Raise your Heads
Pope Francis in his homily on this week’s Gospel Luke 21: 25-28, 34-36 refers to the phrase ‘Now when these things begin to take place (cosmic upheavals and anxiety and fear), straighten up and raise your heads,’
“Jesus’ invitation is this: Raise your head high and keep your heart light and awake,” the Holy Father said, addressing a world grappling with what he called “cosmic upheavals and anxiety and fear in humanity.”
The pope noted that many people today, like Jesus’ contemporaries, faced with “catastrophic events they saw happening around them — persecutions, conflicts, natural disasters — are gripped by anxiety and think that the end of the world is coming.”
“Their hearts are weighed down with fear,” Pope Francis observed. “Jesus, however, wants to free them from present anxieties and false convictions, showing them how to stay awake in their hearts, how to read events from the plan of God, who works salvation even within the most dramatic events of history.”
As we reflected in yesterday’s post ‘There will be Signs’ the turmoil and confusion we witness both in the world and in our own lives are signs that the joy of the Christ Child is coming.
Advent is calling us to slow down, quieten the agitation in our minds, and enter into a season of contemplation and hope. This is not indifference and escapism but a mindful and interior approach to our daily responsibilities. To see beyond the chaos and embrace the deeper reality of the Christ Child breaking into our lives.
By choosing contemplation, we cultivate a posture of trust and expectation, aligning our hearts with the promise of Emmanuel—God with us. This attitude does not separate us from our responsibilities but empowers us to approach them with a mindful perspective, allowing the light of Christ to guide our actions, our decisions, and our relationships.
We pay full attention to what we are doing, performing our tasks with quality and completion, ordering our day to give time to Prayer, Work, Family and Study. We raise our heads, not with pride, but with reverence as we look upwards to God.
We still have time to purchase my ebook on Advent, A Season of Hope, and start a journal to Christmas day at the following link A Season fo Hope Link
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