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…
Keeping Advent 2: Higher Up
December 2/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 an age of discord and incivility, we are in desperate need of a vision of hope. The prophet Isaiah — writing perhaps as early as the 8th century before…
Keeping Advent 1: Stand and Deliver
December 1/First Sunday of Advent But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. ~ Luke 21.28 We begin the season of watching for the light with a reminder that we are a people who dwell in darkness. Luke’s apocalyptic text in today’s Gospel reading might have been lifted right…
Advent Reflections 2024
Friends, Again this year, I will be offering Advent reflections by email. These brief meditations are accompanied by a prayer, a musical offering, and a link to the day’s lectionary readings. The reflections will begin on the first Sunday of Advent, December 1, and will conclude on Christmas Eve. The sign-up form is located in the righthand corner of the…