It’s Advent and I have nothing to wear! December 12, 2009

I haven’t thought much about Advent this year; and this very fact has disclosed something interesting.  Every commitment that is not school has felt like a burden to me as of late.  And while I can’t say that this is desirable, it is what it is and the idea of trying to formulate some plan to change this only feels like yet another burden.  So Advent celebrations, candle lightings, thoughtful conversations, they’ve all taken a backseat, or so it seems.  

If Advent is waiting, waiting for God, waiting for each other and ourselves to wait for God, then I have been participating.  I’m not sure if i’ve ever groaned for anything so strenuously as I have for these papers I’ve been writing.  More of myself than I’d like to admit has gone into them.  Every ounce of reflection, every inch of wisdom, every strand of my accessible soul.  I have two down and one to go, the end is drawing near.  Then what will I do?  I’ll drive the pretty pages to langley, through the resistance of traffic and time, I’ll drop them off, and I’ll leave to Saskatchewan for Christmas.  There’s an Advent progression there, I want to believe.  I want to believe that even the busy can enter the kingdom of God, that the work of liturgy can truly be “the work of the people.”

Christmas Eve, December 24th in the season of Advent December 24, 2008

O Emmanuel our king and lawgiver, the hope of all nations and their savior;
come and save us, O Lord our God.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Tuesday, December 23rd in the season of Advent December 23, 2008

O King of Nations and their desired one, thou corner-stone who makes both one;
come and save man whom thou hast formed from clay.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid thou our sad divisions cease,
and be thyself our King of Peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Monday, December 22nd in the season of Advent December 22, 2008

O Dayspring, splendor of eternal light and sun of righteousness;
come and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

The Fourth Sunday in Advent December 21, 2008

O Key of David and scepter of the House of Israel,
thou that opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens;
come and lead the captive from prison, sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.

O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Saturday, December 20th in the season of Advent December 20, 2008

O Root of Jesse who stands as the ensign of the people,

before whom kings shall not open their lips, to whom the nations shall pray;
come and deliver us, tarry now no more.

O come, thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
an ensign of thy people be;
before thee rulers silent fall;
all peoples on thy mercy call.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Friday, December 19th in the season of Advent December 19, 2008

O Lord and Ruler of the house of Israel,

who did appear to Moses in a flame of fire in the bush and gave him the Law in Sinai;
come and redeem us with your outstretched arms.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times once gave the law
in cloud and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Thursday, December 18th in the season of Advent December 18, 2008

Living With Longing

Praying with the Jews, the Church, and the World

The last seven days of Advent are celebrated by praying the O Antiphons; they act as a ramp leading us up to the celebration of the season of Christmas.  These prayers were created in the 7th century by monks seeking to creatively express the increasing cry of urgency in the Old Testament for the Messiah to come to Israel.

Throughout the next week, we worship with the saints down through the ages, we groan with longing and anticipation with the Jewish people under Roman imperial rule and we groan with those who are today under oppression from imperialism.  Let us all cry out together for a different kind of King, one who desires not the sacrificing of others but the love which is willing to sacrifice itself.

O Wisdom which came out of the mouth of the most high,
reaching from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things;
come and show us the way of understanding.

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Wednesday, December 17th in the season of Advent December 17, 2008

Through this poem, written by Thomas Merton in 1947, we await the birth of Jesus.  It is important to note that Merton uses the term “holocaust” in its classical sense, meaning a sacrifice consumed by flames.

When the white stars talk together like sisters
And when the winter hills
Raise their grand semblance in the freezing night,
Somewhere one window
Bleeds like the brown eye of an open force.

Hills, stars,
White stars that stand above the eastern stable.

Look down and offer Him.
The dim adoring light of your belief.
Whose small Heart bleeds with infinite fire.

Shall not this Child
(When we shall hear the bells of His amazing voice)
Conquer the winter of our hateful century?

And when His Lady Mother leans upon the crib,
Lo, with what rapiers
Those two loves fence and flame their brilliancy!

Here in this straw lie planned the fires
That will melt all our sufferings:
He is our Lamb, our holocaust!

And one by one the shepherds, with their snowy feet,
Stamp and shake out their hats upon the stable dirt,
And one by one kneel down to look upon their Life.

Tuesday, December 16th in the season of Advent December 16, 2008

Christmas is a time ripe with stress, so be a grace-giver to those in your family.  Resolve to pray for God’s kingdom to come everyday, for a revealing of Jesus to those who don’t know his love, for the turkey to turn out well, for authentic and loving relationships to be built, for no-one to get hurt in snow football this year.  You see, all these things are in His kingdom, every breath of life is His.

Lord Jesus,
Master of both the light and the darkness,
send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.

We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.
We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.

We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.  To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!” Amen.