish in order to be fit for what is going to happen, but it simply means to be aware of that we should live our lives “the best way” with the task and mission we were entrusted with, this being prepared means going on giving testimony through our life of the “truth” that Jesus Himself has come to the world to save us.

It is in this time that when we review our own life and renew our inside, we must deepen our commitment to work for the benefit of our neighbor, approaching those who need us most, those who expect someone to listen or to talk to them, who cares for them or simply goes along with them.

In this time we prepare for the coming of our Saviour, it is the time of hope. Being able to fully receive Jesus who shall bring us Salvation will depend on the way we prepare us and experience this time, otherwise this will be just another time which goes by unnoticed, in which we may become distracted by many formalities which are peculiar to this time, without the inner experience which these moments provide.

Father Oscar Pezzarini
General Commissioner of the Work of Don Orione in Argentina

Father Oscar Pezzarini makes us think on Saturdays from 8 to 12 AM (GMT-03:00)with "VENTANA A LA VIDA", the Don Orione radio program he conducts on FM PROVIDENCIA, 106.5 MHz together with some residents of the Claypole Cottolengo (Raúl Romero, María Laura Andrada, Alberto Zoroch, Américo Torres), with the production of Roberto Beluzzo and Ignacio Cavalli as technical operator. You can also listen to FM PROVIDENCIA by clicking here.

Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione 0800-333-6746 in Argentina, or +54 (11) 4268-7722 from abroad.

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