Tuesday December 17, 2019

Zechariah 2: 1 – 13  

Psalm 45

Revelation 3: 14 – 22 

Matthew 24: 32 – 44 

The imminence of joy glistens through all the readings of this day with a glory described in exotic symbols of gold, ivory palaces, and fragrant spices. This is not an unexpected joy but one greeted with expectation and fulfillment. A joy that comes through a deep faith, fidelity and perseverance towards an intentional living relationship with Christ and others in the busyness of the everyday. Christ beckons to us from the very heart of life and we must not risk falling for the most dangerous of all delusions: that of there being plenty of time to respond. We know it is Christ that shines within us, showing us the transcendental virtues of goodness, beauty and truth that shine in our soul, inherited by virtue of being created in God’s likeness. But this core must be fully owned and engaged as a living flame that glows through a kind heart, shines in a compassionate mind and emits love through a generous and gentle spirit. This is the door by which Christ’s knocks, a place of new beginnings for a heart that wants to be opened to kindness, generosity, and patience; filled with the light of compassion, in a willing and constant state of transformative change. May we open the door of our hearts to give vitality to the light that abides within this Advent season so that we can all awaken and greet the coming of Christ with a deep abiding joy in the celebration that is a life lived to the full towards a new dawning.

A Sister of SSJD

Monday, December 16, 2019

Zechariah1: 7 – 17

Psalm 41, 52

Revelation 3: 7 – 13 

Matthew 24: 15 – 31 

The readings appointed for today are all about God’s vengeance and destruction, certainly not about divine light!  As we approach Christmas, we are surrounded by light – artificial light, multi-coloured, flashing and glaring with that horrible LED glow! 

Christmas can be the darkest of times for many.  Loneliness, isolation, homelessness, hunger, family squabbles, anything but the love of Christ whose birth we want to celebrate.  The lights of Christmas cast a black shadow for many.  For more and more people Christ’s light is not a reality.  And the Christ whose birth we celebrate is not even part of the equation.  It’s a holiday season at the idol of consumerism.

So, what are we being called to do?  How is God’s divine light being manifested in each of us?  And how are we bringing and being light in the world?  The psalmist instructs us: “Happy are they who consider the poor and the needy!” and goes on to tell us that if we do this God will look after us in time of trouble and when we are sick.

But, I do not believe that God barters with us…if you do this, God will do that.  God loves us unconditionally and in so doing has planted Christ’s light within us.  That light radiates within, healing us, forgiving our sins and helping to make us a whole person capable of bringing light to others.  

When we shine with inner light Christ’s light shines forth in all our actions and, in so doing, we can bring the spirit of Christmas alive throughout the year.   

Doreen Davidson   

Sunday, December 15

Psalm 63: 1 – 8, 98 

Amos 9: 11-15

2 Thessalonians 2: 1-3, 13-17

John 5: 30 – 47   

“Because You have been my help,

Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.” Psalm 63:7

As age and health issues over the last seven years lowered my abilities to keep up with my desires to do; now I needed to learn to be. That decision came with much difficulty. Fortunately I received good advice and wise counsel – which I finally adopted - from others who journeyed with me.  

Most recently, following two and a half years of treatment and self-care after a fall on the ice in Dec. 2016, I began to realize I had reached the highest level I could attain on this healing journey. Being pro-active, I had sought medical and complementary health care. I had, however, re-damaged previous injuries that did not recover as well as before including additional damages of the hip area.

I began praying for God’s guidance to help me accept my limitations with grace. So, when a Eucharist dismissal deeply touched my spirit, I chose to paraphrase it as my personal prayer: May I go in peace, glorifying the Lord by my life. Thanks be to God.

Over time I recognized what being meant for me—freely letting go of what I could no longer do, and doing what I could. It is about presence—with those I encounter in life; my relationships with family, friends, SSJD Sisters and Oblates; my prayer life and ministry, and church attendance and involvement as I am able. 

Once convinced, I felt content and relieved by allowing myself to live in this new found freedom—to be. 

To God be the glory.

Phyllis Beauchamp

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Haggai 2:1 – 9 

Psalm 30, 32

Revelation 3: 1 – 6 

Matthew 24: 1 – 14 

Haggai the prophet hears the voice of God concerning the new temple.  Overnight, David’s weeping turns to joy; he hears God saying to him “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go…counsel you and watch over you”.   John urges the people of Sardis to “wake up and strengthen what (they) still have before it dies completely”.  Jesus’ response to the disciples’ questions – “beware that no-one leads you astray” – precedes a list of what sounds much like our current events. He states “this is routine history…No sign of the end…stay with it”.

Reading the four translations that I have from NRSV, NIV, The Message and Good News did not immediately prompt me with “divine light” as I couldn’t even see the words.  As I read through Psalm 30 again, perhaps with a more open and receptive mind - a glimmer?  A “light” flickered – a “bright” thought, an insight? I went back and read the passages again…and again.

I wonder…In order to have or experience “insight” into or about something or someone, is it a form of “divine light” that puts a different glow on our openness to the situation, shape or object?  Sounds rather simplistic…but is it?

In this season of Advent we have the opportunity to be open to let the divine light of insight come into familiar and even old ideas and experience them anew.  May God help us to leave our receiver switch “on”!

Mary L. (Bunny) Stewart

Friday, December 13, 2019

Haggai 1: 1 – 15 

Psalm 31

Revelation 2: 18 – 29 

Matthew 23: 27 – 39 

Perhaps our earliest memory of a picture of Jesus is of the caring shepherd tending lovingly to the sheep, carrying a lamb upon His shoulder, rescuing a fallen lamb from a rocky precipice. 

Have you ever compared Jesus to a hen, gathering her scattered chicks to her, protecting them under her “puffed up” wings and breast feathers?

One of today’s verses is from Matthew 23: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you were not willing.”

Jesus longs to mother us, to protect us, to give us comfort, to forgive us as does a mother.

Now we are awaiting the birth of The Christ Child, The Messiah, who is coming to share just how much God loves us. This wee baby will be our Shepherd who lovingly leads us through life's challenges, who will tenderly carry us and reach out to rescue us. This baby will be our Mother Hen who will lovingly gather us in under protective feathers.

In the words of Sr. Elizabeth Ann Eckert SSJD, from her hymn “Christ the Hen”:

“O Jesus you long to gather us up

and shelter us under your wings.

As a hen takes her brood within her nest

close sheltered from danger and harm

You stretch out your strong arms, like wings on the cross

and lovingly gather us in.

Your heart calls to us as hens call their broods,

and you shelter us close by your heart.”*

Carolyn Madeley

*used with permission

Thursday, December 12, 2019

The Christ of the Breadlines  by Fritz Eichenberg (1901-1990)

Amos 9: 1-10

Psalm 37: 1 – 18 

Revelation 2: 8 – 17  

Matthew 23:13 – 26

“Divine Light” – “Divine Truth”.  The light of God is a pure light.  Whatever that light touches, exposes divine truth. 

We are reminded today that God’s truth is not the world’s truth.  We are warned against following the ways of the world over the ways of God. We hear this in the words of the prophet Amos who cautions us against neglecting the laws of God by ignoring the needs of the poor.  We hear this in the book of Revelation as we are encouraged to “Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  God understands the affliction and poverty of the rich.  We hear it in the Gospel of Matthew as the scribes and Pharisees, the leaders of the church, are admonished for lining their own pockets and forgetting the needs of the poor. Their focus is on adiaphora and not on things that are life-giving and life-supporting.

Today, we are reminded that God’s truth is not the world’s truth.  Advent, the season of preparation for the incarnation, is not about how we serve ourselves.  It is about how we give witness to the light of God through our service to others. 

Debra Johnston

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Amos 8:1 – 14   

Psalm 38

Revelation 1: 17 – 2:7 

Matthew 23: 1 – 12 

Oh my! What foreboding texts for today. So full of gloom and doom. The prophet receives a harsh warning with respect to the waywardness of the people. The psalmist is so overcome with grief as to withdraw from once normal discourse with his friends. The seer is taken for a walk among the lamp-stands representing the Churches, each one under the ever watchful eye and judgement of the Lord. The scribes and Pharisees are hearing woes condemning the lack of integrity with respect to much of their religious practices.

In my struggle to find ‘light’ in the midst of so much darkness, I found myself drawn to Jesus’ words to the angel of the Church in Ephesus. He commends them for their toil and patient endurance. However, his complaint about them? “You have less love now than you used to.”

Love for Christ and his teachings. It seems the original love, for whatever reason or circumstance, was greatly diminished or abandoned. The judgement and call for us to be renewed in that first love leaves me wondering. What would the One who walks among the lamp-stands say of our own Church, of its love? Is it generously hospitable, fully inclusive, genuinely compassionate and radically committed to the justice that marks the reign of Christ? And, likewise, what about me and my love? How have I abandoned it?  So today, I pray for our renewed joy in the Gospel, for strength to live our lives in the light of its teachings and blessings and for mercy on the day of the Lord’s judgement of all who bear His name.

Lynne Samways-Hiltz 

and Fred Hiltz