"It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."
Yesterday when moving stuff off the table and onto a bookcase in order to create room for cookies to cool I made a discovery. There in a stack of paperbacks was a book I took from my parent's home after they died: Three Minutes A Day.
At dinner each night when I was young either Mom or Day would read us a story from this book. The stories were very short - literally three minutes to read aloud - and each story illustrated the motto of The Christophers: "it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness." I loved hearing those stories and if the one read at dinner had been particularly good, after the table was cleared I would snatch the book, go to my room to read more stories about how each person can make a difference in the world.
The belief that each person "is unique and has a responsibility to help transform society" motivated Fr. Jim Keller, a Maryknoll priest to begin the movement he named The Christophers in 1946. He chose the name Christophers from the Greek word for Christbearer: an individual who sought to apply the principles of The Gospel in the marketplace of everyday life.
Fr. Keller believed that each person living on earth has a job to do that can be done by no other. To this end, The Christophers began spreading the news of The Gospel as lived out in individual lives through newsletters, radio and television broadcasts as well as the book of little stories published yearly, Three Minutes A Day.
Thumbing through my copy of the book I was struck by words from it's introduction: "in these pages are 365 reminders that God loves you completely and eternally and that He has a particular mission for you. Some pages may make you smile, some will inform you, but all will encourage you to reflect on your role in the larger scheme of things: you are essential to God's plan of salvation."
The intention of an Advent journey toward Christmas is very simple: we take time to reflect, not only on the joy of the Christ Child's anticipated birth, but on the other reality: I, and you, are within our living of life, essential to God's plan of salvation; we also have been given life in order to bring Light to the world.
Today we light the rose colored candle signifying joy: the new life is growing larger; the time of birth is coming near. As the fire of flame shimmers before you, consider asking God for the courage to live as a single candle that casts light in the darkness of the world.
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