St. Joseph's Catholic Church

Wake Up!

Advent begins today, and with it comes a quiet but urgent invitation from God: wake up. The Scriptures remind us that life is more than the routines, pressures, and distractions that so easily swallow our days. Advent is the season when the Church gently but firmly shakes us from spiritual sleep and asks us to lift our eyes toward the One who is coming.

In the Gospel, Jesus  tells His disciples not to be terrified by the signs of turmoil around them. Instead, He urges them to stand firm with hearts awake and spirits alert. His words are not meant to frighten us but to focus us. We live in a world that often feels unstable—morally, socially, spiritually—but Jesus invites us to read these signs not as reasons for despair but as reminders to cling to hope. He invites us to lift our heads, because our redemption is near.

Advent is not just about preparing for Christmas; it is about preparing for Christ Himself. It is about making room in our hearts, clearing away what weighs us down, and allowing His grace to awaken in us a deeper longing for God. Too often we settle into spiritual comfort, thinking there is always more time to pray, more time to forgive, more time to change. Advent says: Begin now. God is coming—into your family, your struggles, your fears, your hopes. Open your heart.

May this season awaken in us the desire to seek God more earnestly, love more generously, and live each day with the joyful expectation that Christ is coming—into our world and into our hearts. Amen.