{"id":5046,"date":"2025-11-26T16:58:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T16:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5046"},"modified":"2025-11-26T16:58:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T16:58:36","slug":"praying-advent-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5046","title":{"rendered":"Praying Advent (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

PREPARE THE WAY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gospels chosen for the Second Sunday of Advent all have as their theme the preparation of the way of the Lord. John\u2019s urgent warning has echoed throughout the world ever since he spoke it, and as it reaches us today it has a twofold reference: prepare for the Lord\u2019s coming at Christmas, but prepare also for his return on the last day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John uses uncompromising words to emphasize the need of conversion and of purifying baptism: ‘His is winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire’. The image is harsh, its meaning inescapable; it is difficult simply to ignore John\u2019s warning and close one\u2019s ears. Preparing the way for the Lord requires a constant effort at conversion: ‘Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adrien Nocent, OSB<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advent II
<\/strong>Almighty and merciful God,
may no earthly undertaking hinder those
who set out in haste to meet your Son,
but may our learning of heavenly wisdom
gain us admittance to his company.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, there is the idea of setting out in haste to meet the coming Christ, as we did the previous Sunday. And we pray that nothing, no earthly preoccupations (opera terreni<\/em>), hinder our hurrying, so that (introducing a new idea here) we may be schooled (eruditio<\/em>) in heavenly ways of thinking (sapientiae caelestis<\/em>).  This echoes the epistle for Advent II C: \u201cnever stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception so that you can always recognize what is best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This opposition of earthly concerns and heavenly ways is a common theme of collects but here the language is much more direct and memorable \u2013 the hindrance of earthly undertakings and the learning of heavenly wisdom.  This is precisely the sort of thing that can begin to inform a homily or introduction to the Mass.  The effect of this better choice of heavenly things is that it obtains for us admission into the company of Jesus.  As we learn heavenly wisdom from the Master, we become his disciples.  Christ becomes our way, our truth and our life rather than earthly preoccupations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr Adrian Porter, SJ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PREPARE THE WAY The gospels chosen for the Second Sunday of Advent all have as their theme the preparation of the way of the Lord. John\u2019s urgent warning has echoed throughout the world ever since he spoke it, and as it reaches us today it has a twofold reference: prepare for the Lord\u2019s coming at … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Praying Advent (2)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monastic","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5046"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5089,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions\/5089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}