Category: Advent/Christmas

“She is burning still.”

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

One of the things I love about the Advent season (and Christmas, for that matter) are all the candles and lights.  They are a sign of hope for me–the candles in the windows bringing a light into the darkness of this time of year–like the wise virgins keeping their lamps burning bright for the coming of the Bridegroom. 

I love this reading from Amy Carmichael.  It’s the reading for today, December 17, which also happens to be my birthday.  I share this only because its occurrence on this day reminds me that the Lord, from all time, knew today would be my birthday and that I would be reading this.  It also has significance for me because the passage she refers to from Lk 7.23 is one of those passages that have shaped my spiritual life–a word spoken by Jesus to John the Baptist when he was in prison: “Blessed is he (she) who takes no offense at me.”  But that’s a sharing for another time  . . . 

“She hath neither rusted out, nor burned out.  She is burning still.”  I read that in an Australian magazine and I prayed that it might be true of each one of us.  We want most earnestly not to rust out, we would gladly be burned out, but till that day comes, the Lord keep us “burning still.” 
     Perhaps some of us are sorely tempted to think that just now there is not much that is “burning” about our lives.  Some are ill, some have duties of a very simple sort–where does the burning come in?  Where did it come in when John the Baptist was shut up in prison?  He could not do anything but just endure, and not be offended, and not doubt his Lord’s love.  But when our Lord Jesus spoke of him, He said he was burning and shining–“a burning and a shining light”. [John 5.35]
     It is not the place where we are, or the work that we can or cannot do, that matters, it is something else.  It is the fire within that burns and shines, whatever our circumstances.   (Edges of His Ways, pp. 182-3)

Till that day comes, the Lord keep us all “burning still”.

“What, indeed, is lower than a cave?”

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Something I wrote a couple of years ago, and still so true–and I am writing this foremost for myself!

Christmas!  Who doesn’t love this time of year?  Many people say to me of Advent and Christmas, “This is my favorite season!”  I’m sure we can all easily think of our reasons for that: lighting Advent wreaths, Christmas lights and caroling, Midnight Mass, etc.  And yet I know there are many of us who are only too aware of how little prepared we actually are for His coming, of how our weaknesses and faults, anxieties and busyness, seem to keep us from any kind of adequate preparation for this Feast.  The Prayer from the Divine Liturgy for Christmas in the Eastern Church gives hope: “O little Child lying in a manger, by means of a star, heaven has called and led to you the Magi, the first-fruits of the Gentiles, who were astounded to behold, not scepters and thrones, but extreme poverty.  What, indeed, is lower than a cave?  What is more humble than swaddling clothes?  And yet the splendor our your divinity shone forth in them resplendently.  O Lord, glory to you!”  Take heart!  We need not be afraid of the “stable” of our lives–as Fr. David May form Madonna House says: “The Child teaches us not to be afraid of the barren, winter of our wounded hearts, of our human emptiness.  For, by grace, these have become an Advent for us. . . . He awaits us there where we are most in need and most afraid: in the dark cave of our poverty.”  Yes, take heart.  At a mere opening of the door of your “stable,” Christ can shine resplendently therein!

Always leave your heart ajar

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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”

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

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

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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

Sr. Dorcee, beloved4 Comments

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”

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

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”

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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.)