Another year draws to a close and a time to review the past year and look to the future. One of the things that the Lord has been speaking to me a lot about recently is the need to slow down and have more balance in my life. Very easily we can become Marthas rushing around doing good things for the Lord but not allowing Him to fill us. Thus we end up being exhausted ourselves and not actually having much to give others. This is a particular temptation in the run up to Christmas when there seems so much to do. The antidote that the Church offers us instead is to enter into Advent and wait for the coming of the Lord. This month we have some wonderful practical and inspiring ideas on how to celebrate Advent in your family, in your school and in the parish.

This over busyness and lack of recollection is a perennial problem in the Christian life. This is shown by a short extract from the 12th century writings of St Bernard of Clairvaux which we reprint in this issue, when the saint exhorts his followers to be “reservoirs not canals”. This importance of silence and prayer and listening to the Lord, comes out in several of our articles. Fr Pat Collins writes on the importance of contemplation and its relationship to evangelisation. Gina and Geoff Poulter from the Catholic Bible school, in the first of three articles about developing the gift of prophecy, also underline the necessity of spending time with the Lord in quiet, if you want to grow in this gift. Peggy Wood too gives testimony of how important silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is for her and how having this practice in her life has enabled her to cope with a stressful job and the pressures of London living. Fr Chris Thomas, on the Agape page, emphasises too that it is in our weakness that we experience the power of God working in us.

The highlight of the year for many of us was the papal visit in September, on which I reflect. One of the blessings was that with modern technology you could watch so much of it on the computer or the television, even if you weren’t able to be there yourself, as well as download the speeches to reflect on afterwards. Gabriele and myself felt very proud carrying the banner for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the procession of the movements and parishes at the Hyde Park vigil. We ran into so many people from the CCR too, there with their parishes or waving to us from their VIP seats. It was interesting that this importance of prayer and silence and trusting God should be part of the Pope’s message too, shown by his decision to beatify Newman, whose motto was “Heart speaks to Heart” stressing the importance of intimacy with Christ.

Prayer should always lead to action as the Pope stressed, and this was shown by the wonderful Catholic testimonies in Hyde Park, which included the Mizen family who spoke of their forgiveness of the killer of their son Jimmy, and their determination to be a force for change in the culture.

Likewise in this issue, we have a wonderful testimony from Bob McNab a retired Scottish businessman, who with a group of friends spent over a decade bringing aid to Russia. He has some amazing stories of how the Holy Spirit helped them in this. We might not be called to go to Russia but we are all called to do our part in building the Kingdom through our Baptism, and Pat Kennedy concludes her series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit by looking at the various areas of ministry we might be called to depending on our natural gifts and talents. Whatever we are called to do, God is always with us as Mary Ralph explains with her mini-testimony about a recent journey when the Lord sent special angels to help along the way. Bridget Mongan, a young Traveller, who couldn’t read, tells how the Lord, seeing how much she wanted to read the bible gave her an infused gift of reading.

We have our usual resource pages from Agape tapes and Goodnews Books. Charles Whitehead encourages us to open our lives up more to the working of the Holy Spirit and recommends the new Catholic discipleship DVD called “Walking in the Spirit”, which has been produced by the English NSC to be a follow up to the Life in the Spirit seminars. We also have our usual pages with news and events. Special congratulations should be given to the Sion Community for Evangelisation and Jesus Youth, who this year both celebrate their silver jubilee.

In this month of November we also ask for prayers for those who have died recently, especially Sr Elizabeth Tuttle, a member of the Maranatha community and a prayer partner of Goodnews, but also for others not so well known but equally mourned. Please pray too for Barry Green, one of our Trustees from Birmingham and Marie Beirne from Ireland who are both suffering from cancer. Marie says that she is finding the power of praise a great help at this time!

Also please think about taking out a gift subscription of Goodnews for a friend for Christmas. It is an excellent way for them to keep informed all year and they will remember you every time Goodnews falls on the mat.