Reflection for Advent!

We have to prepare from day to day so that we have a joyous feast but not only at Christmas time!

The first joy that our life-giving Heavenly Father would like to share with you is that of being ! It is good to be alive , to be !! This  is the joy  that should permeate everything that was given life by God !! The frolicking around with gay abandon of the little lambs in the spring grass or the plight of little swallow hatched in the nest like a summer lightening  in the twilight all of these represent overfilling joy .

Sit down outside in the lap of nature or in a quiet corner of your room and may you be filled with the happiness of being alive, feel how your heartbeats

how the life-giving blood is pumped through your blood vessels you can sense that at 36 degrees all the flames of life are blazing within you and penetrating all the little cells busily working away in your body keeping them alive. You feel this inner flame the precious gift for your living body from your loving Creator.

Open your eyes and be filled with the wonders of your surrounding and try to comprehend the multitude of miracles that our Lord hid in your eyes and brain. The scenery that appears sharply before your eyes could be in black and white , you can live like that as well , for a long time television was made like that too but God your Heavenly Father in His overabundant love presented you with a world of scintillating , sparkling , variegated colours!!! Admire the finely tuned nuances , the shapes taking form before you, feel the depth of the picture do not take anything for granted !!

Take an apple in your hand , like a child unwrapping a Christmas present , you should also bite into the healthy fruit with great attention ! Do not be too eager chew it slowly so that the succulent taste fills your mouth then through your throat fills your inside . Do not think about anything else concentrate only on the pure ,delicate taste that the fruit ripened by the sun wants to give you and slowly think about it that way all this is a nice bonus of your existence, the magnanimity of your God the multitude of different tastes , flavours, scents . When you have to fill up your car you do not ask it what flavour would it prefer strawberry or almond flavour . You ask no questions just place the hose into the fuel tank ,fill it up and get going !

Our world could be much simpler we could all eat just lettuce or cabbage God could have created our existence so that this would suffice but how much richer is your life ! If you are courting a girl and you go to visit her and in her home she waits for you with some nice cakes this will pluck up your courage , justly so and makes you happy but if they are awaiting your visit with  radiant faces and a six course meal you can be certain that you are very much loved in that place !! If you look around you, you can see that our Heavenly Father is not not waiting for you with a six course dinner but with the endless avalanche of tastes, flavours and scents because your Heavenly Father would like that you everyday existence becomes a feast, joy for you !!

Try to live to the fullest the joy of your existence given to you by God ! Get started , go forth and look in amazement how your ankles, knees are carrying you with engineering precision , your muscles according to your will, will lead your body to your selected destination. It is almost impossible to imagine that this living factory, that you are , in which milliards of cells are performing their own tasks and during every minute of your life are moving, making plans , living , dreaming ! Whilst your are swimming , happily laughing your body is embraced by the cool water of the lake , you can see your goal , you are progressing and your heart without ever stopping pumps the life -giving fresh blood into your muscles ! One of our boys had a heart problem since birth and needed surgery. The surgeon explained the details of the procedure how he would change the faulty valve in the heart and placed in my hands the wonderful precision engineered part and during the conversation told me this would cost close to five million forints ! I went down to the chapel and I was filled with endless joy and went down on my knees before the endless miracle of life ! I was filled with gratitude and joy that well I received a “good” heart from my Creator , all the valves are closing properly , all is working and I am alive, my heart has been beating for more than fifty years ! Who could count how many milliards of heartbeats and what quantity of oxygenated blood travelled through my body so I am able to build, pray and love ! A man consumes approximately one ton of food every year and all this transformed by his body for its own needs,thus you are the result of it and from you will come clean, beautiful thoughts , deeds and dreams !

We are preparing for a feast please stop, let the joy of your existence fill you, the pure gratitude as all your cells, all you are , your every moment are a gift! Humbly awaken that what wonderful doors looking into the distance did your Creator open up to you when you were called to life and gave you this tremendous opportunity your own independent life !!!

With love ,

Father Csaba

translated by dr k.e.