Another Advent gem from Restoration, this one by Fr. David May. Click here.
Author: Sr. Dorcee, beloved
I am the one whom Jesus loves.
Always leave your heart ajar
We all live in a “little town”, and we all have to do ordinary things–yet that is exactly where the Christ Child wants to be born. Today’s poem for Sunday is all about that:
Housekeeper
This is my little town,
My Bethlehem,
And here, if anywhere,
My Christ Child
Will be born.I must begin
To go about my day–
Sweep out the inn,
Get fresh hay for the manger
And be sure
To leave my heart ajar
In case there may be travelers
From afar.~Elizabeth Rooney
And as Cardinal Schonborn says in his commentary on today’s Gospel: “Doing the simple things is not always simple, but it is certainly the best way to prepare for Christmas.”
“Let it penetrate your heart”
On this great gift of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I can’t help but post Mary’s beautiful words to Juan Diego, words that she speaks to each one of us:
“Listen, and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little son; do not be troubled or weighted down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?”
“Let it penetrate your heart.”
Joyful expectation
I am musing here. . . .
As you have probably noticed, I am attempting to keep Christmas out of Advent in my posts this month. That’s not really the best way to put it, I guess, because Advent is all about Christmas, the wonder of God incarnate–but I think you know what I mean. I, and my house, are trying to focus on Advent now–and then celebrate Christmas for forty days after Christmas (rather than before). (Yes, forty days after–until February 2.) But is it really: Advent and Christmas, and never the twain shall meet? As I said, Advent is all about Christmas, so sometimes I find myself humming to myself “For unto us a child is born . . . ” (and I don’t feel one bit guilty). If I knew Christ was coming again on Christmas day, this year, what would I be singing today? How would it affect my waiting? Would I be not only humming, but singing loudly the Hallelujah chorus everywhere I went?
So let’s try to remember as we go about our everyday business, as we live through this season of waiting (the longer season of waiting for His return), that He is Emmanuel, God-with-us right now. It’s the “now and not yet” theme that runs through all of Catholic tradition. Our waiting must look different than anyone else’s–for He is already with us and His coming again is sure. We cannot but wait with joyful expectation . . . and that can’t help but break out into humming a song of Christmas now and then. 🙂
Advent and seeds
A reflection from Caryll Houselander:
A seed contains all the life and loveliness of the flower, but it contains it in a little hard black pip of a thing which even the glorious sun will not enliven unless it is buried under the earth. There must be a period of gestation before anything can flower.
If only those who suffer would be patient with their earthly humiliations and realize that Advent is not only the time of growth but also of darkness and hiding and waiting, they would trust, and trust rightly, that Christ is growing in their sorrow, and in due season all the fret and strain and tension of it will give place to a splendor of peace. (Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God, p. 36)
The meaning of Mary’s “fiat”
I have been a faithful reader of Restoration, the monthly newsletter of Madonna House in Combermere, ON, for years. I always read it from cover to cover. One of my favorite columnists is Fr. Pat McNulty. He’s one of the “salt of the earth.” I thought I would share with you one of his Advent columns from past years. His topic was the meaning of the word fiat, spoken by Mary in response to the angel at her Annunciation. You can read it here. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
“Shining, whole, and Godward-turned”
I have many reasons to be thankful for this feast, that of the Immaculate Conception. The first is that Christ was able to find someone who would give Him “an eager welcome”, who in no way would reject Him because of a sinful nature, who was pure love because He first loved us [her], because she received His love without hindrance. And secondly, we can have great hope because in her we can see the promise God has for each of us. Someday, through all the purifications and trials of this life, through our faltering yeses to Him, we shall become like her: “shining, whole, and Godward-turned.” Someday, He will see His image clearly in us as well. And someday we will never refuse His love for us. O, sweet Mother, intercede for us. We do thank Him for you.
December Eighth
Beloved, Mother of us all,
Today we remember
That, of all earth’s millions,
You, Mary, in the womb,
Were shining, whole,
And Godward-turned.
You only, O Morning Star,
Lighted the clouds of sin and waiting.
You only, Immaculate Ark,
Glided above the depths of the primal curse;
For you were to bear safely over those waters
Emmanuel, your little Son, from whose baby hand
Streams the rainbow up which we climb to God.
You only, little white moon, are the crystal
Reflection of our Sun.
But for your whiteness, O Gate of Heaven,
We had never entered, nor seen our God.
But for your loveliness, O Mystic Rose,
We had never breathed the Rose of Sharon.
White Tower of David, Ivory Tower,
Princess whose beauty lured Love’s kiss when life began,
Mother, who died a thousand deaths for us,
We thank Him for you.
To-day, when He smiles to see His image in you, clear,
Remember us.~Sr. St. Francis S.S.J.
(Robert, Cyril. Mary Immaculate: God’s Mother and Mine. New York: Marist Press, 1946.)
The Lord comes to our wilderness
The Lord will manifest His glory in the wilderness.
I always find great hope in this first paragraph of the second reading from this past Sunday’s Office of Readings. The reason I find it so hopeful is because in it Eusebius proclaims that the glory of the Lord will appear in the wilderness, not in Jerusalem. Because most of my prayer these days consists in loving Christ in the darkness and the wilderness of my own life, it is a great consolation to know that that is exactly where Christ will manifest His glory. Be heartened if you, too, experience a wilderness, a trackless waste, somewhere in your life. “It is there that the glory of the Lord is to appear.”
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. The prophecy makes clear that it is to be fulfilled, not in Jerusalem but in the wilderness: it is there that the glory of the Lord is to appear, and God’s salvation made known to all mankind. (Eusebius of Caesarea)
When Israel went out of Egypt
The poem for today may not strike you immediately as a poem for Advent, but as you read it, I think you’ll see why I chose it. It’s a poem I just came across by one of my favorite writers, Anthony Esolen, who just this past week posted it to Touchstone’s blog. Here’s the link, and I do hope that you savor and relish it as much as I did upon reading it. Let’s never go back to Egypt . . .
Found by God
Continuing on from yesterday’s post . . . Our journey to God is so much like that of the prodigal son’s. We start to turn home-ward, only to find that God is already there, coming to us. The sheep gets lost, and the Shepherd goes out to find it–sometimes even before the sheep realizes that it is lost.
As we are searching for God, the good news is that God is searching for us. Better yet, he has found us. The great question is not whether we have found God but whether we have found ourselves being found by God. God is not lost. We were, or, as the case may be, we are. . . . Here is what St. Paul says: “It is full time now for you to wake from sleep.” He is telling us to wake up the gift already given. This season of the Church’s calendar is called Advent, which means “coming”. Christ came, Christ comes, Christ will come again. There is no time–past, present, or future–in which Jesus the Christ is not God with us. He was with you yesterday, is with you today, and will be with you tomorrow. So we are invited to give up our searching and let ourselves be found by the One who wants to be with us, and to have us with him, forever. (Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, God With Us, pp. 18-19)
Witnesses to Hope 