{"id":1438,"date":"2018-12-16T17:25:02","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T17:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lwctt.org\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2018-12-16T17:25:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T17:25:02","slug":"second-week-of-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/second-week-of-advent\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Week of Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">God of power and mercy<br \/>open our hearts in welcome.<br \/>Remove the things that hinder us<br \/>from receiving Christ with joy<br \/>so that we may share his wisdom<br \/>and become one with him when he comes in glory,<br \/>for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,<br \/>one God, forever and ever.<br \/>AMEN.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<strong>Pope at Angelus: Conversion is the Way to Wait for the Lord<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"article__subTitle\">The second Sunday of Advent teaches us that conversion is the way to wait for the Lord\u2019s coming, Pope Francis says in his Angelus reflection with the faithful gathered in St Peter\u2019s Square.<\/div>\n<div class=\"title__separator\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div class=\"article__text\">\n<p><b>By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Pope Francis drew inspiration for his Angelus reflection from St John the Baptizer as presented in the Gospel of Luke on the Second Sunday of Advent. The Baptizer, the Pope said, teaches us that conversion is the way to wait for the Lord\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Guide for Conversion<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"article__readmore\">\n<div class=\"teaser--labelEvidence teaser\">\n<article>\n<div class=\"teaser__labelWrapper\">Pope Francis called John the Baptizer \u201ca guide\u201d for our conversion journey. Luke\u2019s Gospel presents him going throughout the \u201cregion of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins\u201d (Luke 3:3). Luke understands that John was the fulfilment of Isaiah\u2019s prophecy of paths being made straight, valleys filled in and mountains being brought low.<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Valleys and Hills<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Francis explained that the Baptizer\u2019s call is essentially the awareness of \u201cthe need of conversion\u201d. It is the valley of coldness and indifference that we need to fill in by \u201copening ourselves to others\u201d like Jesus did, being attentive to our neighbour\u2019s needs. It is the mountain of \u201cpride and haughtiness\u201d that needs to be brought low. This is done, the Pope said, through \u201cconcrete gestures of reconciliation with our brothers and sisters, asking forgiveness for our faults\u201d. Conversion is only complete, he said, with the \u201chumble recognition of our errors, infidelities, and failures\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Awaiting the Messiah<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>John the Baptizer\u2019s invitation to conversion was strong, vigorous and severe, yet tempered by actions that communicated tenderness and pardon. Thus he reawakened the expectation for the Messiah in the multitudes of people who came to him for his baptism of repentance. The believer lives with Jesus at the centre of their lives, Pope Francis continued. With \u201cHis word of light, love and consolation\u201d we who are Jesus\u2019 disciples today \u201care called to be his humble and courageous witnesses to rekindle hope, to make it understood that, notwithstanding everything, the kingdom of God continues to be built day by day by the power of the Holy Spirit\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Vatican News)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; God of power and mercyopen our hearts in welcome.Remove the things that hinder usfrom receiving Christ with joyso<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feasts-saints"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwc-tt.com\/v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}