O Adonai - 18th December

Today we address our awaited Saviour as “Adonai and Leader who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the Law on Sinai” as we implore him to “come and save us with outstretched arm.”

When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, Moses was not seeking God – he was just going about his daily business, looking after the flock – it was God who took the initiative and broke into Moses’ life – and not just for Moses’ sake but for the sake of the Israelite people who were held in the bondage of slavery in Egypt: “I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt …I am well aware of their sufferings and I have come down to rescue them and bring them out from the clutches of Egypt to a country rich and broad.” (cf Ex 3: 7-8)

It is this same God who takes the initiative with Mary and Joseph – He announces to Joseph in a dream that the child whom Mary is carrying is the Saviour and is to be called ‘Jesus’ because he will save his people from their sins”   He is “Emmanuel” God-with-us – our Saviour whom we await and to whom we cry out in the words of the Roman Missal, pleading with Him to come and deliver us from the bondage of our sin: “Grant, we pray, Almighty God that we who are weighed down from of old by slavery beneath the yoke of sin  may be set free by the newness of the long-awaited birth of your only begotten Son.”

We have only to look into our own hearts and in the world around us to realise how much we are enslaved by sin and the tendency to sin.  We desperately need freedom but unfortunately we often have false perceptions of what true freedom is. 

 In the first Exodus Moses led the Israelites from slavery to freedom so that they could worship God on Mt Sinai.  They were forged into a people in the desert and given a law by which to live.    Jesus our Saviour is the new Moses who leads us from the bondage of sin to the freedom of the children of God; makes us a royal priesthood – united with our High Priest through, with and in Whom we can offer the true worship in spirit and truth.  He does not set us free from afar – He is God-with-us – for Christ is not just a way to follow – “He is the very path we tread through the wilderness, the spiritual spring that quenches our thirst and the bread that nourishes us in his body” (cf Jean Corbon- Path to Freedom).   Like the Israelites of old we too are forged into a new People of God in the Body of the Risen Christ.  He is the path that leads us out of our isolation and self absorption into communion with our sisters and brothers.  As long as we remain locked in our own self-sufficiency we continue being slaves – we only become free to the extent that we open up in communion with others.  “The spontaneity of love is our true autonomy.” (Jean Corbon)

O Adonai and Leader of the house of Israel who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai, come and save us with your outstretched arm.

See also posts for 18th December 2011, 2010

"O Wisdom" - Reflection for 17th December

It was Kipling who spoke of “waiting and not being tired by waiting”.

The season of Advent is all about WAITING. We wait in expectant hope and prayer all through Advent. But in the final seven or eight days of the season this ardent desire and longing is intensified and deepened as we draw nearer the liturgical celebration of the Birth of Christ.

Yesterday, we began our nine-day novena for the great feast of the Birth of Christ and for the next seven days, beginning today, we accentuate that longing which finds its expression most beautifully in the great Vespers antiphons for the Magnificat, called the “O” Antiphons, because they all begin with “O”. These antiphons will be used each evening before and after the Magnificat, and as the Gospel acclamation at Mass. Repetition helps us keep the antiphon in mind so that we can reflect on it and let it keep reverberating in our hearts.

In a few moments now, we will sing the first “O” antiphon in Latin. “O Sapientia” which translated means

O Wisdom

You come forth from the mouth of the Most High,

you fill the universe and hold all things together

in a strong yet gentle manner,

O come to teach us the way of truth.

It is an antiphon almost self explanatory.

O Wisdom which comes out from the mouth of the most High ….

The Wisdom book of the Old testament contains many, many passages in praise of Wisdom : Wisdom proceeding from God,….. as being begotten by Him, …. as the breath of His power. Wisdom is the beloved daughter who, at the beginning of creation, stood before God, assisting in the creation of the visible universe. From the concept of Wisdom there later developed the doctrine of the LOGOS, the WORD in St John’s Gospels (chap. 1 : 1-18) :

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” We all know the Prologue of St John by heart : “The Word was made flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And in St John, chapter 14, Jesus declares : “ I am the Truth.”

St Paul says : “Christ is the wisdom of God – He is our Wisdom – in Him are contained all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

In John 17, Jesus prays : “Grant that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

So, in the second half of the “O” antiphon, we cry out from our hearts:

“O come and teach us the truth !”

Teach us about Jesus, the Word and Wisdom of God, and how to live with the spirit of Jesus inspiring our everyday life.

We ask Mary – seat of Wisdom – and Mother of the Word incarnate, to put into our hearts in this Wisdom.

Veni - Come !

Teach us Wisdom,

Teach us LOVE.

Reflection on the Readings for the 3rd Sunday of Advent

One cannot miss the sheer explosion of joy in today’s liturgy especially in the first and second Mass Readings.

‘Shout for joy daughter of Sion,

Rejoice exult with all your heart.

The Lord your God is in your midst -

he will exult for joy over you. He will

renew you by his love’. Zeph.3

This is the real Good News, coming at a timely moment when dark clouds are hovering over our country.

‘Even though the rain hides the stars,

Even though the mist swirls the hills,

Even when clouds veil the sky

God is by my side’.

(The Cloud’s Veil – Liam Lawton)

Yes, indeed, not just our poets but the Word of God tells us ‘fear not little flock, you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows, it has pleased my Father to give you the Kingdom’ Lk.12

And the wonder is that through the grace of Baptism, we have him not ‘just in our midst’ but actually dwelling within us. Jesus pleads with us ‘make your home in me as I make mine in you’. Jn.15 This abiding in Jesus is a cry from the depths of his heart because he knows that this abiding is the source of everything. It is a call to enter into the innermost life of the Trinity – into the ‘ocean of peace’ as St. Catherine called him, where nothing can disturb us, nothing frighten us, no one can rob us of our joy.

“We can please him best of all by wisely and truly believing this truth of our relationship with him and rejoicing with him and in him. For as truly as we shall be in the bliss of God without end praising and thanking him, so truly have we been in God’s pre-vision, loved and known in his endless purpose from without beginning. In this love without beginning he created us, and in the same love he protects us, and never allows us to be hurt, by which our bliss might be decreased. And therefore, when the judgement is given, and we are all brought up above, we shall then clearly see in God the mysteries which are now hidden from us. And then shall none of us be moved to say in any matter, ‘Lord, if it had been so, it would have been well’. But we shall all say with one voice: ‘Lord, blessed may you be, because it is so, it is well; and now we see truly that everything is done as it was ordained by you before anything was made”. (Bl.Julian of Norwich 85).

No wonder Paul could write to the Philippians: ‘Friends, I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord. I repeat what I want is your happiness’. Phil.4

Come Lord, and do not delay.

2nd Sunday of Advent

 

“The Lord has done great things for us

We are filled with joy” (Psalm 125)

By directing our attention away from ourselves to focus instead on what God has done and is doing in the Church and in each of our lives, today’s Mass readings provide a wonderful message of hope:

 It is the Holy One who ‘remembers’ us and comes to us in the wilderness of our lives and  makes us ‘jubilant’ as He came of old to the Israelites in their exile and as he came to John in the wilderness.  So it is in the wilderness of our lives - with it pain and heart break, its anxieties and preoccupations - that we hear the Word of the Lord inviting us to repent of our sinful and all too human outlook and to prepare  a way for His coming. 

 In the first reading the prophet Baruch invites us to take off the “dress of sorrow and distress” – whatever enslaves us -  and “put on the beauty of the glory of God and to wrap the cloak of the integrity of God around us.”  For us Christians we know that the 'cloak of integrity' is nothing other than our being “in Christ” through our Baptism. In Christ Jesus we are all “sons of God through faith - when we were baptised we were clothed with Christ” (Gal 3:26,27) who has become “our wisdom, our virtue, our holiness and our freedom” (1Cor 1:30).  Each of us can say “it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”(Gal 2:10).

 In the second reading St Paul suggests that it is our mutual love for each other which helps us become “pure and blameless for the Day of the Lord when we reach the perfect goodness which Jesus Christ produces in us for the glory and praise of God.”   It is not so much a matter of our own effort – rather it is all the work of God within us – our part is to believe and trust that His power is at work in our lives and can achieve more than we can ever ask for or imagine but we need to give Him a free hand.

I often reflect on how disappointed I’ll be when I meet the Lord face to face and come to realise that not only has He been walking at my side but has been the very source of life and all too  often I do not recognise Him.  Advent is a time to renew our attentiveness to His abiding presence in our lives, to hear Him say: “behold I stand at the door and knock” waiting for our response to open and invite Him in.

 As we journey through this advent of 2012 we pray that God may guide us as He guided Israel “in joy by the light of His glory with His mercy and integrity for escort.” (Bar 5:9) and may the valleys of our hearts be filled and the mountains laid low and the winding ways be straightened and the rough roads made smooth so that through us the salvation of our God may become more manifest to a broken and thirsting world.  (cf Lk 3)

Good News of Profession in New Year

We are very happy to announce that Sr M Cathy will make first Profession early in the New Year.

The following is a reflection given at our community meeting at which she was accepted for first Profession.

It is a happy co-incidence that we have gathered to vote on accepting you, Sr M Cathy, for profession, on the eve of the beautiful feast of Christ the Universal King during this special Year of Faith as we continue our novena of years to the 800^th anniversary of the Order in 1216.  The coming year beginning on the first Sunday of Advent is dedicated to ‘Mary: Contemplation and Preaching the Word’ – ‘Do unto me according to your Word’ – a very fitting theme for the year when you will make your profession.

Pope Benedict continually reminds us that faith is neither a philosophy of life, nor a moral code nor a set of dogmas to be believed.  Rather faith is a dynamic and life-giving encounter with the living God - the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit – who invites us into a relationship with Him.  The Son of God, the Word, through Whom we and all creation have come into existence, has come among us in the Person of Jesus Christ – He has revealed the Father to us and continues to walk with us through the wilderness of this life as we journey to our homeland in heaven – ‘Lo, I am with you always’.  “Faith is a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, making oneself his disciple.”

Religious Profession is basically an act of radical faith in the One who invites us to intimacy with Himself – it is like signing a blank cheque with all the risks which this involves.  We do not know what lies in the future but we can be certain that the One who calls us is always faithful and will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength.  We can be certain that He will be at our side and provide for all our needs as the refrain to Psalm 22 says: ‘His goodness shall follow me always – to the end of my days.’

In proclaiming the Year of Faith, Benedict XVI wrote that: “we enter the ‘door of faith’ when the ‘heart allows itself to be shaped and transformed by grace.” And again he says: “To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime” – a journey which begins at Baptism and continues until we at last find rest in the heart of the Trinity.  This journey of faith leads us through the wilderness of this life to the joys of heaven; it is a journey from slavery to sin and selfishness to the freedom of the children of God.  Through our profession we freely commit ourselves to take on a way of life according to our Constitutions – to an outsider this may appear that we are taking on burdensome rules and regulations but we know that if we respond generously and faithfully while lovingly keeping our gaze fixed on the One “who loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood” (Rev 1:6) we are setting out on a path to true freedom. 

In his homily at the shrine of Loreto before the opening of the Year of Faith Pope Benedict spoke about this true liberty in relation to Mary's complete ‘yes’ to her God:

“As we contemplate Mary we must ask if we too wish to be open to the Lord, if we wish to offer our life as his dwelling place; or if we are afraid that the presence of God may somehow place limits on our freedom, or if we wish to set aside a part of our life in such a way that it belongs only to us.  Yet it is precisely God who liberates our liberty, he frees it from being closed in on itself, from the thirst for power, possessions, and dominations; he opens it up to the dimension which completely fulfils it: the gift of self, of love which in turn becomes service and sharing.” (4^th Oct 12)

The heart of our contemplative life is to bear witness to the reality of God; to be present to the Presence; listening to the voice of the Beloved (all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice – Gospel tomorrow – Jh 18); allowing ourselves to be transformed into Christ, sharing in his priesthood (second reading) as He takes us into himself and offers us to the Father for the salvation of the world.

To quote Pope Benedict again:

“Faith commits every one of us to become a living sign of the presence of the Risen Lord in the world. What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end.” (PF 15)

The Greek word for witness is the same as that for martyr.  We may or may not ever suffer personally for our love of Jesus Christ but we’re all called to be witnesses – we are all called to martyrdom.

Let us all join with Sr M Cathy in preparing for her Profession day by renewing our own fidelity to our contemplative way of life during the coming weeks.

First Sunday of Advent

‘Watch yourselves or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life and that day will spring on you like a trap.’Lk 21:34

Debauchery drunkenness and the cares of life- all placed together in one sentence by Jesus, all presented to us by him as being equally destructive, coarsening our hearts and preventing us from being aware of, and ready for, his coming, his many comings through out each day and consequently unprepared for his final coming.

There we have it---the cares of life are placed right alongside drunkenness and debauchery ---and with no escaping it as it comes straight from our Lord’s own lips. Do we really take this seriously enough or have our hearts indeed become coarsened, dulled and insensitive to the delicacy of our loved One’s touch so that we are no longer even conscious of the subtle movements of grace, the voice of the spirit calling us gently to deeper union and greater self giving. It is so easy to become comfortable with my selfishness, to allow my petty self concern pass unnoticed, to be untroubled by the negative movements of my own spirit- nothing as glaringly obvious as drunkenness and debauchery- but perhaps more insidious and dangerous because more easily overlooked or excused.

What are the cares of life? Are they not the thoughts and actions that draw our hearts away from Jesus? What preoccupies me? What thoughts are running round in my head when I stop and become aware of myself? In the past hour where have I been? Where does my mind go when it is not occupied with the task in hand?  Is even the task in hand perhaps a care of life?. Something necessary, yes, and perhaps even noble in its self but how much honesty and integrity do I bring to it? Have I invested more care, more time more energy in it that is needful? And to what end, for what reason- to impress, to make myself acceptable to God, to others, to justify myself, to keep in control. Have I been too concerned about its success because any hint of failure makes me feel vulnerable? And so it goes on….

Then there are the good things….our concern for one another; our anxiety for the sick; our worry over those hurting; our heartache over the Church and the world? Can these also become the cares of life? Are there not times when our anxiety exhausts us, numbing us, preventing us concentrating, preventing us praying. Can we not become fixated on our worries, responding with an intensity and distress to life’s dramas big and small, within and outside ourselves that perhaps stems from a lack of trust in God’s loving care for us and his mercy for our world?

As we journey through this Advent, it can be different. God’s word is alive and active, offering liberation. ‘Our liberation is at hand’. That seems to imply that we do not ourselves set our hearts free- Freedom is given to us. Liberation comes to us and it comes in the moment when we realise our need for it and humbly acknowledge our helplessness.

That is why we are told to watch ourselves. The ancient monastic practise of vigilance makes it possible for our thoughts to tell us where our hearts are, our anxieties to tell us where our trust truly is.

These things that menace us, that bewilder us both within ourselves and outside ourselves can become moments wherein the Son of Man reveals his power and his glory.

Stand erect hold your heads high for the Lord, your liberator, is your integrity.

Feast of Christ the King

From all eternity , O Lord, you are Ps.92.

Our Responsorial Psalm in today’s Liturgy gives us an insight into the depth and origin – although He has no origin – of this Person, this One in Three, whom we call our God, our King – the one St. Teresa of Avila, affectionately addressed as “Your Majesty”-. “The world you made firm from of old – yes, from all eternity, you are’.

During the past week, a few other passages from our daily Scripture, helped me to fathom a little deeper this line: ‘From all eternity, O Lord, you are’.

Amos, the prophet, tells us:

‘He it was who formed the mountains, created the wind –

he made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns the dusk to dawn and the day to darkest night.

He has built his high place in the heavens,

and supported his vault on the earth. Amos 4:5,9.

And this is only a brief glimpse into the mystery and wonder of it all.

We have only to read what our Scientists tell about the origins of our mountains and streams, our stars and planets, created billions of years ago – our minds boggle at the whole geographic scene, and yet this same mighty God is He who comes to us in a wafer of bread, and a drop of wine – his Body and Blood consecrated by the Priest at every Mass. As Cardinal John Henry Newman prayed: “You are now, though in Heaven, just the same as you were on earth; the mighty God and yet the little child – the all holy yet all sensitive one” – our Lord and King inviting us into His Kingdom. Only by faith can we even dimly comprehend this mystery – this love story.

‘Jesus, my King, whom I look at shrouded here below,

I beseech you send me what I long for so,
Some day to gaze on you face to face in light,

And be blest forever with your glory’s sight.

St. Thomas Aquinas O.P.

And now, your Majesty, I make one last prayer in the words of Jesus, your Son:

"Father, I want these you have given me to be with me where I am – so that they may always see the glory you have given me because you loved me before the foundations of the world" Jn:24.17.

Yes, indeed Father, may your Kingdom come to every one of your children.