Bulletin - December 14, 2025

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Father Julio

Reflection

I’d like to share with you an advent message given by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI on December 11, 2011.

“The external environment proposes the usual commercial messages, although perhaps to a lesser degree because of the economic crisis. Christians are asked to live Advent without allowing themselves be distracted by the bright lights but knowing how to give things their proper value and how to fix their inner gaze on Christ. Indeed if we persevere in “watching in prayer, our hearts filled with wonder and praise”, our eyes will be able to recognize in him the true light of the world that comes to dispel our gloom.

The liturgy of this Sunday, known as “Gaudete” Sunday, is a special invitation to us to joyfulness, to a vigilance that is not sad but happy. “Gaudete in Domino semper”, St Paul wrote:

“Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4). True joy is not a fruit of [having a good time] understood as shirking the commitments of life and one’s responsibilities. True joy is linked to something deeper. Of course, in the all too often frenetic pace of daily life it is important to find time for rest and relaxation, but true joy is linked to our relationship with God. Those who have encountered Christ in their own lives feel serenity and joy in their hearts that no one and no situation can take from them. St Augustine understood this very well; in his quest for truth, peace and joy, after seeking them in vain in many things he concluded with his famous words: “and our heart is restless until it rests in God” (cf. Confessions, I, 1, 1).

Let us entrust our journey to the Immaculate Virgin whose spirit is exulted in God our Savior. May she guide our hearts in joyful expectation of the coming of Jesus, an expectation full of prayer and good works."