Advent is a time to pause for a while, to stop in our daily life and check what our true values are in our life, whether those values (if we can call them values) that finish after this earthly life, or those true values which last forever. This pause is important in our daily life.

We must reflect on what we are living for, because nothing is so serious in the face of eternity – the eternal life that comes for sure after this life. St George Preca used to say, “nothing is important which is not eternal.”

Eternity is not a joke.

Blessed Gjacinta, one of the three children to whom Our Lady appeared in Fatima, in 1917 said, while she was dying at the age of nine, “If people seriously realised what eternal life means, they’d surely change their lives.”

Jesus told us to do our best to pass through the narrow gate which leads to eternal life in heaven, which means that to live as true Catholics in all circumstances in life, we must struggle.

So let’s find a small space everyday and pray with the Bible, say a small prayer to the Holy Spirit, read a small passage and pray with it. “Meditate and pray for some minutes a day and I shall promise you heaven,” says St Theresa of the Baby Jesus.

Let’s stay close to the Holy Eucharist, so that we will have the power to live with others the world of life, by helping those in need in material things and spiritual things, so that we may feel the peace of heaven from here on earth.

■ Carmel Caruana

San Gwann