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Buenos Aires, Sunday, December 3, 2006

Father Oscar Pezzarini

A time of preparation and hope

These days we begin Advent Time in which for four weeks the Church invites us to prepare ourselves for the great event of the coming of Jesus, Christmas. It is a time to do our self-examination and to get ready to consider which are the things that separate us from the Lord, and to try to leave aside everything which detaches us from Him. Our preparation for Christmas at this time will fructify if we are capable of understanding that the Lord renews His presence in our lives and calls us to take some concrete step so others may feel this presence, or else this Christmas will be no more than one of many feasts we celebrate and it will not accomplish an experience of faith in us, not to mention a deep change.

These days we begin Advent Time in which for four weeks the Church invites us to prepare ourselves for the great event of the coming of Jesus, Christmas.

Advent is a time of preparation and hope.

It is a time to do our self-examination and to get ready to consider which are the things that separate us from the Lord, and to try to leave aside everything which detaches us from Him.

Therefore knowing how to go down to our deepest roots is important at this time, knowing how to get to see how we actually stand before God. Advent is no simply a time at which we are told to prepare for Christmas because the Holidays are near.

Instead, it is a preferential time in order to approach the Lord by doing so in different ways.

Getting close to those of our brethren with whom for whatever reasons we've grown apart, and not just doing so because Christmas is close and we want or need to be in peace with everybody so we must “call truce” but we must accomplish this coming together with sincere and deep, hence real forgiveness.

Advent is the time in which we prepare for the coming of Jesus which renews in ourselves, a renewal of this presence which is already among us as a way to help us not to forget that the Lord is among us, that He is here in order to encourage us, to cheer us up on our way so we cannot forget that His presence talks to us about love, about true and full happiness.

There is no other way for our preparing for Christmas than the one Jesus invites us to follow, the way of hope which we must not only possess as a valuable treasure but which we must also transmit to our brethren, particularly to those are at a distance, to those who suffer most, those who by certain circumstances they live through may even not notice there is a God who became Man in order to save Mankind, and that in Him we find the true sense of our lives.

Our preparation for Christmas at this time will fructify if we are capable of understanding that the Lord renews His presence in our lives and calls us to take some concrete step so others may feel this presence, or else this Christmas will be no more than one of many feasts we celebrate and it will not accomplish an experience of faith in us, not to mention a deep change.

Father Oscar Pezzarini
Provincial Superior of the Work of Don Orione in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Mexico

Father Oscar Pezzarini together with Fr. Leonardo Abregú makes us reflect 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, 90.3 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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