My retreat prayer for you: deep peace...

Chapel at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester

A peaceful week of prayer will soon close...  This is the chapel where I've been praying (and praying for you) with the Atlantic just outside the windows behind the tabernacle...

Praise God from whom all blessings (and oceans) flow!




Deep Advent peace to you all...


 

     
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For Chanukah: Inside the Light

Our Jewish neighbors and friends have been celebrating Chanukah which began on the eve of Thanksgiving and ends on December 5. Whether you celebrate Chanukah and light a menorah or not, I'm sure this beautiful reflection from my friend Alden Solovy will hold meaning for you...

Inside the Light

A rainbow shines
Inside the light.
If you could be the dew drop
You would always see it.

Stillness waits
Inside the light.
If you could be the sky
You would always feel it.

The sunrise dawns
Inside the light.
If you could be the horizon
You would always find it.

Freedom flows
Inside the light.
If you could be the wind
You would always ride it.

Beauty rises
Inside the light.
If you could be the sparrow
You would always reach it.

Mystery pulses
Inside the light.
If you could be the wonder
You would always know it.

Majesty reigns
Inside the light.
If you could be the wisdom
You would always hear it.

Faith rests
Inside the light.
If you could be the eagle
You would always hold it.

Your soul glows
Inside the light.
If you could be yourself
You would never leave it.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and www.tobendlight.com. 
All rights reserved.


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Advent Peace: swords into plowshares

Statue at the United Nations, New York

Advent prepares us to celebrate Christmas but more importantly this season prepares us for the Day of the Lord when the Prince of Peace will come to claim creation and our hearts...  The powerful statue above and these lyrics reflect Sunday's first scripture reading from Isaiah.

Behold a broken world, we pray,
Where want and war increase,
And grant us, Lord, in this our day,
The ancient dream of peace:

A dream of swords to sickles bent,
Of spears to scythe and spade,
The weapons of our warfare spent,
A world of peace remade.

O Prince of peace, who died to save,
A lost world to redeem,
And rose in triumph from the grave,
Behold our waking dream.

Bring, Lord, your better world to birth,
Your kingdom, love's domain;
Where peace with God, and peace on earth,
And peace eternal reign.

Timothy Dudley-Smith, © 1989, Hope Publishing Co.

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Monday Morning Offering: 12/2

Image: George Mendoza


(On the church calendar, the mystery of Christ's saving love is unfolded through the liturgical seasons.  This begins with Advent, a time to prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, God's Word made flesh in Jesus.  So, on the church calendar, the first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of a "new year of grace.")

Good morning, good God!

With Advent begins a new year of grace, Lord,
the grace that is yours to give and ours to receive...

In this new year I want to offer you
an open door to my heart
for you to enter and make your home there...

I offer you the corners of my heart's garden
where I let the weeds grow wild:
Lord, help me weed out
whatever does not nourish my life and my soul...

I offer you the closets of my heart,
stuffed with old grudges and resentments:
Lord, help me discard anything
that fails to help me heal and grow...

I offer you my heart's cartons of wasted time,
boxes of foolishness
and bags of misspent effort:
Lord, help me clear out the trash of my mistakes
and give me a new beginning...

I offer you the cellar of my heart, Lord,
where a locked trunk of hurt and anger
aches to be opened with the key of your healing grace:
unlock what keeps me prisoner
to my memories and disappointments...

I offer you my heart's hopes and dreams, Lord,
for this new year of grace:
my pledge to pray more regularly;
my desire to grow in your love;
my need to rely on your wisdom and word;
my promise to ask for your help each day;
my hope to be more forgiving of those who offend me,
more faithful in serving others' needs,
more welcoming of those who are alone...

I offer you this new year of grace, Lord,
and ask for the strength and resolve I need to live it
as one worthy of the name Christian,
ready for the work of a disciple,
confident of your presence in everything I do
and in all I meet and know...

I offer you the new year ahead, Lord
- one day at a time -
and I pray for the serenity and grace
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference...

Amen.


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Homily for December 1

Homily for the First Sunday of Advent
(Scriptures for today's Mass)

Audio for homily

Got your tree up yet? I have a wreath on the door.
I saw folks in their yards hanging lights this weekend. 

Did you go out shopping yesterday?
All of these things are fine in themselves
unless and until we begin to mistake the trappings of Christmas
for its real meaning;
unless and until Advent gets lost in the Christmas rush.

Try to imagine for a moment: what would happen
if we took away Santa and all the presents,
all the decorations and lights,
all the spending and shopping and partying?
What would be left of Christmas? What would we have?
What would we do?
Would the meaning of Christmas be any less real?
Would the meaning of Christmas be, indeed, more real?

These scriptures we just heard pose some hard questions for us
but they point us in the right direction for Advent –
and therefore for Christmas as well.

Isaiah asked a tough one.

He asked if we’re remaking our weaponry into farm tools?
Are we training for war - no more?
Are the nations of the world dedicated to making the peace
Isaiah dreamed of - and called us to make?

And what if we scale down from the international to our own lives?
Are you and I laying down the weapons 
of long-standing disagreements?
the artillery of resentments and old grudges?
Are we willing to put aside the swords, the words of anger
that arm and divide us in our families? in our neighborhoods?
in our own parish?

Movement towards reconciliation and peace:
that’s the business of Advent
and it wasn’t on sale for 40% off  on Black Friday anywhere.

Are we following St. Paul’s advice to “throw off the works of darkness?”
- the words and deeds, the fantasies and relationships

(business and social)
that we’re not proud of? that embarrass and shame us?

Are we putting on the “armor of light,” living and working and playing
honestly, justly and charitably?
That’s the work of Advent.

When it comes to our spiritual lives:
are we awake, as Paul calls us to be?
Or are we dozing, napping, asleep at the switch?
What will it take to wake us, shake us,
to rouse us out of our spiritual complacency?

In this season of “giving and getting”
what rivalry, jealousy and envy shape our expectations
and misshape our hearts’ desires?
Or are we working towards acceptance of who we are
and contentment with what we have?
That’s the agenda of Advent.

Much more than “getting a birthday party ready for Jesus”
Advent is meant to be a season to help us
wake up and shape up,
to rouse us to be ready to meet Jesus:
who has already come,
who is with us, not just at the end of December,
but every day of the year;
Jesus who will come again -- at the moment of our death
and at the end of time.

Advent is a season to prepare for, if you will
– to rehearse for - meeting Jesus.
In a crèche in our living room or at church?     Sure, there too.
But more importantly to prepare ourselves to meet Jesus
in the ordinary day in and day out so that when he comes,
on that day, at that hour unknown to us,
we will be prepared to meet him
and ready for his review of our lives.

You know: Jesus will be no more present on Christmas Day
than he is today, December 1.

But good preparation for the known date of Christmas
gives us an opportunity to pray and prepare for
the unknown day and the unknown hour each of us will face.

An important part of our “rehearsing” for Christ’s return
is our outreach to those in need.
We have the Giving Trees at this time of year,
not just to make sure everyone gets a gift,
but to remind us that we should be harvesting
a forest of giving trees all year ‘round
-- because caring for the poor is what followers of Jesus do
while they wait for his return.

What would Christmas look like

if we took away the decorations and the presents?
It would look like people waiting, not for some thing,
but waiting for someOne whose love is greater than any gift
we might imagine or hope for.

That's what Christians wait for in Advent.

That’s what we wait for every day of our lives.
We wait for Jesus
even as we wait for him this morning at this altar.

As Christ came to Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago,
he comes to this table every time we celebrate the Eucharist.

May the Eucharist and this season of Advent
ready our hearts for the day when we will meet Jesus
and strengthen us to ready the world for his return.

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Lighting the First Candle on the Advent Wreath

If you have an Advent Wreath at home, pray for peace this week as you light the first candle each day. If you don't have an Advent Wreath - light any candle and pray for peace. If you have no candle, simply stay right here with candle above and pray for peace...

Pray for an end to war and its violence and bloodshed...
Pray for the safe return of those who are in harm's way,
   who are far away from home and family and friends...
Pray for those who have died in the war
   and for their loved ones who grieve their loss...
Pray for the poor who suffer war's hardships...
Pray for peace...
Pray for the peace the world cannot give or make for itself...
Pray for our enemies...

Pray, too, for an end to the little (and larger) wars
   waged in our own lives, in our families, our neighborhoods,
      at work and in the Church...
Pray for those who have been harmed by our belligerence...
Pray for those we make our personal enemies...
Pray for those who make enemies of us...
Pray for an end to the wars we fight within ourselves...
Pray for peace...
Pray for the peace we cannot give or make for ourselves...


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Songs for Advent

When the Christmas music everywhere begins to get to you - or even before that happens! - stop by here from some beautiful Advent music. (Advent begins at sundown today, November 30.) For your convenience, this widget will also be on the sidebar through the season.


 
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I'll be away for a while...

Image source

This Sunday afternoon (December 1) I'll be heading to the north shore to spend a week at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester (above).  I'll be back in the parish on Saturday afternoon, December 7, in time for the 5:00 Mass.

I've made many retreats over the years at this retreat center on the coast, the first being my ordination retreat in 1973. 

I'll be making a directed retreat which means the week will be spent in silence, broken only by a daily conversation with my retreat director and with prayer and song at Mass.  The house rule for the rest of the time is silence, including meal times in the dining room.

I'm often asked if I find the silence difficult to handle: not at all!  I find the quiet to be a peaceful stillness that refreshes and restores my soul and my prayer.

What does one do with all that silent time on a directed retreat?  It's time to slow down, pray, rest, pray, read, reflect, pray, ponder, remember, wonder, pray, and renew and revitalize my relationship with the Lord. And time to pray!  I need and look forward to all of that...

While I'm on retreat I won't be actively posting on my blog except for a few Advent posts I have scheduled to post ahead of time. And no email or phone!

And here's a photo I took last year of the chapel in the center of the main house at Eastern Point.  (That's a tabernacle in the center; the windows overlook the rocky coast and the ocean; and there are chairs all around the perimeter of the room.)

Photo by CP

I'll be praying for you in this simple beautiful chapel and would be grateful for your prayers for me in return.

See you on December 8, the Second Sunday of Advent.



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Pause for Prayer: SATURDAY 11/30

Father's Embrace by Ruth Councell

(used with permission)

I learned this song on retreat last November and it continues to sustain me. (It's always available on the side bar.)  I'll be leaving for a week's retreat tomorrow afternoon (Sunday, December 1) and I'll be taking this prayer with me in my heart.




Take, O Take Me As I Am

Take, O take me as I am,
Summon out what I shall be.
Set your seal upon my heart
and live in me...

- John Bell


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Word for the Weekend: Advent begins December 1

Image: Peter Adams

We find ourselves on the eve of the First Sunday of Advent in the Year of Grace 2014!

The scriptures for this weekend and commentary on them can be found here. Bringing youngsters to Mass with you on Sunday? Look here for tips on helping them prepare to hear the Lord's Word as Advent begins.

We begin a year of readings from the gospel of Matthew and this first installment reminds us that Advent is about much more than "getting ready for Christmas"  -- it's about getting ready for forever! The day's gospel proclamation ends with Jesus' words, "So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

The day's first scripture gives us Isaiah's vision of all peoples streaming to the Lord's mountain and includes the well known image of the peace we all long for: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again."

It's the second lesson, however, from Romans that gets particular about what we need to avoid in preparing for the coming of the Son of Man: "orgies and drunkenness, promiscuity and lust, and rivalry and jealousy."  Indeed, warns St. Paul, we are to "make no provision for the desires of the flesh."  Now isn't that interesting advice in the season of all seasons for consumerism!

A new liturgical year is beginning - time for resolutions!  Therefore: "I resolve to take time each week to read and pray over the scriptures for the coming Sunday to prepare myself to worship on the Lord's Day!"



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