© Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence
Advent 2023
December 1, 2023
Dear Sisters and Associates,
Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical Church year, offers us the opportunity to once again look at our spiritual life and growth. For many of us it awakens us to a realization that the kingdom of God is upon us. Now. Right now. It is a time afforded us to reflect on how God comes to us, speaks to our heart, and challenges us to simply “be” in God’s love. Advent’s waiting trains us in essential patience. The virtues of hope, love, joy and peace in these four weeks remind us that we can share these gifts with a weary, hurting world. To do that we must be open to the invitations of grace God sends us. Pope Francis has emphasized often that we should not delay in seeking God, but should seize the present moment. The present, after all, is where we live and where God finds us.
Recently I was reminded of the movie, The Dead Poets Society, starring the late Robin Williams as Mr. Keating. He is an English teacher who tries to inspire a love for literature in boys of privilege. Mr. Keating challenges his students’ indifference toward poetry with this lesson: “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life!...of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless…of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, o me, o life? Answer: That you are here—that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.’ What will your verse be?”
As we travel through the four weeks of Advent, we might ask ourselves, as Mr. Keating asked his students, “What then will my verse be in this powerful play called life?” How will I be a verse of hope, of joyful anticipation, a beacon of light in the darkness? Will the verse of my life reflect love and peace? Will my words, smiles, heart and presence be the one verse that will affect another’s life?
In answering the question “what is our purpose in life,” Whitman says, “that life exists, that we exist, that we are here.”
As Providence women and men, I hope our verse will be a canticle of thanksgiving and praise, a litany of all the ways our Provident God has blessed us and continues to do so each day. I wish each of you a happy and holy Advent! I wish for the verse of your life to echo through the land and give glory for “God-with-us,” as we sing: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
In God’s loving Providence,
Sr. Barbara McMullen
Congregational Leader