Matthew 11:15.

“If anyone has ears to hear, let them listen!”  

One of my favourite quotes from St Augustine is; “God speaks to us in the great silence of the heart”. This is indeed a beautiful thought but the difficulty is that we now live in a very noisy world. But not only are we surrounded often by noise, many of us, are too busy. Therefore we do not have the time or the space to be still and to listen to the voice of God. For some people there is also a fear of silence.

The great Prophet Isaiah at the beginning of the first reading for today's Mass, suggests we allow ourselves the opportunity to  “Let God, hold you by the right hand”, and take you to a place of peace and quiet. There in the silence we will learn that our God, the Holy one of Israel, is our redeemer. 

Let Advent 2019 be the time when you give your self the luxury of space and time with God, so that you can hear him whisper into your ear and assure you that he is with you, for he is the Emmanuel, the God who is with us.

Finally St Augustine invites us to “Enter into yourself. Leave behind all noise and confusion. Hear the word (of God) in quietness that you may understand it.”

Do not allow yourself to be put off because in previous Advents you failed to achieve the goal of silence and peace with the Lord. These are the first days of a new Liturgical Year. Give yourself a fresh start, not being discouraged if in past years efforts seemed to have failed.