Thursday, December 5, 2013
Advent Reflection
  
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

 

It is you who light my lamp;

The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.

 

Psalm 18:28
Reflection
  

 

Winter brings darkness. Outside our windows, the days have shortened, and the nights lengthened. Darkness covers the earth, yet our church celebrates Christmas, the arrival of Jesus, the light of the world, at this time of year. It's is just like God to bring light into our darkest times? Light brings life. Light supports growth. And, a lamp lit in the darkness shows us the way. C.S. Lewis describes the power of God's light shining in the darkness of our lives this way:

 

"We - or at least I - shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have not learned the habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, not have 'tasted and seen.' Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are 'patches of godlight' in the woods of experience."

 

 ---C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer

 
Prayer

Dear God,

 

Light our lamps this day.  Bring us hope in the darkness. 

 Fill us with the glorious light of your Holy Spirit, that our souls may be warmed by the fire of your overwhelming, unchanging love. 

 May this flame you have lit within us illuminate the path

we should walk in order to do your will today.  Amen.

  

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