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Second Sunday of Advent
    Patience is a virtue and most of us don't have it.
    Yearly we celebrate Advent both in expectation of Christmas (the Lord's first coming in the flesh) and in expectation of his Second Coming. Of course for many the Lord has come during the past year as they have left us here and hopefully joined him in Heaven. But for those who remain, there can be the sullen feeling that the Lord is delayed in His return.
    Today Peter addresses this apparent tarrying of the Lord in his return, "The Lord is not being slow to carry out his promises, as anybody else might be called slow; but he is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways."
    The Lord is virtuous, He has patience in abundance. While we might think we are the ones in need of patience, it is really He who is exercising patience with us. Giving us the much needed time to repent, to realize that His way is the only way.
    I am reminded of a book that I read in the 1980's entitled "Way of Divine Love" by Sr. Josefa Menedez. Sister Josefa was a Spanish Nun who lived in the early 1900's, a contemporary of St. Faustina. She too had visions of Our Lord appearing to her and like Faustina, she too was told by Our Lord that His mercy was not being made known to people.
    One of the messages focused on Sister Josefa suffering and praying for a particular soul who Our Lord wanted her to pray for, because that person was in danger of being lost. I recall from the book that the person suddenly died in a car accident because Our Lord told Josefa that it was the right time for the person to enter into salvation. If they had been left to remain they might have fallen again and never turned to Our Lord. This view  -- that all of Heaven is concerned with the salvation of each individual is hardly the one that most of us carry around with us.
    We are told in the Gospel that John the Baptist is sent to prepare the way for Israel's meeting with Our Lord. Perhaps you and I are being prepared right now by the John the Baptists' in our midst. Perhaps we are preparing the way for someone else. We should ask for the prayers of others and we should pray for others. We should be praise the patience of Our Lord in delaying His coming for our own benefit.

Monday of the Second Week of Advent
    Mary's "How can this be?" is the primordial human question when confronted by God's grace. We can always think of a thousand reasons why we are undeserving of meriting any special favor from God. It only grows worst with age, after receiving numerous benefits from God we continue to squander God's grace and are even more convinced that we are undeserving of any further blessings.
    But God is not like us. In the Gospel of the Monday of the Second week of Advent, Jesus forgives the sins of the man whose friends brought him to be healed. The Pharisees complain that only God can forgive, but Jesus who of course is Divine says "so you will know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive," an interesting way of taking something that is "divine" and mandating that it become a "human" activity.
    In the same way that God's grace is so freely given, we too should give freely. Forgive, stop making requirements the basis for our love, not to bury the graces that we have been given while the Master tarries in His return.
    Indeed, we will know that we have arrived when others mouth the words of Mary, "How can this be?" Then we will know that we are acting in God's graces.

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
    Sometimes we get it all wrong.
    Perhaps it comes from our childhood and being threatened with retribution from God when our parents realize that they can't see us and be with us all the time, but most of us carry within us an image of God as the supreme being out to get us.
    In today's gospel, Jesus tells us otherwise. "It is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost."
    Not one. Not you. Not the horrible