December 11/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 our day and age of cost-benefit analysis, it is not a foregone conclusion that each of us would go after that one stray. …
Keeping Advent 9: Undaunted
December 10/Second Monday of Advent Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle…
Keeping Advent 8: Dress Codes
December 9/Second Sunday of Advent Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; Put on the splendor of glory from God. ~ Baruch 5.1 There is scarcely a parent alive who has not at some point uttered the words, “You’re not wearing that, are you?”. When my children were younger, this often occurred in the context of church-going, the battle…
Keeping Advent 7: Question Time
December 8/First Saturday of Advent Feast of the Immaculate Conception The LORD God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?” The LORD God then asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” ~ Gen 3.9, 11, 13 The British Parliament’s venerable custom (and increasingly unruly practice)…
Keeping Advent 6: Inquiring Minds
December 7/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 This beautiful verse from Psalm 27 floats into my mind’s eye every Sunday when I…
Keeping Advent 5: Passing the Peace
December 6/First Thursday of Advent Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace, in peace because in you they trust. ~ Isaiah 26.3 One of the prayers that most fed my soul as I was growing up in the Episcopal Church — a prayer that still blankets me with comfort — is the post-Communion blessing. “The peace of God, which…
Keeping Advent 4: The Last Straw
December 5/First Wednesday of Advent Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.” ~ Matthew 15.32 All of us occasionally have “last straw” moments in our lives, when we feel we simply cannot bear the weight of one more…
Keeping Advent 3: What Fear Is
December 4/First Tuesday of Advent His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. ~ Isaiah 11.3 Midway through a retreat I was leading for faculty and staff of a Jesuit high school, a young teacher raised her hand. “How,” she asked with a hint of exasperation, “do I explain ‘fear of the Lord’ to my students? They just…
Keeping Advent 2: Higher Up
December 3/First Monday of Advent In days to come, the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. ~ Isaiah 2.1 In this age of discord and incivility, we are in need of a vision of hope. The prophet Isaiah — writing perhaps as early as the 8th century before the…
Keeping Advent 1: Directly
December 2/First Sunday of Advent The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah. ~ Jeremiah 33.14 As a little girl, whenever I plaintively asked our housekeeper, Frances, when my mother would return from errands or a volunteer meeting, she would invariably reply, “She’ll be here directly.” The…