Fourth Sunday of Advent 2012: Reflection

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FOURTH SUNDAY of ADVENT

Cycle C
(Mic 5: 1-4;  Heb 10: 5-10; Lk 1: 39-45)

In light of today’s Gospel from Luke spend some time praying with the following texts from Saint Francis’ Earlier Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance and the powerful words of Doug Hitt’s poem.

 Earlier Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance
 

“We are spouses
when the faithful soul
is joined by the Holy Spirit
to our Lord Jesus Christ. 

We are brothers to Him

when we do the will
of the Father who is in heaven.

We are mothers

when we carry Him
in our heart and body
through a divine love
and a pure
and sincere conscience
and give birth to Him
through a holy activity
which must shine
as an example
before others.”

 – Saint Francis of Assisi

 

ACHING GOD

Aching

this God whose incarnation
is never done
the Spirit
blowing cold
over ice
finding no yielding flesh
to put on
and share

lonely God

groaning
as creation and destruction
run strides apart
and sons and daughters plod
rather than dance
as life bearers

wrap yourself in

us
Spirit
perpetual Christ
release your ache
in us

– Doug Hitt
(© copyright All Rights Reserved Hitt, Doug)


(Originally printed in According to Your Word - Reflections for the Advent & Christmas Seasons; See http://franciscanfriarstor.blogspot.com/2011/11/according-to-your-word-reflections-for.html)

Third Sunday of Advent 2012: Reflection

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THIRD SUNDAY of ADVENT

Cycle C

(Zeph 3: 14-18;  Phil 4: 4-7;  Lk 3: 10-18)

 

Francis of Assisi knew and understood the perfect joy that today’s scriptures invite us to experience.  To his beloved brother Leo, Francis related that perfect joy is not an emotion that is roused as a result of outside circumstances.  Even if all the great theologians joined the Franciscan Order, or all non-Christians converted to Christianity, or by God’s grace we were able to cure all diseases, this would not be perfect joy, Francis says.  Certainly, such happy events would be cause for rejoicing and great delight.  Everyone experiences joy in times of grace, blessedness and success. To Brother Leo’s incredulous question, “Then what is true joy?” Francis reveals to Leo what the scriptures reveal to us.  The true manifestation of perfect joy is found when, in the midst of misunderstanding, rejection and failure, a person is able to maintain patience, equanimity and peace in their spirit.

 

How can this be? Ah! that is the crux of the issue and the question that resounds throughout this holy season.  The answer rests upon knowing and experiencing the nearness of God.  “The Lord, your God, is in your midst”, the prophet Zephaniah shouts out, not once, but twice, in today’s pericope.  God’s promise to us is not to remove all further misfortune, discouragement or failure.  Rather, God promises to remove our fear.  When crippling fear is cast out, we know the shelter found in God’s love.  In that Love all things are possible and with that Love our joy is perfected and complete.

 

 

– Bro. David Liedl, T.O.R.

 

 

 

(Originally printed in According to Your Word - Reflections for the Advent & Christmas Seasons; See http://franciscanfriarstor.blogspot.com/2011/11/according-to-your-word-reflections-for.html)

Second Sunday of Advent 2012: Reflection

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SECOND SUNDAY of ADVENT

Cycle C

(Bar 5: 1-9;  Phil 1: 4-6, 8-11; Lk 3: 1 –6)

When you think about it, there is very little real history recorded in the gospels.  The scriptures are meant primarily to be inspirational rather than historical in content.  In this brief gospel passage we are given an historical framework for the mission of John the Baptizer, the one who is pointing to and prepares the way for the Messiah, Jesus.  Even before John, the prophets like Baruch were preparing the chosen people for the coming of the long expected one.

Paul refers to it as “the day of Christ” (Phil.1:6).  Even after the historical coming of Jesus Christ, we still are in an anticipation mode in our world.  Everyday in this season, we prepare ourselves for his coming, no longer in an earthly, historical way, but in a mystical/spiritual way into our lives.  Yet, it remains a two-way street.  Jesus is always there ready to come into our lives, but we have to do our part.  We have to invite him into our lives, our hearts.

How will you do this in the next few weeks?  How will you open wide the door of yourself to let him come in?  How will you make room for him in your daily business?  Remember, he is at your door wanting to come in.  Are you hearing his gentle knock?  He wants to be invited in.


+ Fr. Emile Gentile, T.O.R. (1936-2011)


Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord: and let perpetual light shine upon him.  May his soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.


(Originally printed in According to Your Word - Reflections for the Advent & Christmas Seasons;

See http://franciscanfriarstor.blogspot.com/2011/11/according-to-your-word-reflections-for.html)

First Sunday of Advent 2012: Reflection

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FIRST SUNDAY of ADVENT
Cycle C
(Jer 33: 14-16; I Th 3: 12– 4:2; Lk 21: 25-28, 34-36)

Advent expresses in symbol and ritual three phases in our Christian journey of faith: Christ has come, Christ will come again, and Christ is present now! We reflect upon the first; we look to the second; we live the third daily. All three shape who we are as individuals. With these scripture texts, Advent begins with warnings about taking stock of our lives so that we may be “blameless in holiness.” Those who are faithful will be able to face any danger and welcome Christ’s coming. There are three poems that come to mind as I reflect upon these scripture readings (see Monday, Week 1, Friday, Week 2, and January 1.) For me, these poems imagine the different ways we cope or respond to that moment.

In this winter season, the earth seems to be dying. Advent begins at this time and the poems and readings provide a way for us to reflect communally on the Word of God that speaks to us of the end times. In what ways have I prepared for the end of my world when I am called? What are some of the ways I can prepare to meet the Lord at crib or cross with a good conscience? With the disasters our nation has experienced since to change our ways of looking at reality. As TOR Franciscans, Advent is our season with its call for conversion, a fresh turning to God. Let us not be intoxicated by society’s commercial attractions. Rather, read and reflect upon these poems with your heart's eye so you can see Christ however He comes---whether through friend or stranger each day. How have you prepared for the Lord’s coming?


– Bro. Didacus Wilson, T.O.R.

(Originally printed in According to Your Word - Reflections for the Advent & Christmas Seasons;

See http://franciscanfriarstor.blogspot.com/2011/11/according-to-your-word-reflections-for.html)

According to Your Word - December 24th of the Advent Season

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(II Sam 7:1-5, 8-11, 16; Lk 1:67-79)

“The Dayspring shall visit us
in his mercy
To shine on those
who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet
into the way of peace.”
(Luke 1:78, 79)

As we stand on the threshold of Christmas, create a space of quiet in the midst of today’s many activities.


“There is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before. . . .

Stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder.

There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing.

For now, stay. Wait.

Something is on the horizon.”

– Jan Richardson, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas (Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press, 1998), xiii.

According to Your Word - December 23rd of the Advent Season

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(Mal 3:1-4, 23-24; Lk 1:57-66)

Advent is the Church’s “privileged time” to focus on Jesus, Emmanuel– “God-With-Us.” It is God's story of coming to us in the concrete reality of Jesus Christ. It’s the story of God bending down in love to embrace our fragile humanity and to bring us into unity with the divine love. Advent is about God’s Word become flesh and our reception of it— God’s intervention, a most noble work, in the lives of His people.

When the young and impressionable Francis of Assisi first heard the word of the Crucified say to him: “Rebuild my house, as you see it is fallen into ruin,” he immediately took mortar and stone and went about the task of rebuilding. As his relationship with the Lord grew and deepened over time, contemplation on that word revealed to him to rebuild his heart that had fallen into ruin.

St. Bonaventure tells us that God has come to us in a loving and personal way, making Himself visible and audible, so that seeing and hearing, humanity could once again be united to God and contemplate Him. (Bonaventure, “Vigilia nativitatis Dominus,” IX, 1O3a). By God’s grace and mercy, He has given us a capacity for a single-hearted relationship with Him, but it has been covered over with other things. Our Scripture readings for today remind us that this is the “privileged time” to clear away the clutter in our hearts and make room for the Word to be born within— a truly noble work— to be a dwelling for the Lord. For the One who has created the universe has called us to be intimately in relationship.

God bending over, embracing us, bringing us into unity—divine intervention, obscured in Advent darkness within us and around us. Let it come to light now in re-kindling and rebuilding our relationship with the Lord and with others. Forgiveness given, forgiveness received— a most noble work for the rebuilding of all things especially the human heart. Then “the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter His Temple.” (Mal 3:1).


– Fr. Christopher Panagoplos, T.O.R.

According to Your Word - December 22nd of the Advent Season

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(I Sam 1:24-28; Lk 1:46-56)

The central figure of the first reading is Hannah, the mother of Samuel. She was married to Elkanah, who loved her more than his other wife, Peninnah. Hannah was childless but Peninnah had several children. When Elkanah could not notice, Peninnah would humiliate Hannah because she was barren.

Once a year Elkanah and his family would climb the hillside of Shiloh to offer sacrifices at their favorite shrine. During one of their visits, Hannah hid near a deserted altar, tears streaming down her face, her voice uttering incoherent prayers. Eli, the high priest, old and half blind, found the grieving woman and accused her, “Woman, you have taken too much wine.” “No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit.” Eli apologized and joined her in praying for a son. Hope filled the heart of Hannah as she left the shrine.

Hannah gave birth to a baby boy and named him, Samuel, which means “Name of God.” When it was time to go to Shiloh again, Hannah declined to go because it was more fitting to consecrate him to the Lord after she stopped nursing him.

Our reading today describes the moment that Hannah returned to Shiloh to fulfill her vow. She left Samuel with Eli in order to be trained for service to the Lord.

It is a well-chosen reading. With Christmas only three days away, the Church gives us the example of Hannah. She believed that Samuel, “Name of the Lord,” was born because of God’s intervention. The story prepares our hearts to believe that Jesus, “The Lord Who Saves” is the result of God's special intervention: “God so loved the world that He sent his Only Son so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life” (John 3:16). God gave Hannah a son. God has given us His very Son. Let us rejoice and be glad! Let us welcome him into our hearts!


– Fr. Bonaventure Midili, T.O.R.

According to Your Word - December 21st of the Advent Season

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(Song 2: 8-14; Lk 1:39-45)

“O Radiant Dawn,
Splendor of eternal light,
Sun of justice:
Come shine on those
who dwell in darkness
and the shadow of death.”

– “O” Antiphon for December 21 –

It is the month of August [2003] as I write this. The New York Times this morning reported that 95 people were killed by a car bombing in Iraq. As I look out over Lake Howell at San Pedro Center [Winter Park, FL] and see the sun dancing behind clouds, I think of this valley of darkness and the shadow of death.

George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, reported a vision wherein he saw a vast sea of darkness covering the earth. This frightened him, until he saw that over the sea of darkness flowed an even greater sea of light. At Bethlehem, over 2,000 years ago, a shaft of that light burst through that sea of darkness, “and the darkness did not overcome it.” Oh, how hard it is, in a world of such evil to realize that evil has already been conquered! That is the truth about Advent. We do not wait for promises to be fulfilled; we celebrate their fulfillment. The Father’s Kingdom will come and, in fact, it has already.

We pray that the “Peace on Earth” that we sing about every Christmas will become reality. All it will take is for each person to wake up and smell the poinsettias. How can you bring the peace of Christ into your life and the lives of each person you meet?

According to Your Word - December 20th of the Advent Season

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(Is 7:10-14; Lk 1:26-38)


Have you ever wondered what significance the phrase “God-with-us” has for your daily life? What might an awareness of this significance look like in terms of one’s attitudes, thoughts, words, and deeds?

In today’s readings we get an illustration both of one who lived with such an awareness and another who did not. Mary’s response to God’s messenger is a clear example of someone who was animated by the knowledge of God's closeness. Through her “fiat” Mary gave witness to an on-going process at work in her life of assenting to the unfathomable and mysterious plan of a God who can do all that he wills.

In contrast to the example of Mary, we have in the reading from Isaiah that of Ahaz. At first glance, the response of Ahaz saying that he will not tempt God seems pious enough. However, this was but a gloss of the fact that he, unlike Mary, did not trust in the word of God as spoken through the messenger sent to him. Ahaz was facing some very tough political and military circumstances and could not believe in the ways of a God who had it in mind to resolve these issues through the birth of a helpless child. In refusing to accept the sign and plan offered by God, Ahaz was revealing the fact that he had long since chosen not to live in an abiding awareness of “God-with-us.”

As we continue our Advent journey, let us follow the example of Mary by seeking to immerse ourselves in the fact that God, as Holy Mystery, is indeed with us and seeks to change the difficult circumstances of our lives and world through the birth of Jesus in our hearts.

According to Your Word - December 19th of the Advent Season

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(Judg 13:2-7, 24-25; Lk 1:5-25)


“It has been said that two things frustrate us in life— when we don’t get what we want and when we get what we want. In either case, our expectation (generally inflated beyond imagining) exceeds reality. Hence, we are frustrated. Obviously, when we don’t get what we think we need or would like to have, we are frustrated and sense incompleteness and unfairness at the way we are treated.

But, the other (more serious) cause of frustration comes when we get what we want and then find out there are strings attached or challenges implied in our accepting it. Such is the plight of Zechariah and Elizabeth in today’s gospel. They had prayed for a child and had been careful in observing religious customs to be found worthy before God. But, just when what they had asked for was promised through the angel’s message, Zechariah doubted whether this could be true. He was about to get what he wanted and yet he could not accept this on God’s terms. Hence, he was struck dumb and could not announce or explain the coming birth to others.

It is when we submit to God and surrender to his plans for us, whether they are or are not what we expect or want, that we are able to achieve contentment and happiness. Real happiness comes from God’s ways, not our designs. Deep contentment should come from knowing that we are part of God’s people and that his plan involves our salvation. Nothing we could want on earth could ever substitute for the one thing that really matters— the life of God within and among us as we yearn for complete union with God in eternity.”


– Kevin W. Irwin, Advent/ Christmas: A Guide to the Eucharist and Hours (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1986), 147, 148.

According to Your Word - Fourth Sunday of Advent

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Cycle B
(II Sam 7:1-5, 8-11, 16; Rm 16:25-27; Lk 1:26-38)

Words can be weapons and medicine. Words can be beautiful and ugly. Words can hurt and kill. They can heal and encourage. It depends on how we use them. It depends on us and our free choices.

Today’s readings mention the beautiful words spoken to Our Lady that she would be the Mother of God. The words of invitation troubled her at first. Being a solid and assured woman she questioned their meaning. When she understood the angel, she willingly accepted to become pregnant with the Savior of the world.

“And the Word was made flesh.” Jesus took his whole body from Mary. There was nothing of St. Joseph in Jesus’ making.

This tremendous mystery of God becoming human was accomplished through words: words of invitation and words of acceptance; the words of the Archangel Gabriel and the words of the Virgin Mary.

We hear the healing words of the Church which invite us to prepare for Christmas— a healing invitation to confess our sins and receive God’s pardon.

Our joyful acceptance opens us up to Christ and his becoming human.

Jesus will use words to teach, to heal, to console, to work miracles. He will say, “Come and see” to those who want to follow Him more closely.

I came and saw the Franciscans 46 years ago and am still listening to, laughing with and learning from the friars. They have brought Christ to me.


– Fr. Raphael Eagle, T.O.R.

According to Your Word - December 17th of Advent Season

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(Gen 49:2, 8-10; Mt 1:1-17)

Today the Church goes into “Advent overdrive” with Scriptures and prayers that attempt to sharply focus our attention in the last eight days before Christmas. The best example of these is found in the “O Antiphons” which are prayed, beginning today, in the Church’s Evening Prayer: “O Wisdom, Holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care: come and show your people the way to salvation!”

With ordinary life examples the Scriptures invite us to reflect on the extent of the wisdom which fashioned, and continues to fashion, this way of salvation.

Chapter 49 of Genesis recounts Jacob’s last will and testament. In its entirety it paints a very human and poignant picture. The dying Jacob desires to bless all his sons yet understands, in a moment of personal insight, the impossibility of this fatherly desire. Why? Because personal choice has made some of his sons allies of darkness instead of light. For them admonitions and instructions are the only words Jacob can offer. However, in today’s selection, blessings are given to Judah, one of Jesus’ ancestors. And these blessings are messianic in character: long lasting power and authority. From a simple tale of the ordinary life experience of dying, the author intimates that God’s promises endure despite the vagaries of human choices. God not only shows the way of salvation, God makes it happen.

Chapter 1 of Matthew’s Gospel is a challenge for most readers and listeners alike. On the surface, genealogies do not seem to capture the imagination. What is interesting is the inclusion of five women in this list. They lead us in a direction which can help give some contemporary significance to this little preached text. It is not difficult to understand the inclusion of Mary, mother of Jesus. The author’s intent is to emphasize that Jesus is born of her and not Joseph her husband.

The mention of three others—Tamar (Gen.38), Rahab (Josh. 2), and Bathsheba the wife of Uriah (2 Sam 11:1-27) – invites us to read their stories and to understand that God can and does work even with the shadows (theirs and ours) to form a hopeful future. Come Lord Jesus!


– Fr. Giles Schinelli, T.O.R.

According to Your Word - Friday of the Third Week of Advent

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(Is 56:1-3, 6-8; Jn 5:33-36)


“Observe what is right,
do what is just;
for my salvation
is about to come,
my justice
about to be revealed.”
(Is 56: 1)

The restoration of God’s justice is a key theme throughout all of Advent.

What can you choose to do today that will begin to restore a broken relationship? Act on it.

According to Your Word - Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

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(Is 54:1-10; Lk 7:24-30)

THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL TIME

This is a beautiful time, this last age, the age of
the Holy Spirit.
This is the long-awaited day of His reign in our
souls through grace.
He is crying to every soul that is walled:
Open to Me, My spouse, My sister.
And once inside, He is calling again:
Come to Me here in this secret place.
Oh hear Him tonight crying all over the world
a last desperate summons of love to a dying race.

Acres we are to be gathered for God: He would pour out His measureless morning
upon divinized lands, bought by blood, to their
Purchaser given.
Oh, hear Him within you speaking this infinite love, moving like some divine and audible leaven,
lifting the sky of the soul with expansions of light, shaping new heights and new depths,
and, at your stir of ascent,
spreading the mountains with flame, filling the
hollows with heaven.


– Jessica Powers, Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers, ed. Regina Siegfried ASC and Robert Morneau (Kansas City, Missouri: Sheed and Ward, 1989), 27.

According to Your Word - Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent

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(Is 45:6-8, 18, 21-25; Lk 7:18-23)

Isaiah announces to us in this reading that there is only one true God, the Lord God of Israel, who is the “vindication and the glory of all the descendants of Israel.” These descendants include us; God is our only vindication whose glory radiates down, soaks into every fiber of our being and makes us holy. God's decrees are just and beneficial for his children, and his word, once uttered, cannot be changed. Yet, there is nothing to be feared from his word since it is just and not arbitrary.

The Lord calls us to justice: “Let justice descend...like dew from above,” let justice spring up from the earth and from the hearts of my people Israel. Pope Paul VI had once said, “If you want peace, work for justice.” He meant social justice. We cry out for peace, the world cries out for peace; but there is no peace because many individual lives, and the policies of not a few nations, are based on injustice, above all against the weak and poor.

Unless our lives, and the socio-economic programs of nations, are predicated on justice, there will be no peace. Charity begins at home; however, it cannot end there, but must flow out beyond the perimeters of our own self-interests.

John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod because he had denounced Herod for his on-going adultery. John languished in jail, and while he was there his disciples had told him about the miracles that Jesus was performing among the people.

When we are educated, have money, status, good health and freedom of movement, we feel that the world is our oyster. But, take away these sources of well-being and we begin to withdraw into ourselves and the scourge of mental illness makes its presence felt by stages. We start losing our equilibrium; what we had believed was normal, true and ours by right are now desperately questioned.

It seems that John, while he suffered imprisonment, began to wonder if Jesus was the Holy One of God. So, he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus said, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the poor have the Good News proclaimed to them and blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” All of these were the signs, that were written by the prophet Isaiah (35: 4-6) of the coming of the long-awaited Messiah into his kingdom. John was sure to understand Jesus' words, and by understanding them, would be consoled and at peace.


– Fr. Cyprian Mercieca, T.O.R.

According to Your Word - Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent

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(Zeph 3:1-2, 9-13; Mt 21:28-32)

“I will change and purify
the lips of the peoples,
that they all may call upon
the name of the Lord.”
(Zeph 3:9)

“Today, the scriptures invite us to ponder how truly converted we are to the Lord’s ways and how much we truly need this season for deeper conversion to the Lord. The gospel plays on words today; this can be amusing and offer a twist on religious truth. But Advent is no word game; it is about resolute conversion to the Lord.”


– Kevin W. Irwin, Advent/ Christmas: A Guide to the Eucharist and Hours (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1986), 107.

“Within themselves
let them always make
a dwelling place and home
for the Lord God Almighty,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
so that, with undivided hearts,
they may increase in universal love
by continually turning to God
and to neighbor.”

– T.O.R. Rule 2:8

According to Your Word - Monday of the Third Week of Advent

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(Num 24:2-7, 15-17; Mt 21:23-27)

“The utterance of one whose eye is true. . .
Of one who sees what the almighty sees,
enraptured and with eyes unveiled.”
(Num 24:3, 4)

“When [my grandmother] died, it was as suddenly as her Christmas cactus: here today, gone tomorrow. She left behind her letters and her husband of sixty-two years. Her husband, my grandfather Daddy Howard, an elegant rascal with a gambler’s smile and a loser’s luck, had made and lost several fortunes, the last of them permanently. He drank them away, gambled them away, tossed them away the way she threw crumbs to her birds. He squandered life’s big chances the way she savored the small ones. […] ‘I don’t know how she stands it,’ my mother would say, furious with my grandfather for some new misadventure. She meant she didn’t know why.

The truth is, we all knew how she stood it. She stood it by standing knee-deep in the flow of life and paying close attention.

My grandmother was gone before I learned the lesson her letters were teaching: survival lies in sanity, and sanity lies in paying attention. Yes, her letters said, Dad’s cough is getting worse, we have lost the house, there is no money and no work, but the tiger lilies are blooming, the lizard has found that spot in the sun, the roses are holding despite the heat.

My grandmother knew what a painful life had taught her: success or failure, the truth of a life really has little to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”


– Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1992), 52-53.

According to Your Word - Third Sunday of Advent

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Cycle B
(Is 61:1-2 10-11; I Th 5:16-24; Jn 1:6-8, 19-28)

Exuberance is one of the words that befits the church’s momentum at this point in our celebration of the season of Advent. The coming of the long-awaited Messiah is so near that the church is bursting with anticipation. In some way, this is the rehearsal dinner to the great wedding feast of heaven and earth. Rejoicing is the only mood. John the Baptist lends clarity in the confusion of identities, the bewilderment that sometimes, even today, perplexes those of us who still seek the Anointed One of God.

John tells us that not only is he unworthy to wash the feet of the one in our midst, but that he should not so much as approach his sandal. Here is the summons to awe, awe that we are so gifted by the presence of God, not only in our midst but also as one of us. This Good News cannot but move us to embody the best of ourselves: perhaps rather to diffuse the best of ourselves, made in the image, and after the likeness.

May the God of peace sanctify us... the One who calls us is faithful! How can we keep from rejoicing?


– Fr. Robert D’Aversa, T.O.R.

According to Your Word - Saturday of the Second Week of Advent

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(Sir 48:1-4, 9-11; Mt 17:10-13)

Elias and John the Baptist were prophets of the one true God. Both spoke the same true inspired message of God. Elias predicted the coming of the Messiah and offered a message of spiritual deliverance. Moses delivered the Hebrew people from spiritual bondage in Egypt and established the kingdom of Israel.

Now we hear the same message from John. The Messiah is here to establish the kingdom of God on earth by delivering us from the bondage of sin and unlocking the gates of paradise. The Messiah will establish the kingdom of God on earth, the new Jerusalem, the Church of God. Jesus Christ, true God and true man, now sits upon his throne and is present in the Eucharist. Come to him. Unite with him. Commune with him in the Eucharist.


+ Fr. Barnabas Barker, T.O.R. (1924 –2004)




Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord: and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

According to Your Word - Friday of the Second Week of Advent

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(Is 48:17-19; Mt 11:16-19)


A WOMAN'S LIFE

What Mary knew was just
enough for the usual day;
pull water, flint fire, bake
bread, smile, pray

the dark orations, sleep, wake
wait. When pain honed a nerve,

when birth or dying clotted
an hour, she leaned to the curve

of living, resilient to fear,
laughter, suffering.
Partings are a little death.
Each one's journey is a thing

wholly without precedent.
She looked at the sky
for compass. None. She, too,
created a road to travel by.


– poem by Maura Eichner;
offered for reflection by Bro. Didacus Wilson, T.O.R.