Advent is a journey that is renewed each year. The Church invites us to prepare an inner place to welcome Jesus—not only as a liturgical event, but as a living presence that transforms the way we look, feel, and serve. It is time to return to the essentials, to awaken hope, and to allow God’s light to enter our concrete realities.
But it often happens that Jesus, Joseph, and Mary knock on the door of our heart, and we do not let them in. We don’t open the door to just anyone. We want to be comfortable, to rest, to remain at peace in our own world and in our own comfort. How do we react when someone asks us for shelter or wants to enter into our life?
Advent is an invitation to look beyond what worries us and to discover that God continues to act. Like Mary—who welcomed God’s plan even in the midst of uncertainty—we too can allow hope to grow. She teaches us to make space, to listen, and to respond with a generous “yes” in order to welcome the Holy Family into our home and into our heart.
And this “yes” does not remain only in words: it becomes concrete hospitality. Preparing the heart for Jesus also means preparing it for those He loves, especially those who are experiencing moments of fragility, loneliness, or suffering. Every act of charity, every gesture of listening, every humble service is a way of saying: “Lord, here is your home.” Being a refuge for others is a way of being Bethlehem today.
Welcoming Expands the Soul: A Telescope and a Map
Jesus is the pilgrim, the patient one, who walks toward my heart this Advent. He becomes incarnate in the faces of those most in need. And we can see His face in others if our soul becomes quiet and stops running. In that breathing space of the soul, the Child who knocks on our door reveals His will and insists on remaining in our heart—and we can receive Him.
A star lights our way, but we must use a telescope and a map in order to reach Jesus. That telescope is the exercise of freedom, which widens as we welcome others—“other Christs”—into our lives. The map is the meditation on the life of Jesus and the gifts He brought at His first coming.
This Advent, let us enjoy the gift that the Child of Bethlehem came to bring us—a gift that grows as we give it to others.
