Prepare

Preparations this year are – of necessity – taking a slightly different form. We cannot plan for parties. Christmas dinner will  be limited to a few. Services may be online and if there is a Nativity Play at all it will be on ‘Zoom’.

So much will be different and so the preparation has to be different.

The danger is that even with all the differences this year (and in some cases because of them) these weeks will once again become a time of hectic and frantic preparation. And will we find the time for that more significant and important preparation; the spiritual preparation to which John the Baptist called people. ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him’?

John was calling people to prepare the way of the Lord by turning their lives anew to God, receiving forgiveness for their sins and being alert to the coming of the One who was greater than him.

Turning our lives anew to God...

Receiving forgiveness for our sins...

Being alert to His coming...

And by being alert to his coming, I don’t mean simply being ready for the remembrance and celebration of his birth in Bethlehem,  nor even his coming again in glory (although these are surely important) but alert to his continual and persistent coming to us, every day, in all moments, in those we meet, in those in need, in the situations we encounter, in creation, in Scripture and so on.

In the daily office I use in my own devotions (inspired by so-called ‘Celtic Christianity’) there is a wee phrase in morning prayer on one day of the week which I particularly love : ‘God nods and beckons to us through every stone and star’.

God is revealed in Scripture, received in Sacrament, and resides in his Church, but God also  nods and beckons to us, not only through Creation, but through other people, through circumstances. How prepared are we to discern and detect his presence and promptings?