If we really want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks. T.S. Eliot
(Silence. . . listening . . . what is the message coming through these days?)
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1 Sm 1:24-28; 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8abcd Lk 1:46-56 Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.” Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months
and then returned to her home. Reflection on the Scriptures
Mothers get top billing in today’s readings. As we are in the Advent
season, it is fitting to hear about mothers. Both Advent and motherhood are times filled with watching and waiting. Hands down, motherhood has been the hardest and best thing I have ever done it my life. There are so many ways to get it wrong. That’s why I am so amazed at the mothers featured in these readings. First there is Hannah whose desire to have a child is so powerful. That ache about not being able to have a child is so painful to women unable to bear a child. You wonder what you have done wrong or why this happening to you. You feel so out of control. There seems to be nothing you can do for something you want so badly. So, Hannah tells God: If I am able to bear a child, I will dedicate this
child to you. And Hannah makes good on her promise. When her boy turns 3, she brings Samuel, along with other gifts, to Eli at the temple. I cannot even imagine what she was going through. How did she find the
strength to walk to the temple knowing she would be leaving without him? Without her beloved, beautiful boy who was still so young? However, Hannah was a woman of faith and she made good on her promise to God
even though her heart had to be breaking. Her commitment and courage to carry it out, to give away this child she had so yearned for, is particularly impressive. It made me think of all the times I promised God one thing or another if a particular thing in my life occurred. Regardless of what I had promised God, how many times did I follow though? by Julie Kalkowski
The Existence of God by Francois Fenelon SECTION
XXVIII - Sentiments of some of the Ancients concerning the Soul and
Knowledge of Beasts.
That Divine
Wisdom that moves all the known parts of the world had made so deep an impression upon the Stoics, and on Plato before them, that they believed the whole world to be an animal, but a rational and wise animal--in short, the Supreme God. This philosophy reduced Polytheism, or the multitude of gods, to Deism, or one God, and that one God to Nature, which according to them was eternal, infallible, intelligent, omnipotent, and divine. Thus philosophers, by striving to keep from and
rectify the notions of poets, dwindled again at last into poetical fancies, since they assigned, as the inventors of fables did, a life, an intelligence, an art, and a design to all the parts of the universe that appear most inanimate. Undoubtedly they were sensible of the wonderful art that is conspicuous in nature, and their only mistake lay in ascribing to the work the skill of the Artificer.
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