Category: Advent/Christmas

Awake, Mankind!

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Awake, Mankind!  For your sake God has become man.  Awake, you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.  I tell you again, God became man.
     You would have suffered eternal death, had he not been born in time.  Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, had he not taken on himself the likeness of sinful flesh.  You would have suffered everlasting unhappiness, had it not been for this mercy.  You would never have returned to life, had he not shared your death.  You would have been lost if he had not hastened to your aid.  You would have perished, had he not come.
     Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption.  Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time. 

~St. Augustine, Sermon 185

God’s homely Christmas tree

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

I am remembering a homily given years ago by a priest friend of mine.  It went something like this.  He and some other priests had moved into a new place together shortly before Christmas. They wanted to put up a Christmas tree, but none of them had ornaments, so they purchased new ones.  It turned out to be a beautiful tree.   On Christmas day, this priest went home to visit his parents and noticed the family Christmas tree, replete with the ornaments they had used all through the years.  Some were quite simple, others were those he had made in school and given to his parents, while others just had so many memories attached to them.  He could look at each ornament with such fondness because of the history behind it, yet this tree was in no way as “beautiful” or perfect as the new one at his home with the other priests. In his homily the priest went on to say that we are the ornaments on God’s Christmas tree and that He looks at each one of us with love and fondness.  We, all together, do not make a “beautiful” tree, but we make up God’s Christmas tree which He loves.

His love for me

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

A blessed Feast of the Nativity to each of you and your loved ones!

from an ancient writing, the Odes of Solomon:

His love for me brought low his greatness.
He made himself like me so that I might receive him.
He made himself like me so that I might be clothed in him.
I had no fear when I saw him,
for he is mercy for me.
He took my nature so that I might understand him,
my face so that I should not turn away from him.

Songs, music, good feelings

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

Most years as I approach the Feast of the Nativity, I feel fairly “emotioned” out.  This year seems to be no exception.  There’s been a lot going on on the home front.  It was good to read this meditation from Henri Nouwen, to be reminded that celebration and thanksgiving really are not about emotions and feelings, but about something way beyond them. 

Somehow I realized that songs, music, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and many sweet words do not make Christmas.  Christmas is saying “yes” to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel.  Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work and not mine.  Things will never look just right or feel just right.  If they did, someone would be lying . . . . But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, Savior.  (The Road to Daybreak)

Carrying a baby prince

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

I just sent this poem by Margaret Smith to one of my godchildren who is expecting her first child in January:

Advent

Shepherds, donkeys, comets, kings . . .
This year I ponder private things:
How Mary, innocent and poor,
Felt carrying a baby prince
Inside, until she bore
Him whimpering.  I wonder, since
This Christmas I am filled
With my firstborn to carry . . .
And when the wind is stilled
At night I think of Mary.

~Margaret D. Smith

For those who are grieving or suffering loss during Advent

Sr. Dorcee, beloved3 Comments

Today’s post is a reflection on today’s first reading from the book of Judges.  It is the story of Manoah and his wife who was barren.  By the message of an angel and the grace of God, they became the parents of Samson.  This story is obviously a foreshadowing of the Gospel story that follows of Zechariah and Elizabeth.  Listen to what Kathleen Norris has to say:

Today our readings ask us to reflect on a mystery: when our lives are most barren, when possibilities are cruelly limited, and despair takes hold, when we feel most keenly the emptiness of life–it is then that God comes close to us.  This is a day for those who are grieving or suffering loss during Advent, lamenting that just as we are suffering, and need to weep, the world force-feeds us merriment and cheer.  But we are not without hope, for it is because we are so empty, having used the last scrap of our own resources, that God can move in.  To work on us, and even to play.  Even our bitter emptiness gives God room to play, as at the Creation, placing whales in the sea and humans on dry land, then bringing all the animals to Adam to see what in the world he will call them.  This is not a scene of imposed merriment, but of genuine delight and joy.  (from God With Us, Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, p. 105)

It’s easy to feel very lonely, to feel very alone, when you are grieving during such a joyous season.  It gives me hope to know that God is drawn to those who are empty and lonely and alone.  He was born in an “empty” stable.  So let’s come to God with our barrenness and our grieving.  It is there that He will come close to us.

“Your flame is touching ours”

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

There is a little known Advent tradition–at least little known to me–of using an Advent log, instead of an wreath.  “It contains a candle hole for each day of Advent, plus one for the Christmas holy day itself.”  Here is a poem I came across that refers to this lovely tradition:

Prayer at the Advent log

The small lights steady
against the dark,
Your flame is touching ours.
Today is the fifth day.
It is a safe fire,
the candles still tall
above the brittle wood
of the birch, the air
damp and chill.
But the days will draw us
inexorably toward
Your celebration,
and again we’ll stand
in the crackling air,
the first days’ flames
licking the log
with their shortened lives,
the length of it
threatened by Your fire,
Your love dazzling our eyes,
and, O Christ,
Your love searing
our nakedness.
(Jean Janzen)