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Happy New Church Year!
The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before ... What is possible
is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.
- Jan L. Richardson
(Something wonderful on the horizon of your life! What could it be? "Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold.
Wonder.")
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Is 4:2-6; Ps 122:1-2, 3-4b, 4cd-5, 6-7, 8-9
Mt 8:5-11 When Jesus entered Capernaum,
a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
"Lord, my servant is
lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully."
He said to him, "I will come and cure him."
The centurion said in reply,
"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed.
For I too am a man subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one,
'Go,' and he goes;
and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes;
and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,
"Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven."
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Matthew 8: 5-11 Jesus brings health and wholeness to a
Gentile. For the early Church, this incident was a reminder that the Messiah and the graces he won for us are to he extended to all people and not just to converts from Judaism. Jesus wants to come to everyone. • Let your imagination re-create this gospel scene; put yourself in
the place of the centurion. See Jesus walking along the road; watch as he notes your approach and gives you his full attention; note his response to your requests for healing in your life and in the lives of your loved ones. • Make a list in your journal of the people in your life for whom you have been called to be an incarnation of God’s grace. How can you be a better channel of
grace to each of them?
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ BOOK III: OF THE PROGRESS AND PERFECTION OF LOVE Chapter 5: That the happiness of dying in heavenly charity is a special gift from God In fine, the heavenly King having brought the soul which he loves to the end of this life, he assists her also in her blessed departure, by which he draws her to the marriage-bed of eternal glory, which is the
delicious fruit of holy perseverance. And then, dear Theotimus, this soul, wholly ravished with the love of her well-beloved, putting before her eyes the multitude of favours and succours wherewith she was prevented and helped while she was yet in her pilgrimage, incessantly kisses this sweet helping hand, which conducted, drew and supported her in the way; and confesses, that it is of this divine Saviour that she holds her felicity, seeing he has done for her all that the patriarch Jacob wished
for his journey, when he had seen the ladder to heaven. O Lord, she then says, thou wast with me, and didst guide me in the way by which I came. Thou didst feed me with the bread of thy sacraments, thou didst clothe me with the wedding garment of charity, thou hast happily conducted me to this mansion of glory, which is thy house, O my eternal Father. Oh! what remains, O Lord, save that I should protest that thou art my God for ever and ever!
Amen. |
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