Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent, by Richard Rohr. Franciscan Media, 2012.

Richard Rohr never fails to impart fresh perspectives. The following overview from the December 19 reflection in Preparing for Christmas is a good example.

Fr. Rohr recalls the scripture story of Elizabeth's miraculous pregnancy (Lk 1:5-25). Noting how often wives of patriarchs failed to conceive, he suggests that barrenness/fertility may be symbolic. Not only that, he writes, but "Maybe all of the healing stories are more about real transformation than medical cures.

In discussing scripture stories about lepers, Rohr explains that in Jesus' time "leprosy" was a broad term applied to people who were seen as physically unacceptable in some way, and therefore excluded from society. He points out that Jesus always touches the "lepers," becoming ritually unclean himself--an act of solidarity and compassion. In addition, Jesus frequently sends the healed lepers to a new community, allowing them to gain or regain social acceptability, Rohr writes. "That is the healing!" Perhaps barren women and lepers, as well as fertile women and reintegrated lepers, are stand-ins for all of us. "Authentic God encounters make us all spiritually fertile and humanly connected."

Richard Rohr, a priest of the New Mexico Province, is an internationally known teacher who has published numerous recorded talks and books. Preparing for Christmas provides scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day of advent.

(Amazon.com reviewer.)



St. John Damascene (676-749): December 5

John spent most of his life in the monastery of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem, and all of his life under Muslim rule, indeed, protected by it. He was born in Damascus, received a classical and theological education, and followed his father in a government position under the Arabs. After a few years he resigned and went to the monastery of St. Sabas.

He is famous in three areas. First, he is known for his writings against the iconoclasts, who opposed the veneration of images. Paradoxically, it was the Eastern Christian emperor Leo who forbade the practice, and it was because John lived in Muslim territory that his enemies could not silence him. Second, he is famous for his treatise, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, a summary of the Greek Fathers (of which he became the last). It is said that this book is for Eastern schools what the Summa of Aquinas became for the West. Thirdly, he is known as a poet, one of the two greatest of the Eastern Church, the other being Romanus the Melodist. His devotion to the Blessed Mother and his sermons on her feasts are well known.