A Letter from Our Director
Dear Friends,
Waiting for something or someone is not easy. We wait for packages to arrive, for family to come home, for an event to occur. Often waiting causes anxiety and a great deal of impatience. But it doesn’t have to. It depends, as they say, on how you look at it. We spend Advent waiting and preparing for the feast of the Nativity. Young children know first hand that waiting for Christmas is HARD! I would like to suggest that, instead of waiting for Christmas, we anticipate Christmas. Anticipation, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “the expectation that something will happen or that someone will arrive.” The Cambridge Dictionary states that anticipation is “a feeling or excitement about something that is going to happen in the future.” These two definitions, in my opinion, describe the work of Advent. When anticipating something, we get the sense of what it will be like, how we will feel, and what it will bring to our lives.
A friend once told me that it is not so much the experience itself of an event as the anticipation of it that is enjoyable. A Dutch research project performed in the early twentieth century revealed that the pleasure derived from anticipating something is often greater than the pleasure derived from the event itself. I am not suggesting that Advent is more important in meaning than the birth of Our Savior, but rather an integral, necessary part of our Christmas celebration. But the purpose of Advent seems to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the preparation activities we engage in for four weeks before Christmas causing us to lose sight of joyful anticipation.
The chosen people waited for a Messiah for centuries. It didn’t seem to matter that there was no known date for this to occur; hope and faith kept them always in a state of anticipation and expectation. In the present age, we wait in expectation for the birth of Jesus at Christmas—in our homes and in our hearts. How wonderful it would be if we all anticipated Christmas with joyful expectation and hearts filled with hope that the Messiah does, indeed, come into our lives in new ways NOW! How comforting, too, to celebrate the anticipation of the return of Christ in glory at the end of time.
So much to anticipate! So much to celebrate during this beautiful season of Avent! Let’s all spend Advent enjoying the preparations and expectations of Christmas. I hope it brings much pleasure to you and your families so that you may celebrate the birth of Our Lord with the greatest joy ever!
The Sisters at the Center wish all of you a blessed Advent (filled with anticipation)
and a Happy Christmas!
Waiting for something or someone is not easy. We wait for packages to arrive, for family to come home, for an event to occur. Often waiting causes anxiety and a great deal of impatience. But it doesn’t have to. It depends, as they say, on how you look at it. We spend Advent waiting and preparing for the feast of the Nativity. Young children know first hand that waiting for Christmas is HARD! I would like to suggest that, instead of waiting for Christmas, we anticipate Christmas. Anticipation, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “the expectation that something will happen or that someone will arrive.” The Cambridge Dictionary states that anticipation is “a feeling or excitement about something that is going to happen in the future.” These two definitions, in my opinion, describe the work of Advent. When anticipating something, we get the sense of what it will be like, how we will feel, and what it will bring to our lives.
A friend once told me that it is not so much the experience itself of an event as the anticipation of it that is enjoyable. A Dutch research project performed in the early twentieth century revealed that the pleasure derived from anticipating something is often greater than the pleasure derived from the event itself. I am not suggesting that Advent is more important in meaning than the birth of Our Savior, but rather an integral, necessary part of our Christmas celebration. But the purpose of Advent seems to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the preparation activities we engage in for four weeks before Christmas causing us to lose sight of joyful anticipation.
The chosen people waited for a Messiah for centuries. It didn’t seem to matter that there was no known date for this to occur; hope and faith kept them always in a state of anticipation and expectation. In the present age, we wait in expectation for the birth of Jesus at Christmas—in our homes and in our hearts. How wonderful it would be if we all anticipated Christmas with joyful expectation and hearts filled with hope that the Messiah does, indeed, come into our lives in new ways NOW! How comforting, too, to celebrate the anticipation of the return of Christ in glory at the end of time.
So much to anticipate! So much to celebrate during this beautiful season of Avent! Let’s all spend Advent enjoying the preparations and expectations of Christmas. I hope it brings much pleasure to you and your families so that you may celebrate the birth of Our Lord with the greatest joy ever!
The Sisters at the Center wish all of you a blessed Advent (filled with anticipation)
and a Happy Christmas!
Spiritual Treasury Cards
If you were wondering how to obtain more of the Annual or Perpetual Enrollment cards for many various occasions...look no further! Simply click the link below, which may also be found with more information on how to order on the same page where you may leave Prayer Requests, right here on our website! The link will provide you with a peek at the many cards available at Camilla Hall, the Convent Home for our retired/infirm Sisters. All enrolled in the Spiritual Treasury as well as those who support the enrollment program are remembered in the daily prayers and works of the Sisters!
Check it out now: www.camillahall.org/spiritual-treasury
If you were wondering how to obtain more of the Annual or Perpetual Enrollment cards for many various occasions...look no further! Simply click the link below, which may also be found with more information on how to order on the same page where you may leave Prayer Requests, right here on our website! The link will provide you with a peek at the many cards available at Camilla Hall, the Convent Home for our retired/infirm Sisters. All enrolled in the Spiritual Treasury as well as those who support the enrollment program are remembered in the daily prayers and works of the Sisters!
Check it out now: www.camillahall.org/spiritual-treasury
WE OFFER OUR GRATITUDE!
We often have folks contact us by phone or email asking how they can be a help to us...as a way of showing their gratitude for just being a part of our Conference Center "Family!" First of all, we are always so very grateful for a remembrance in your prayers as that is the best support to us in our ministry. Each day at our Morning Prayer, which we pray in common, we specifically ask God's blessings on our "Benefactors"...those who have gifted us with their presence, their time, their prayers and their treasure. If you would like to become one of our monetary Benefactors, we will gratefully accept a donation in any amount toward our ministry. Checks should be made to IHM Conference Center and sent to Sister Marie Gipprich at the Center. We are most grateful for all that you do for us and continue to ask God's blessings on each one and your special intentions! Thank you!
We often have folks contact us by phone or email asking how they can be a help to us...as a way of showing their gratitude for just being a part of our Conference Center "Family!" First of all, we are always so very grateful for a remembrance in your prayers as that is the best support to us in our ministry. Each day at our Morning Prayer, which we pray in common, we specifically ask God's blessings on our "Benefactors"...those who have gifted us with their presence, their time, their prayers and their treasure. If you would like to become one of our monetary Benefactors, we will gratefully accept a donation in any amount toward our ministry. Checks should be made to IHM Conference Center and sent to Sister Marie Gipprich at the Center. We are most grateful for all that you do for us and continue to ask God's blessings on each one and your special intentions! Thank you!
Please be sure to look for us on Facebook: IHM Conference/Retreat Center in Bryn Mawr, PA...if you like and share our posts, you will be helping to spread the ministry of the Center to others! Thank you!
Also, be sure to check out our new Photo Gallery Pages by clicking here! We are posting, in slideshow format, all the photos we have taken at any event or program hosted here at the Center.
Hopefully, you have seen the news on our Home Page about the available Reflections we offered during the pandemic, via YouTube. Please see our new page, Zoom and YouTube Library, to access these. Simply click the link to view them!
Please remember that you are always in our prayers and we ask a remembrance in yours, as well. Don't forget that you are always welcome to call or email us with any special intentions you wish us to put in our Convent Book of Prayer Intentions! The email address is ihmconferencecenter@gmail.com and our office phone is 610-581-0120.
Hopefully, you have seen the news on our Home Page about the available Reflections we offered during the pandemic, via YouTube. Please see our new page, Zoom and YouTube Library, to access these. Simply click the link to view them!
Please remember that you are always in our prayers and we ask a remembrance in yours, as well. Don't forget that you are always welcome to call or email us with any special intentions you wish us to put in our Convent Book of Prayer Intentions! The email address is ihmconferencecenter@gmail.com and our office phone is 610-581-0120.