Have you ever been “sent on a Mission?” – picked out and entrusted with something to say or do? It could be as simple as being asked to deliver a Christmas present – or as serious as being given the responsibility to help somebody in trouble.

Behind both these things — and others like them — is what you might call a “push,” an impulse to move, a jolt to go forward and act. When someone takes on this charge, she or he experiences a pulsing energy that aims at some concrete outcome.

Different people, particularly in the scriptures of Advent, have allowed themselves to be taken up into this “Sending.” They have jumped on board this energy welling up and have gone with it.

There’s Isaiah the prophet who testifies that, “the Spirit of the Lord has come upon me and sent me to bring good news to people who are poor and needy.” There’s this young woman, Mary, who feels a push to “Proclaim the greatness of The Lord.”  St. Paul encourages us not to stymy this impulse: “Don’t quench the Spirit.” And then of course, John the Baptist, whom we are told is moved to testify to the light and reality of this God who sends him.

This thrust toward action is the experience of so many who have followed the Lord Jesus, certainly our own St. Vincent and his imitators. Along with praise and petition, devotion also includes being swept up into the energy of the mission. Baked into the faith of each disciple is that push, that momentum toward doing that which keeps building the Kingdom Jesus wants for this world.

Besides enumerating some of those actions, it’s also worthwhile to get in more in touch with that inner “Kingdom drive;” for instance, paying attention to the forward-leaning energy that surfaces during prayer, or feeling not only the comfort of the Eucharist but also its summons to move.

Again, St. Paul’s prod: “Don’t quench the Spirit!” Don’t throw water on the fire God is always igniting within us. Go with that energy. Allow ourselves “to be Sent.” Open ourselves to the thrust of this mission to carry God’s presence into our world.