Dear Friends,
Advent is here again! This year, just because of dates, it is a ‘short’ advent – the 4th Sunday of Advent is Christmas Eve. So we better get on with it!
Attachments in these weeks are all related to Advent and into Christmas & we are trying to give you a variety each week rather than breaking them down into specific themes. If you come to our zoomed Advent reflections on Sunday evenings, (Friday for the last one), – see details below – we hope you will find the content compliments that of the Saturday reflections but is more thematic.
The blessing this week is Rutter’s ‘Go Forth’. May you ‘go forth’ into this season with hope and energy, and enjoy your preparation for the great feast of Christmas.
Wishing you a good week & with our love & prayer.
Details of our Advent Reflections:
Meditative Reflection
at 5.30pm
on Zoom
Sunday 3rd December – “What is God doing this Advent?”
Sunday 10th December – “Lighting the Darkness”
Sunday 17th December – “Opening the Door of our Hearts”
Friday 22nd December – “Emmanuel”
Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81933736118?pwd=SHpUWlh2Yis1MzViMGNHNmVKN2Zndz09
Meeting ID: 819 3373 6118 Passcode: 257456
And IN PERSON at Blessed Sacrament Church, Melbourne CM1 2DU
on Wednesday 20th December at 5.30pm
And on Christmas Eve, Sunday 24th, we will have a zoomed Evening Prayer without the usual Sunday Scripture Refection.
CHRISTMAS EVE – EVENING PRAYER ZOOM: 05:30 PM London
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88333391691?pwd=SjhrYnFBUEZndVVIMTRRTEJqRVduQT09
Meeting ID: 883 3339 1691 Passcode: 301123
ALL WELCOME TO ALL OF ANY OF THESE – NO REGISTRATION NEEDED
Advent is the season when we become aware, yet again, that ‘the Word is always waiting to be born.
Meister Eckhart
…..so it was for God’s faithful people of old, the anawim, the poor of the land, those who possessed nothing except for their faith. And so it is for us. In continuity with those faithful ones and in obedience to Jesus’s command, we too must keep vigil, particularly during the season of advent when, in the northern hemisphere at least, the long nights and bare branches symbolize all that is unfinished in the symphony of salvation. It is the final movement, Christ’s second coming in glory, that we now watch and wait.
Laurentia Johns OSB
God-with-us
Henri Nouwen
As soon as we call God, ‘God-with-us’ we enter into a new relationship of intimacy with God. By calling God ‘Emmanuel’, we recognize that God has committed himself to live in solidarity with us, to share our joys and pains, to defend us & protect us, and to suffer all of life with us.
The God-with-us is a close God, a God whom we call our refuge, our stronghold, our wisdom, and even more intimately, our helper, our shepherd, our love.
We will never really know God as a compassionate God if we do not understand with both heart and mind that ‘he lived among us’.
We hear the name ‘Emmanuel’ throughout Advent – let us live that new relationship of intimacy with God.
Gift of Wonder
Alfred McBride, O. Praem
Each year, God asks us to shed one more coat of awareness, one more dream state and come alive to the vision of God’s plan for each of us and the world-at-large. The older we get, the harder this is to do. As children we had a sense of wonder. Our eyes were wide open and drinking in the fascinating gifts we beheld …Our thirsty souls could not have enough of the wonders of creation. Then, somehow, we grew too old to dream. We tired of the abundance of the world, or at least grew weary of keeping up with the feast of life, and stepped away from the banquet of life. The natural gift of wonder God gave us as children was meant to be kept alive.…Instead we let wonder go to sleep. We entered the typical dream state of most humans. Why else does Jesus tell us today, ‘Stay awake!’ …Advent says, ‘Wake up and realize the gifts of love you have received.’ …Psychology says, ‘Let go.’ Spirituality says, ‘Wake up.’ In both cases there is a withdrawal from the busyness of daily life (our dream state) and a waking up to the subconscious and spiritual depths of ourselves.
Daily Prayer for Advent.
God for whom we wait,
in this season of waiting teach us patience, trust and perseverance.
In this season of darkness help us to seek the light,
that we may be ready to hear afresh the good news of great joy.
In this season of expectation may we experience anew
the blessing of Christ as we welcome him into our hearts and lives.
Amen.