Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Advent Reflections
Diocese of Newark


Thank you for joining us as we begin the journey of Advent.  Each day you will receive a scripture reading, a reflection on that reading and a short prayer (except on Sundays when you will receive the Gospel lesson and a prayer).  The word "Advent" means "coming". It is a time to slow down, be quiet and meditate about the real meaning of Christmas.
  
These meditations and prayers have been prepared by a team of diverse members of our Diocese.  Joan Chittister, says: "The function of Advent is to remind us what we're waiting for as we go through life too busy with things that do not matter to remember the things that do. Advent asks the question, what is it for which you are spending your life?"
  
We all desperately crave more meaningful, less cluttered, lives, yet we rarely take the time to slow down and ask this question. The hope is that these reflections each day during the four weeks before Christmas will help us to prepare our hearts and our lives as we wait for the coming of Jesus.

May this Advent be a time of hope, anticipation and a deepening of our relationship with God. Please feel free to share.
                                                          Scripture
  
 

Therefore I intend to keep reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

 

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased". We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

 

So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

 

2 Peter 1:12-21

Reflection
 

It is comforting to know that the disciples of Jesus were so diligent in keeping His message alive. Through their letters to each other and to the men and women who were listening to them as they traveled around the countries they visited, it is these letters that kept the teachings of Jesus relevant. The disciples did not repeat the teachings from their own interpretations but rather from the direct voices coming to them from the Holy Spirit or from their own "eyewitness" accounts of the prophetic teachings. Without these eyewitness accounts and the diligent exhortations and constant reminders of the disciples to keep the message alive, we would not now have the written account of all that Jesus wanted us to know. It is interesting to realize that in an age when the population of the world was without any of our modern conveniences and communication was by word of mouth or letters delivered by hand by people who had to walk from one place to another, or, if they were very lucky, by donkey or horse, that the message of hope which Jesus brought to the world was able to be communicated at all, and kept alive for future generations. It is through the diligence of men such as Peter that we now have that message.

Prayer
 

 

"Precious Lord,

grant me

   a sense of humor

       that adds perspective to compassion

   gratitude

       that adds persistence to courage,

   quietness of spirit

       that adds irrepressibility of hope,

   openness of mind

        that adds surprise to joy;

that with gladness of heart

I may link arm and arm

with (Simon Peter) who saw signs of your kingdom---

and who opens my eyes with these signs

   and my ears with the summons

       to follow to something more

           of justice and joy."*

 

from Guerrillas of Grace; Ted Loder p.29

 

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