Christmas lights, decorations, staff parties, Christmas carols, delicious food…. How easy it is for one to only tick the to-do list of external, artificial things in preparation for Christmas and forget what the time of Advent really is.

“Advent is a journey towards Bethlehem. May we let ourselves be drawn by the light of God made man” (tweet of Pope Francis on 21/12/13). Advent is not Christmas, thus to borrow from this tweet, Advent is not focusing on Bethlehem, it is journey towards there; it is a time of preparation on the inside after which the external part should follow. Advent is a tempo forte during which we should also take stock of our spiritual lives.

This year as a group responsible for the spiritual animation at the Seminary we took the initiative to prepare an Advent Calendar. We picked a Pope’s tweet for every day and we added a devoir to it which one should try to live and reflect upon during the particular day. As this year’s motto is “Being rooted in Christ”(cfr. Eph 3), we are suggesting that during this particular time of the year we should prepare ourselves to be rooted in Jesus Christ who is to be born for us and for our salvation. We can do this by focusing particularly on the Word’s Incarnation. As a Seminary community, during Advent we will be reflecting on the theme of humility and fragility; the need to recognize our vulnerability and, thus, our constant need for God.

We will be uploading the calendar day by day on our website/facebook page so that you too can join us on this journey towards Bethlehem. Together we could truly live Advent in a Christian way!

If you would like to join us in this journey, we suggest you join our daily newsletter to receive the task in time for your breakfast!