This year we had a very short Advent season, three weeks during which we were challenged by the prophets to prepare our hearts to welcome the One who wants to dwell among us.

The Incarnation overturns our relationships and especially God's relationship with us.

In Jesus, our God offers himself to us and by this fact, accepts to be refused, He proposes again and again, He invites, arouses our freedom, "if you want, I will come to dwell in you. "

In Jesus, God reveals himself as the One who sometimes keeps himself at distance so as not to impose. He effaces himself and disappears so as to respect our freedom, our initiative and our decisions.

To welcome him, we must first be present to ourselves and enter deeply within ourselves, there where He wants to come and dwell. Let us take the time to welcome him, to love him, to adore him with the angels and the shepherds.

The Word has shown the face of God, the Word became flesh. Great is the mystery of poverty! Great is the mystery of the Incarnation that reveals God ‘s love for humanity. Spirituality book p.14. We are also called to become image and word of God.

Rooted in the mystery of the Incarnation, let us look at our world and its inhabitants as Jesus did, not judging but raising up; daring to show compassion; daring to say a word that opens the future, that revives and that sends out on mission. Chapter Acts 2006 p 6

May Christmas fill us with joy and make our hearts attentive to all those whom God sends our way. Constitutions n° 7

Sister Martine MEUWISSEN