Five years ago Pope Francis was in Turkey, a country that is predominantly Muslim even though it is deeply connected to Christianity over the last two thousand years. One of the historic gestures that the pope extended on his visit was to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the head of 300 million Orthodox Christians. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church have been separated for a thousand years and the split came about over the authority of the papacy. Against such a historical background, the pope asked the Patriarch for his blessing. There was a time when patriarchs had to kiss popes' feet. At the end of a joint prayer service, Francis bowed to Bartholomew and asked for his blessing "for me and the Church of Rome," a remarkable display of papal deference to an Orthodox patriarch that expressed the Holy Father’s hope to end the schism. The papal gesture was an attempt at reconciliation between two major Churches.
We are well into the season of Advent. I don’t know about you, but this season always makes me smile. If Advent is here, then Christmas cannot be far away. I somehow turn into a little boy once again. There is a sense of expectation in the air. We are hopeful because the Lord is coming. The Season of Lent is a time of penitence when we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Paschal Mystery. On the other hand, the Season of Advent is a time for hope and expectation when we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord.
As we begin the season of Advent, I would like to propose our Blessed Mother as a model and inspiration in our preparation for the coming of the Savior. In her canticle, Mary sang, “The Lord who is mighty has done great things for me; holy is his name.” May these words become food for our reflection and the basis for our action! Hopefully the attitudes evidenced by Mary in this song will be our own as we await the birth of Jesus.
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Born in India to deeply-committed Catholic parents, Fr Britto is one of seven children. He joined the Salesians of Don Bosco as a young man and was ordained a priest in 1981.
After he completed his priestly formation and his early education in India, he came to the US for his graduate degree in Journalism at...Read more...
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