December 14/Second Saturday of Advent As they were coming down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ~ Matt 17.9a-10 It nourishes the soul to set aside dedicated daily prayer time, but ideally, we won’t limit the occasions where we reflect on Christ. Prayer is, at its core, an ongoing…
Keeping Advent 13: The Answer is No
December 13/Second Friday of Advent Jesus said to the crowd: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,…
Keeping Advent 12: Around the Corner
December 12/Second Thursday of AdventFeast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” ~ Luke 1.38 Luke does not tell us exactly what Mary is doing when the angel Gabriel appears, but artists from the Italian Fra Angelico in the 15th-century to the…
Keeping Advent 11: Gesundheit!
December 11/Second Wednesday of Advent Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits. ~ Psalm 103.1-2 “God bless you!” We say it automatically, to friend and stranger, rarely pausing to consider that we no longer entertain ancient beliefs about sneezes…
Keeping Advent 10: The Waywardness that is Ours
December 10/Second Tuesday of Advent If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? ~ Matthew 18.12 In The Shepherd’s Life, his account of sheep-farming in England’s Lake District, the author James Rebanks describes a spring morning when a lamb…
Keeping Advent 9: Seek and Hide
December 9/Second Monday of Advent Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception The Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” He replied, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” ~ Gen 3.9-10 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the…
Keeping Advent 8: Whence Cometh Our Help?
December 8/Second Sunday of Advent I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. ~ Phil 1.6 The market for self-improvement in the United States remains robust – workshops and seminars, personal coaching, and a proliferation of self-help books that bring in hundreds…
Keeping Advent 6: The One Thing
December 6/First Friday of Advent One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. ~ Psalm 27.4 At the end of whatever time I can set aside for prayer in…
Keeping Advent 5: Following Through
December 5/First Thursday of Advent “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” ~ Matt 7.21 To many skeptics of Christianity, the gap between our profession of faith and our enactment of it in daily life – between words and actions…
Keeping Advent 3: Awesome
December 3/First Tuesday of Advent His delight shall be the fear of the LORD. ~ Isaiah 11.3 Midway through a retreat I was leading for faculty and staff of a Jesuit high school some years ago, a young teacher sitting in the back raised her hand. “How,” she asked with a hint of exasperation, “do I explain ‘fear of the…