The Dawn From on High

Greetings fr om the Retre at Master Welcome to the 2020 St. Benedict’s Abbey Advent Retreat! And what a year it has been! Have you found yourself drifting away from God during this crazy year? Have you found your peace shattered?

Fr. Jacques Philippe reminds us in his book Searching for and Maintaining Peace that “…all the reasons that cause us to lose our sense of peace are bad reasons” (p.13). And if we are losing our sense of peace, then we are losing our hope.

From where does our hope come? This critical question challenges us to make sure that the foundations of our faith are secure and stable.

Advent is a time to do this all-important work of recognizing our foundation and living in hope.

Without realizing it, we started by embarking on a night journey. We entered into the ship of the Church and trusting our Savior, we set out for distant shores. But then a storm arose, and we became frightened. Compared to the light of faith that we had at our initial stages of the voyage, the storms of life in this year have shaken us. If we looked carefully, perhaps we saw Christ asleep on the boat. Instead many of us were distracted by our fears and by the current events clamoring for our attention. So we let Him sleep.

But the promise of Advent is that of the coming of the Savior who is present among us today. As we travel eastwards, “the dawn from on high shall 8 • The Dawn fr om On High