Dear Brothers and Sisters: This letter reaches your hands at the beginning of Advent, and with it, The Christian Year. This season of Advent that the Church proposes to our meditation is a privileged time to reflect on what we are experiencing, to listen and understand what the Lord expects of us.

It is a pressing time to learn to discern the presence of God in the midst of our history, so hectic and stormy in every field. A story of bewilderment and bewilderment in the face of a crisis that demands a moral regeneration and a commitment to practice of the unique and great values ​​of ethics.: Honesty, good conscience, solidarity, truth and peace. Christ, calls us to remain faithful and bold in our workplace and bear witness.

Mark the Evangelist, We provide two keys for Advent in our lives: "Stay tuned and keep watch" (Mc 13, 33-37). In this sense, our attitude is to fight and be vigilant with boldness and poise, but without bitterness or sacralizations last.

Only with the poor soul of Isaiah (Is 40-25,31), with the conquering soul of John the Baptist from a deep understanding (Lc 3, 3-6) and with the simple soul of Mary (Lc 1, 38), we will be able to live an Advent and Christmas full of hope. And from these biblical texts we must be an Advent for the society in which we live. A critical Advent, but the urgency Advent proposing a profound conversion, that leads us to meet that Great Light, proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah (Is 9,1-6), with the certainty that God never abandons us. Mr, keep control of the story, he is never absent in crisis. With the certainty that in every day, there is a hopeful future for all men.

That year Christian, the urgency of Advent, and the joy of Christmas "today", be a reason to review all the illusions and firm hopes that should move our lives as baptized, in the difficult spaces and times that we have to live. That from the beautiful image of the shepherds of Bethlehem, We learn to let fears, Apathy, tensions and confrontations, so that overcoming the "cold" of this historic time, studded possibilities and threatened by serious difficulties, we can meet the Born and return to our world telling what we have seen and heard, with the profound conviction that the civilization of love began in Bethlehem and continues in the Galilee of our history (Lc 2, 8-20).

Mary, Living Christmas and Advent model, We always show at Emmanuel, blessed fruit of her womb.

Welcome ADVENT, that you approach us with your beautiful lamp lit.