Elijah is one of the prophets who had extremely strong "decisive moments" in his lifetime. Sirach's words might bring to mind the decisive moments in your lifetime. For some it is marriage, for others ordination or solemn profession. Then there are the days when a loved one dies, there is the loss of a job, an unwed daughter tells that she is pregnant, a son says the he knows he is gay. These are decisive moments in our lives. Any one of these events surely forces us to confront reality as never before. We cannot walk away without trying to decide how our lives are changed in one of those "decisive moments." The day my mother died was one of those moments: in just a few words "Mom just died" suddenly, along with my siblings, I was now an orphan. Mom and Dad were together again. We were without them. This brought all the Jordan siblings to confront the question: "What is God doing in our lives?"
During these days of Advent as we make ready for the re-celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, it is a time for us to look at what God is doing with us in our lives. Each time we have "moments" that are significant, we might be able to say that have experienced "a day of the Lord."So, with on thea day we begin the nine days (novena) prior to the birthday of Jesus Christ, we have a time to look more intensely at our own days, our own moments with the Lord. Do you know what He has been trying to get through to you in those moments? It pays well to quietly look at those moments ... even days, weeks, months or years later. If we learn how to discern those moments, and can act on those moments we guarantee peace and happiness.
