Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Matthew 12: 15b-21 

Each season of the year and of the church calendar gives us the gift of time for reflection; to hear God’s invitation as God’s chosen, the one in whom God loves and delights in. God came down among us through the Word and each Advent we are invited to reflect and bring Christ anew into our heart – to become our best selves again and again through God’s Spirit working in and through us during the year. At our baptism God’s Spirit is put upon us and we grow in that Spirit.

Winter: Time to reflect to make new - God’s invitation to Mary to bring to birth a new way of life on which we can put our hope and Mary’s “Yes” to God;

Spring: New life - resurrection/transformation - a new way of being is beginning to take root;

Summer: Growth through God’s Spirit working in and through me;

Fall: Maturity in the love God as God’s beloved and chosen servant. Sharing that love with others.

What is God’s invitation to me here and now?

What is my response going to be?

Advent calls me to become aware anew that my journey is just begun as God’s beloved chosen servant as I am invited to share God’s love with others in all of life circumstances and situations in yet another coming year; looking with anticipation for God’s surprises and delights.

-Sr. Dorothy Handrigan

Monday, November 30, 2015

Sculpture by Sr. Rosemary Anne SSJD

Jeremiah 29:11-13

God has a plan, plans for our welfare and not for harm, to give us a future with hope. There are times when we find that hard to believe, yet we must if we are to keep despair at bay during our darkest times - or even when we are watching the evening news.

It can be hard to live in the present moment knowing that all is well without knowing on some deep level that “all shall be well” because God does have plans for our welfare and not for harm, that God has given us a promise of a future with hope.

It can be hard to get through our daily struggles and concerns without this faith. We have to claim these promises and so many more that God has made to us and that can be found throughout Scripture. We need to not only read Scripture and meditate on it, but also claim it, putting our name or the name of our loved ones in the Scripture and praying it personally while giving thanks that these promises have already been fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

So please pray today's reading as if God is speaking to you personally, which I believe to be true, and claim it. Make room in your heart by letting these promises clear out the darkness, despair, doubt and fear that can too easily fill it instead. “Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.”

Nancy Scott

Sunday, November 29, 2015

HOPE

Isaiah 52:7-10 

What an incredible reading to begin Advent 2015 – filled with hope of a return of the people of Judah from bondage and exile in Babylon to Jerusalem, hope that the temple would be re-built and worship restored, hope that God would return as promised through the prophets and love his people once again. And, in verse seven, the proclamation that God reigns. What a powerful statement that in fact summarizes the entire message of these three amazing verses.

This short biblical text begins with the voice of a single messenger, spreads to the voices of the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, and then to the whole of Jerusalem, so that a whole choir is singing praises to God. But it is the final message in verse ten of global anticipation that particularly resonates with me. The message is for “all the nations” and it is a message for today as well. In the midst of the ruins in our world, as we see people still being held in bondage and oppression, as we see great destruction and waste of our beautiful planet, as we witness great human suffering all around us, we can still experience the great hope and the great faith that says – God’s purpose is global, for all of us and forever. “God Reigns”.

-Sandi Austin

Forward

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you’ve refreshed the hearts of God’s people. Philemon 1:7

During Advent, we’re invited to make an interior journey and to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child. 

While the distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem is only 60 miles (96 km) as the crow flies, the route Mary and Joseph likely travelled for safety’s sake took them 80 miles (129 km) over rugged terrain. Today, the trip can be made in two to three hours by car, but when Joseph walked the route, leading the donkey that carried Mary, it probably took them nearly a week. The Gospels don’t really describe the kind of shelter loaned them on their arrival nor can we know how comfortable it was. It may have been a stable, or a cave or even a back room in a house where a family kept their livestock. Whatever it was, it wasn’t much of a welcome for the long-awaited Messiah; yet gladly, willingly, Jesus came to be born in that shelter and from that moment on, began changing the hearts and lives of all who welcome him in. The busy-ness we bring upon ourselves in the days before Christmas so often bring us stress rather than anticipation, short-fuses rather than kindness, exhaustion rather than celebration and conflict rather than harmony. These daily reflections are an invitation to experience more fully the true Advent gifts of hope, love, joy, and peace as we seek to make room in our hearts to embrace the One who knows and loves us best. 

Written by 19 Oblates and 6 Sisters, these daily offerings include a suggested reading. May these entries form part of your daily devotions. 

It is our prayer that these little embers, the lectio of our lives, will provide food for the journey. We welcome your company as we seek to make room in our hearts – and lives. 

Regular posts will commence on the first Sunday of Advent.  

Canadian Thanksgiving

For food in a world where many walk in hunger;

for faith in a world where many walk in fear;

for friends in a world where many walk alone;

we give you humble thanks, O Lord.

Watch this  space for a new series of Advent reflections, Coming Soon.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Psalm 45, 46

Isaiah 35:1–10        

Revelation 22:12–17, 21        

Luke 1:67–80

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;  for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways. To give God’s people knowledge of salvation, by the forgiveness of their sins.  Luke 1: 76 – 77 

Daily I recite the Song of Zechariah (Luke 1. 67 - 80) at Morning Prayer.  The words have sunk into my heart over the years.  I can imagine when I’m speaking them that I’m looking intently at a child held in my arms.  I don’t often stop to think who the child is.  The child could be those we are trying to nurture in the faith or Religious Life, or our family, community, or this fragile earth. The child could also be me.

Most of us by this time have much if not all of our preparations done for Christmas.  We’ve baked and cooked, cleaned and polished, bought or made gifts and wrapped them, sent cards and loving thoughts to friends and family members near and far.  All these preparations tell us that we are ready for the coming of Christmas, at least outwardly.  But what about our inmost preparations?

If I hear those same words of the Song of Zechariah as if they were addressed to me personally, then  I am the one who is to prepare God’s way, here and now.  I need to prepare God’s way in my heart and life.  If I know that my sins have been forgiven, then I can forgive others as our Saviour, the Messiah for whom we wait, taught us.  May we make our inmost preparations with as much attention as we do outwardly this Christmas.

- Sr. Elizabeth Ann Eckert, SSJD

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Psalm 93, 96

Isaiah 33:17–22      

Revelation 22:6–11, 18–20    

Luke 1:57–66

What then is this child going to be? Luke 1:66

Two more sleeps! A lot of children are getting excited about Santa visiting their homes tomorrow night and hoping for gifts to miraculously appear under the tree. A great deal of preparation and expectation goes into the weeks and days leading up to Christmas Day. During Advent, we have been preparing our hearts for the expected birth of the Baby Jesus. Indeed two births have been heralded by an angel, sent to announce to two unsuspecting families that each will welcome a son. These will be no ordinary sons, but special men, who will promote God's kingdom here on earth. In our Advent readings, John has now been born, to the delight of Elizabeth and Zechariah. This boy, ordained by God to play a key role in the drama of the ages, will grow “to be called a prophet of the Most High.” He will “go on before the Lord to prepare a way for Him”. Indeed, John will be first to call Jesus the Messiah. 

Along with youngsters counting the “sleeps” until Christmas, we too are excited as we prepare for the birth of Jesus.  Over the ages, has there ever been anything awaited with more anticipation than the birth of a baby? I think of Mary, in the throes of labour, arriving in Bethlehem, jogging along on a donkey to find that there was no available room where she might be delivered of her baby in some degree of comfort. I compare Mary's journey with my “in labour” trips, being driven in a comfortable car to the pristine sanctuary of a Toronto hospital. Jesus entered this world in a dirty, uncomfortable byre. Will He find a more welcoming place in our hearts this Christmastide? Have we prepared a pure and loving space for Him? Will we heed Zechariah's prophesy as he spoke lovingly of his son John, ”for he will go before the Lord to prepare the way for him.” Come, Lord Jesus.

   – Carolyn Madeley