Making ourselves ready
Advent is a season for examining our lives and trying as best we can to make ourselves ready for the coming of Christ into the world, both as celebration of his birth at Christmas, and in anticipation of his return to judge the world at the end of time. As part of our preparations for Christ’s coming, we might like to think about how we live our Christian lives. What gifts, skills and talents has God given us to use in his service?
Ember days
There are almost always two ‘ember days’ during early Advent. These take place this year on 9 and 10 December. It isn’t particularly obvious from the name, but ‘ember days’ happen a few times a year and are days on which we are invited to pray for vocations in the Church. Traditionally this has meant praying for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and the Religious Life (monks and nuns). In your private prayers this week, and particularly on Friday and Saturday, you might like to do this, and to pray for all who work in ministry in the church.
However, we all have vocations simply by being Christian. God has a plan for each one of us, and our work as Christians is to pray and ask God to show us what he has given each of us to do. As John Henry Newman put it:
God has created me to do Him some definite service
He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another
I have my mission
I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next
I am a link in a chain
a bond of connection between persons
He has not created me for naught
I shall do good – I shall do His work
What work might God be calling you to do this Advent?
Rebecca Lloyd
