Advent, like its cousin Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. Since it comes at winter time, fire is a fitting sign to help us
celebrate Advent…If Christ is to come more fully into our lives this Christmas, if God is to become really incarnate for us, then fire will have to be present in our prayer. Our worship and devotion will have to stoke the kind of fire in our souls that can truly change our hearts. Ours is a great responsibility not to waste this Advent time. - Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac
(How is fire present in your prayer these
days?)
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IS 26:1-6; PS 118:1 AND 8-9, 19-21, 25-27AMT 7:21, 24-27
MT 7:21, 24-27
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,'
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in
heaven. "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on
sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined."
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
The parable that Jesus uses to capture the meaning in today’s segment of St. Matthew’s gospel is the construction of a house: either we build on a rock or on the sand. One remains firm despite rains, floods and winds that buffet it and the other “collapsed and was completely ruined.” These very last words of the Sermon on the Mount challenge us to look to Jesus as the solid foundation of our faith,
hope and love.
The Sermon on the Mount has included in it both the Beatitudes and the Our Father, hallmarks of the true disciple; they are guides to living the Christ-life within us. We are invited each day to focus on the Rock that is Christ.
Looking to him with that focus we can more deeply hear Jesus’ word and heed the call to serving the needs of those around us.
Thank you, Brother Jesus, for showing us the way by your words and actions of love. Inspire us and be
with us as we hear your call to service. We are grateful for your call and invitation. Let us continue to grow as women and men of faith, justice and love. Keep us faithful to the discipleship you call out from us.
- by Tom Shanahan, S.J. Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 45
“All heavenly things and all earthly things that belong to Heaven are comprehended in these two
judgments”
And to all this I had none other answer but a marvellous example of a lord and of a servant, as I shall tell after:—and that full mistily shewed. And yet I stand desiring, and will unto my end, that I might by grace know these two dooms as it belongeth to me. For all heavenly, and all earthly things that belong to Heaven, are comprehended in these two dooms. And the more understanding, by the gracious leading of the Holy Ghost, that we have of these
two dooms, the more we shall see and know our failings. And ever the more that we see them, the more, of nature, by grace, we shall long to be fulfilled of endless joy and bliss. For we are made thereto, and our Nature-Substance is now blissful in God, and hath been since it was made, and shall be without end.
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