It is not hard to deepen our personal friendship with Christ. He really wants it to happen, and so for every small step we take closer to him, he takes a thousand steps closer to us. Like every friendship, the one thing that best feeds our personal relationship with Christ is spending time together. Spending time with Christ is called prayer. A Christian who does not pray can hardly call himself a Christian. All of us here today are Christians who pray – and our Lord is full of joy at the mere sight of us gathered together to listen to his words and offer him our worship. And yet, we live in a society that is no longer Christian. It is secular. There are many Christians in this society, but the culture itself has put God in the closet. When was the last time you saw a TV show or movie that showed people praying? It’s a rare occurrence. That’s the culture we live in, and it affects us, whether we realize it or not. Our prayer lives are not as healthy as they could be, and as a result, we don’t know Christ as well as we could, and so we don’t experience as much as he wants us to the meaning and deep joy that comes from living close to him. This Advent, let’s change that. Maybe we can’t change all the TV shows and the movies, but we can change ourselves and our schedules. At least for the couple of weeks still remaining in Advent, let’s spend some quality time with Christ every day, even if it’s only ten minutes.

Please pray for our sick that they may receive God’s healing strength: Marisa Della Pia, Dom Dinella, Sarah Wallace, Marie Devlin, James Curci, Susan and Frank Addis, Brian Ligato, Danielle Peters, Marie Quigley, Geraldine DiDonato, Gerri Liberato-Abbott, Louie DiBruno, Michael Cornaglia, Sr., Angel Scorza, Linda Sammaritano, Sister Peg, Stephanie Sinex, Shawn Keefe, Fr. Casey, Rose Campolongo, Landon Reid, Annette Slattery, Anna Musolino, Joann Auld, Sister Francine OSF, Constance DeMayo, Robert Federico, Tom Rucci, Dominick Condo, Leon Defulgentis, Anthony DiDonato, Robert & Assunta Nataloni, Bill DiMascio, Lucia Maria Cudemo, Chris Penrose, Joann Fontana, Gregory Lucia, Jackie DiStefano, Jessica Lauria, Richard Graham, Karen Specht, Ed Specht, Annamarie Curci, Rose Candelora, Carol Mastropieri, Diane DeMatto, Rosina Miriello,
Loretta Stagliano, Joanna Coletti, Kenny Reynolds