{"id":2455,"date":"2013-12-10T14:28:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T14:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/?p=2455"},"modified":"2014-01-02T18:43:05","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T18:43:05","slug":"advent-prayer-conversion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/?p=2455","title":{"rendered":"Advent, Prayer & Conversion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'St._John_the_Baptist',_painting_by_Jacopo_del_Casentino_and_assistant,_c._1330,_El_Paso_Museum_of_Art\"<\/a>Last weekend the readings at Mass urged us to stay awake, eyes alert to the coming of God. There was a challenge to see the Lord in those around us and to live our lives truly believing the Messiah has come among us.<\/p>\n

Being alert to the coming Christ is more than just keeping our physical eyes and ears open. It requires opening the eyes of our soul: a conversion.<\/p>\n

This week, John the Baptist underscores the point. \u201cRepent for the kingdom of God is close at hand,\u201d he warns. Repent means think again. The gospel writer comments,<\/p>\n

This was the man the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said: “A voice cries in the wilderness,\u00a0\u2018Prepare a way for the Lord\u2019”.<\/p>\n

Advent is a season of conversion; a time to make straight the pathway into our hearts for the Christ to come and claim his throne.<\/p>\n

An essential component to conversion is prayer. Prayer directs our thoughts and minds beyond ourselves to God. It re-focuses our lives.<\/p>\n

This Advent, in both parishes, there are extra opportunities to pray, not least before our Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament.<\/p>\n

Why not come early to Saturday evening Mass in Wisbech one week and join in prayer before Benediction?<\/p>\n

Why not make an effort to come to the Holy Hour in March each Monday between 6pm and 7pm and spend some time with the Lord?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend the readings at Mass urged us to stay awake, eyes alert to the coming of God. There was a challenge to see the Lord in those around us and to live our lives truly believing the Messiah has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001003,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previous-comment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2457,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions\/2457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}