Second week of advent - Monday

We live in a culture that tells us that external things will make us happy. We are to acquire more, travel more, look for people to love us and yet after the initial novelty wears off we are tired, exhausted, enervated and think there must be something else we have missed that will make us happy because after the anticipation we are not as happy as it was promised we would be.

Those who have studied the effects of smartphones and social media tell us about a new disorder which is making us more depressed and anxious. This disorder's acronym is FOMO which stands for "fear of missing out." There is a fear that there could be something more, something else which will do the trick giving us the peace and joy we deeply desire.

The true spirit of Christmas, remembering the divine presence incarnated in the world, points us in directly the opposite direction as society. The Christmas spirit is to be found within not without. Christmas is a time of peace, reflection, and tuning into a transcendent frequency which hums within us all year around but which we are usually too distracted and stressed to notice. Christmas which comes at the height of the darkness of winter is a time of rest and reflection.

A blessed Christmas season requires time and leisure for rest and recharging our batteries. We can't give what we don't have, we can't share what we are lacking ourselves.

Advent is a time to rest, to reflect, to look within to the divine presence which indwells all year long and which we hardly take the time to notice. Advent is about noticing.