Advent – As Christians, we know it as the coming or second coming of Christ – our belief and Hope.

Gratitude is defined as ‘the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness’.

What do I see as relational between these two? I see the HOPE expressed by our waiting and APPRECIATION for our Lord.

During Advent, we prepare for Christmas and the numerous end-of-year stresses at work, in our communities, family etc. Through it all, we make the necessary sacrifices to foster our awareness for connecting with others, our community and the hardships faced daily by the less fortunate. We are truly grateful for what we have.

We are reminded that in the season leading up to the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Joseph and Mary were in essence poor refugees, cut off from their livelihood and homeland, forced to flee the inhumane treatment of government to become “displaced people” in order to give their unborn child, our Savior, a chance to survive – our Hope.

What Advent truly reminds and teaches us is that in the coming of our Lord, we have HOPE. We, therefore, attempt to reach out to our fellow humans extending our love, expressing what we know as gratitude because we have experienced it in so many ways and hoping that they, too, will have and enjoy similar experiences.

Agatha Pratt