Last December 12, 2021, our founder Rev. Fr. Pachomius Ma. San Juan OSB blessed Heartspace Manila with a full day of recollection for Advent. His first talk addressed distraction, not just as a challenge for meditators, but as an obstacle to living one’s fullest life. The antidote he proposed to distraction was a disposition of recollectedness, not merely as an Advent exercise but as our daily attitude of living.

Christmas is, of course, our commemoration of the First Coming of the Lord. But in his second talk, Fr. Pachomius speaks of Advent as preparation for the Second Coming. We are to remember, repent, and rehearse, he says, to ready ourselves for Christ’s return. And yet, he says, while all earthly things must pass away, we are not to fear, because we believe in eternity and in the new things to come.

It was only fitting that the recollection conclude with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. In his homily, Fr. Pachomius gives a prescription for living in our challenging times, taken straight from John the Baptist in the day’s Gospel, Luke 3:10-18. It’s a message of conversion and reform, of giving and love, as well as the joy and hope of the mass’s first reading, Zephaniah 3:14-18.