Zephaniah 3:14-18 Luke 3:10-18 As the weeks of Advent progress we are invited deeper and deeper into the mystery of our redemption. The Third Sunday of Advent sounds a note of JOY that is impossible to ignore. The first reading from the prophet Zephaniah is remarkable in its joy and image of God; The Lord …
Monthly Archives: December 2021
Saturday, Advent, Week Two
Ecclesiasticus 48:1-4, 9-12 Today there is a gear shift in the weekday Liturgy of the Word as we move from Isaiah’s prophecies to a selection of texts from a range of Old Testament books. The focus of the during Second Week of Advent has been preparing the way of the Lord. We look back to …
Friday, Advent, Week Two
Isaiah 48:17-19 Our reading from Isaiah is short today. It’s just three verses. But those contain so much. Here God speaks with a tone that is tender and deliberate: ‘This says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you.I lead you in the …
Thursday, Advent, Week Two
These words struck me this morning at Office of Readings*: ‘When God saw the world falling away from himself through fear, he acted at once to draw it back by love, invite it by grace, preserve it by affection, and hold it together by compassion.’ ( St Peter Chrysologus) From the very beginning of the …
Wednesday, Advent, Week Two
The Immaculate Conception Gen 3:9-15, 20Luke 1:26-38 In her book ‘Born Contemplative’, Madeleine Simon writes about the spiritual development of young children and explores her thesis that we are all born with an innate capacity for God. She says that a child’s faith journey begins the moment the mother knows that she is pregnant. As …
Tuesday, Advent, Week Two
Isaiah 40:1-11 ‘Console my people, console them.’ Today’s text from Isaiah is perhaps one of the most familiar of the all texts used during Advent. Handel’s Messiah has surely played a part in making this part of our collective scriptural psyche. The words of comfort come from the beginning of the Second Book of Isaiah. …
Monday, Advent, Week Two
Isaiah 35:1-10 Today Isaiah offers us another poetic vision of all that God promises for the people of Judah: everybody and everything will be restored in a land governed by God. Judah has experienced a period of barrenness and dryness in her relationship with God. All of this God will turn into fertile land where …
Sunday, Advent 2C
Baruch 5:1-9Luke 3:1-6 I originally started this reflection by focusing on the very familiar Gospel for today of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness. As I looked at the readings again the imagery from Baruch in our first reading struck me very forcibly. In powerful poetry Baruch prophesies the glorious reversal of Judah’s fortunes: …
Saturday
Advent, Week One Isaiah 30:19-21.23-26 I’ve often been asked how I knew I wanted to be a nun. I think people know when they ask me that me that I didn’t have a Damascus road experience. I usually answer by talking about my growing conviction that I wanted to follow Christ and put my whole …
Friday
Advent, Week One Isaiah 29:17-24 In today’s text from Isaiah we have several images of reversal. ‘In a short time, a very short time,shall not Lebanon become a fertile landand fertile land turn into a forest?’ A radical new society is promised where creation is transformed and societal structures reformed. Together these reversals will make …