November 30, 2025
Dear Friends,
During the last week of October, I went on my annual retreat at Saint Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana. Saint Meinrad, founded in 1854, is a community of about 60 monks who follow the sixth-century Rule of Saint Benedict. The monks there gather for prayer five times each day, beginning at 5:30 am and concluding at 7:00 pm. In between these times of common prayer, the monks work in a variety of activities, including taking care of sick monks, welcoming guests on retreat, teaching in their seminary, and running their casket making business. They also set aside time for personal prayer and study, as well as for recreation.
This was my fifth year in a row going to Saint Meinrad for retreat and I was very grateful for the opportunity to spend a few days in prayer and reflection before the start of Advent. As I had done in previous years, one of the things I wanted to do during my retreat was to join the monks for their prayer services. And so, the night I got to Saint Meinrad I went to sleep very early, so that I could get up at 4:45 am, in time for prayer at 5:30 am. It was so beautiful and moving to chant the praises of God with the monks, when it was still dark outside. By the time we finished that first service of the day at 6:30 am, the darkness of night had turned to the brightness of the new day.
At home, most days I get up at 5:30 am and usually get seven hours of sleep. The first night at Saint Meinrad I went to bed at 10:00 pm and got up at 4:45 am. Getting up 45 minutes earlier wasn’t too much trouble for me, especially since I had gotten about the same amount of sleep as I do at home. But, later that morning, I was suddenly overcome by sleepiness and simply could not keep my eyes open. It was just amazing how, all-of-a-sudden, I just “hit a wall” and could not stay awake. I went to my room and took an hour-long nap.
I share this with you because the Word of God on this First Sunday of Advent calls and challenges us both to “wake from sleep” and to “stay awake.” As I rediscovered on the first day of my retreat, waking from sleep and staying awake are two very different things. As we continue our pilgrim journey to God and await the return of Christ in glory, we live in a time of “already” but also of “not yet,” and so our response to this reality must be two-fold. As a result, as we enter this Advent season and begin our preparation for Christmas, each of us is being invited to recognize that we need both to “wake from sleep” and to “stay awake.”
As St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Romans, now is the time for us to wake from the sleep of whatever keeps us from recognizing and receiving the salvation of God that already dawned when Christ first entered the darkness of our world and of our lives. And so, we must wake up from the delusion that God is somehow absent from our world or our lives, or from any part of our lives. Like someone turning on the lights and getting dressed in the morning, we must “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” so that we can walk, act, and live in the light of the Lord, as we navigate the uncertainties and challenges of our lives and our relationships.
And, at the same time, as Jesus tells us in the Gospel, the day of the Lord that has already dawned has not yet fully arrived. We still await the fullness of the great day of salvation, so beautifully described by the Prophet Isaiah, when God will establish his reign of peace in our world and in our lives. And so, we must stay awake and attentive to the ways in which God continues to encourage and enliven us, as we carry out our daily work while continuing to experience the lingering shadows of night.
And there is no more important way for us to wake from sleep and to stay awake, so as to walk in the light of the Lord, than to gather as God’s people this Sunday and every Sunday, to welcome Christ, who comes to us in the gift of his Word and his Eucharist, so that, hearing Christ and receiving Christ, we may put on Christ and share Christ with everyone.
Peace,
Father Leo