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Second Week of Advent, Dec. 4-10, 2011
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Greetings of peace!
Each Tuesday during Advent, we'll be sending out a PSA (Pray-Study-Act) e-bulletin, with ideas and resources for the upcoming week of Advent for you to use individually, with your group, in your families and within your local church. We hope that you'll find these helpful and that they will deepen your experience of the season. Today's PSA is for next week, the Second Week of Advent, Dec. 4-10.
For reflections and resources throughout this Advent season, click here to visit our Advent resource page on the website. Thanks!
In peace,
Johnny Zokovitch
Director of Communications, Pax Christi USA
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| PRAY: Dec. 4, Second Sunday of Advent | | |
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11 | 2 Peter 3:8-14 | Mark 1:1-8
THE WORD ANNOUNCES NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH
"What we await are new heavens and a new earth where...the just of God will reside." (2 Peter 3:13)
"Make ready the way...clear a straight path." (Mark 1:2)
George Frederic Handel opened his stirring Messiah with Isaiah's words, "Comfort my people," from today's Scripture. "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem... Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah, 'Here is your God.'"
Today, John the Baptist announces the astounding news that the Messiah has arrived. Here, in Jesus, is our God. Now we know where to look. Now, for all time, we have God's comforting Word, God's tender response to an ailing humanity.
This Word guides us as we are renewed in the Spirit, as we become more alive. When we enter into the reality of the Word become human, we will experience the Word in other human beings. We will realize in our heart of hearts the truth that Vatican II spoke: "The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these, too, are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ."
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STUDY: Finding Advent peace
along the Carolina coast
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by Rev. John Dear, SJ, PCUSA Ambassador of Peace
It's common here in North Carolina's Outer Banks to see pelicans glide effortlessly in single file a foot above the breaking waves along the coastline. On occasion, I've seen a hundred pelicans circle over a dark area in the ocean. One by one, they dive straight down into the water to feed off a school of fish.
The other day, I watched in wonder as a dozen dolphins swam by. I especially enjoy studying sandpipers, the small, white birds with tiny legs like toothpicks who run down the beach right into the face of an oncoming wave, pick at the sand, and then turn around and run back before they get hit by the wave. Back and forth, all day long, they run right into the face of an oncoming wall of water and then turn around.
The North Carolina coast is known for its rugged beauty and raw wildness. It's a good place to step out of our violent, consumer society and rediscover the refreshing reality of creation. Because the Outer Banks juts far out into the Atlantic, the currents and tides are particularly rough. The ocean can seem enchanting one day, and angry and menacing the next. It is alive, and one feels more alive in its presence.
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ACT: First Fridays for Food Security
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This Friday, December 2 (the first Friday in December), the USCCB's Office for Justice, Peace and Human Development is inviting Catholics to "fast" by limiting meal spending to the amount allotted for a family of their size in the USDA Modified Thrifty Food Plan, which is used as the basis for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called food stamps).
This program happens on the first Friday of each month through April 6, 2012. Families and individuals can participate in First Fridays for Food Security as a way to raise awareness about food insecurity in the U.S. and pray and act for those in need. You can take part by limiting meal spending on the first Friday of each month to the amount allotted for a family of their size in the USDA Modified Thrifty Food Plan. This food plan is used as the basis for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called food stamps). In 2009, 17.4 million U.S. households experienced food insecurity.
Participants can then visit the Facebook event page to leave comments about their experiences and access information and reflections on food insecurity.
A two-page handout on the December 2 theme of "Migrants and Food Security" is also available.
Consider undertaking this Friday fast each Friday of Advent, using past hand-outs on additional themes with your family, church, or small group. Or consider doing the first Friday fast every Friday in the new year through April.
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