“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,who will prepare your way” Mk 1:1-8

2nd Sunday in Advent

“Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God. »

This first word, “beginning” refers us to the first word of the Bible in the book of Genesis. If it is a beginning, it is because there is a continuation, the Good News of Jesus, the one who was anointed and whom Mark affirms to be the Son of God. At his death, the pagan centurion also proclaimed: “This man was truly the Son of God. »

He creates and recreates us, He makes something new, and all things new. The Christian begins anew every day, always begins anew.

In the desert, John the Baptist proclaimed: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. “Jesus himself is the Way. This call to conversion is always present. The desert is not as silent as we imagine, but it allows us to hear things we would not otherwise hear, the Word of God deep within.

Today, we can experience other forms of desert: isolation, confinement, restricted relations with others, isolated people, unrecognized, left behind… and, for us in the Nursing Home, our suffering is shared with the other residents; loneliness, the absence of families, prevented from coming to surround them because of the pandemic, and the pain of so many deaths.

“And afterwards. We find ourselves in this text by a priest from Bordeaux, Pierre Alain Lejeune:

“Afterwards, it will be different from before, but to live this after, we must cross the present. We must consent to this other death that is at stake in us, this death that is much more trying than physical death. For there is no resurrection without passion, no life without going through death, no true peace without having overcome one’s own hatred, no joy without having gone through sadness. And to say this, to say this slow transformation of us that is taking place in the heart of the trial, this long gestation of ourselves, to say this, there are no words. (Extract from a text by Pierre Alain LEJEUNE, a priest in Bordeaux).

And today we benefit from the daily Eucharist which sustains, shapes and nourishes us… We recognize the presence of God in our lives, manifested at the heart of relationships wherever we are. We are inhabited by the presence of the Lord to be discovered in the small gestures of daily life and to be shared. Our common poverty will then become our wealth, it is our Hope.

“Immerse us entirely in your Spirit, you, the God of beginnings and newness, and give us generous and open hearts, adapted to the future you are preparing for us. Amen” (Extract: prayer of Normand Provencher in Prions en Eglise p.51).

“The Little Sister of the Assumption, like another John the Baptist, strives to proclaim salvation to the poor and the sick by pointing to the Lamb of God and saying: Prepare the way, behold, the Kingdom of God is coming. “(Directory p. 26)

Little sisters of the Assumption in the Nursing Home E.Pernet -Grenelle-Paris