At the Heart of Advent

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2 At the Heart of Advent A Spiritual Guide for Advent 2014 Sister Carol Perry, S.U. Marble Collegiate Church One West 29th Street, New York, NY

3 O ur Advent pilgrimage this year will be more carefully focused as we spend time with the two families who are at the heart of this lovely season. We will first consider God at work in the lives of Zechariah and Elizabeth. They have no children and, in that first century world, their lives are thought to be incomplete. To be without a son is to allow the family name to die and the male is lost to memory. Because of a defective view of biology, the fault always lay with the woman, so Elizabeth s neighbors would have probably viewed her suspiciously. We all need to reflect on how God changes their story with the child they are ultimately given to nurture. John the Baptist deserves his own special meditation. He has a remarkable role as the last of the prophets and the forerunner of the Messiah. It is a unique vocation that links him to the mission of Jesus. It deserves to be carefully enfolded into the days before Christmas. We must also spend time with Mary and Joseph, a young couple who had had no idea how God would upend their lives by inviting them into the great drama of this blessed season that will bring God to earth. In our prayer time we need to acknowledge their real human fears and doubts which are part of every journey into the unknown. We know where this story will end on Christmas Day, but the road is never quite the same because we are not the people we were last year or the year before. May we begin with excitement and with the confidence that our prayers will bind us to each other as we head to Bethlehem again. Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

4 November 30 Sunday 1 Monday In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth... But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years. W LUKE 1:5,7 e start our Advent journey with two good people, Zechariah who is part of the Temple priesthood, and his wife, Elizabeth, whose ancestry is actually superior to his. She is a descendant of Aaron himself. But their heritage counts for little since their neighbors see them as failures. But they had no children... What grief that must have been in their world where a child meant one had a future. Let us begin this blessed season by acknowledging that failure and darkness might come our way too. We need faith to see us through. Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. Z LUKE 1:8 echariah must often have prayed, Lord, send us a child. Without children a man s name was forever lost and his memory gone. I wonder if this day his prayer was mechanical. Does that happen when we find ourselves praying for the same thing again and again? He does not know that he is about to receive an answer. How persevering is our prayer? Does our fervor diminish as we think that God doesn t hear us? Let us examine how and for what we most often pray.

5 2 Tuesday 3 Wednesday H How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years. LUKE 1:13 ow human this Zechariah is, telling God s angel what God already knows as if that might make a difference. Zechariah s human objections are so big he cannot accept the fact that God can work around anything. His faith is wavering. This is a day to pray for the grace to enter into the plan of God, no matter how humanly strange it might be. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur. W LUKE 1:20 hen Zechariah returns home this day, how must Elizabeth feel? She had sent him off to the Temple in fine health and he returns unable to speak. By sign or words on a wax tablet does he convey to her what has happened? And when she conceives in the weeks that follow, how can she contain both her joy and her wonder as to where this all might end? How patient are we when God s plan seems infinitely slow to come to fruition? Let us pray this day for this gift with Elizabeth as our model.

6 4 Thursday 5 Friday They were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, No, he is to be called John. LUKE 1:59-60 T he ever helpful neighbors move onto the scene, front and center. Somehow over the nine months of waiting, Zechariah has managed to convey to his wife the name given by the angel, a name meaning God s gracious gift. Their longed for child is just that. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, His name is John. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed. LUKE 1:63-64 F or nine long months as the child was being formed in Elizabeth s womb, Zechariah had ample time to reflect in his enforced silence. He is ready now to obey without question. As his stylus scratches across the waxed tablet, he longs to sing God s praise. Let us reflect who in our lives might deserve this title. Is it a relative, a mentor, a friend? Or are there several for whom we need to give thanks today? For what might we too sing praise to God today?

7 6 Saturday 7 Sunday W And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High LUKE 1:76 hat a scene! A man no longer young is holding new born proof of answered prayer. This moment ties together the two testaments of the Bible. John will be the last of the great line of those prophets who were called to be the conscience of Israel. He will also become the forerunner of the Messiah. M The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. LUKE 3:2 ore than two decades are compressed into that one sentence. When does John become aware of his destiny? How old is he when he says farewell to loving parents and goes into the desert to find his roots? And how fitting that, in the very place where Moses and the Israelites had been formed, John finds his soul s place too. If the word prophet means messenger, we are each called to be prophets where we live and work. How might a stranger read each of us today? Let us pray to be worthy messengers. Let us take time this day to meet our God of the wilderness who would speak to each of us alone with nothing to distract.

8 8 Monday 9 Tuesday J Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. LUKE 3:4 ohn s opening call is not his but that of Isaiah who, eight centuries before, had predicted the coming of the Messiah. This word is now urgent; there is no more time to dream. If the king is coming, there is road work to do, pot holes to be filled and the runnels from the winter s rains to be smoothed out. What soul road work do we need to be about as part of our Christmas preparation? A And the crowds asked him, What then should we do? LUKE 3:10 mazingly, John becomes a popular figure, someone who draws friend and foe alike to the banks of the Jordan. Each has the same burning need to know what has to be done. John s replies are tailored to each group, but they can be summarized as Be honest and respect your neighbor. Then come to baptism as a sign of your sincerity. In prayer, echo the cry of that crowd and seek an honest answer.

9 10 Wednesday 11 Thursday One who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. J LUKE 3:16 ohn s great gift is his total clarity. He knows exactly who he is and he knows the One of whom he speaks. There is no false humility in his words. He himself is not the total answer and he directs us to look to Him who is. As we pray to understand Advent more clearly we realize that Jesus is coming to fulfill no human dreams of grandeur but to do the will of God. W What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? LUKE 7:24 hat an image this gives of what John is not. There is nothing shaky about this intense young man, cousin of Jesus, child born of longing and prayer, destined for Herod s dungeon but anxious for his disciples to not be left forlorn. Honed by the desert winds, John is almost a creature of the wilderness itself. He is anything but a quivering reed. Jesus rightly calls him more than a prophet. With what truth do we need to wrestle today so that Christ might come into our lives with all honesty? Let us walk today beside this extraordinary man whose brief ministry meant so much to Jesus.

10 12 Friday 13 Saturday J Among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. LUKE 7:28 ohn had such a rare vocation. His work is to prepare the way, not to see it happen. We are the blessed ones who know about the kingdom s coming. John worked in hope and faith. We live in the fruits of his endeavors. This is a day to reflect upon the deep truth that we are all part of something so much greater than we can see. Let us pray in gratitude for prophets like John who speak truth with love and courage. May we imitate them. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me. J MARK 11:30 ohn is executed by Herod but his reputation remains undiminished. In the last week of his life Jesus can be found challenging his enemies by invoking John. The authority figures of Jerusalem are afraid to answer Jesus because the people rightly continue to regard John as truly a prophet. His reputation is so great that his work cannot be of human origin. John has become God s gracious gift as his name implies. Let us spend our prayer time today with this incredible man whose name reminds us of one of the deeper meanings of the gifts that are emblems of this season.

11 14 Sunday 15 Monday L In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth LUKE 1:26 uke s first chapter is an amazing contrast in images. It begins with the splendor of the temple where Zechariah is at work but shifts in this verse to a rural town. Does God smile as he sends an angel to a tiny dot on the map almost unnoticed by anyone in the first century world? God aims for Nazareth because it is here that Mary lives and He has need of her. This is a day to focus in our prayer on the fact that every place is holy ground if we find God there waiting for us. H to a virgin engaged [espoused] to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. LUKE 1:27 ere is a young couple, espoused according to the custom of the day, but not yet living together. No one in Nazareth is wealthy, so we are not wrong in seeing them as poor in this world s goods. However, there is wealth in Joseph s heritage. He is of the house of David, long deprived of earthly kingdoms but very much alive in the hearts of Israel as the source for the Messiah. Let us reflect in prayer on our ancestors, those to whom we owe life and family name, and let us give thanks.

12 16 Tuesday 17 Wednesday W Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. LUKE 1:30 e have heard these words again and again, but let us hear them as if for the first time. The angel says Mary is not to be afraid because God has an idea. That is enough to strike terror in any human heart. With good reason does Gabriel begin by reassuring Mary. Don t we often share that feeling? Let us take our fears in prayer to God this day, confident that He can restore peace to our souls. T Nothing will be impossible with God. LUKE 1:37 he entire Advent mystery is encompassed in these words. That God should come to earth and live among us is not in the realm of daily events. Yet our God chose to do just that. His plan waits upon the consent of this young woman who is not used to having her daily routine interrupted by angelic visitors. Gabriel waits. God waits. The unimaginable has just been proposed. We might want to say again and again, in total faith, that nothing will be impossible with God. It is the perfect Advent prayer.

13 18 Thursday 19 Friday Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. D LUKE 1:38 o you wonder how long a space there was between Gabriel s request and Mary s yielding to the will of God? If there is to be an incarnation, Mary s free consent is needed. Her words are the pure offering of a human heart. They are not lightly given. Can we pray Mary s words today in trust and confidence? In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. C LUKE 1:39 hristian art has represented this many times, but the scene is ours to imagine this day: two expectant mothers, one well advanced in her pregnancy, in a fruitfulness almost beyond her hopes, and the other just beginning, both caught up in a plan of God of which they could never have dreamed. Nothing will ever again be the same in their lives. Is there a pre-christmas joy we might want to share with someone today, in the spirit of these two joyous women?

14 20 Saturday 21 Sunday T And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord. LUKE 1:45 wo women of faith trust that the Lord can speak in their lives, even as common wisdom says the opposite. The elder, Elizabeth, now knows that she can bear life. The younger, Mary, has consented to a plan of God for which there is no roadmap, no directions for birthing and raising the Messiah. Their trust in God is their only guide to the future. Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. M MATTHEW 1:20 atthew s gospel balances out the picture Luke has painted of Mary. Here it is Joseph who meets an angel in a dream, (the favorite way of God speaking to humans in the Old Testament), and he is reassured about the child Mary is carrying. He is addressed as son of David, the only time this phrase appears in the gospel when it does not apply to Jesus himself. Let us, in prayer, share both the deep joy and the understandable apprehension of Mary and Elizabeth as God s grace works in their souls. Let us spend time in prayer with this faithful, puzzled young man who is swept up into events that must have raised so many questions for him.

15 22 Monday 23 Tuesday I She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. MATTHEW 1:21 n good biblical fashion it is the father who must name the child, thereby claiming him as his own. Joseph is to do the same for this divine child who will grow up in Nazareth as the son of Joseph. It is he who will teach Jesus his trade, take him to the synagogue with the other men and their sons, and see him into adolescence. What a task, and, again, with no clear guidelines! In our prayer today let us share Joseph s very human concerns for the future. When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife J MATTHEW 1:24 oseph knows his dream is not of human origin and he accepts to do what has been asked of him. He is obedient. That phrase disguises all the struggles that must have gone on in his soul as he wrestles with this revelation. What lies ahead? He does not differ from each of us as we vainly attempt to peer into the future. Let us pray this day for the grace to hear what God asks of us just as Joseph did.

16 24 Wednesday All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem A LUKE 2:3-4 s they drew ever closer to Bethlehem, Joseph s worries must have multiplied before the reality he was facing. A crowded town offers no privacy. God has seemingly forgotten the reservations. Somehow Joseph finds that place with an animal s manger, empty except for some straw that no animal wanted. There are no interested neighbors such as Zechariah and Elizabeth had for baby John. There are just two apprehensive young people praying that God be with them in this hour. M 25 Thursday And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger. LUKE 2:7 ary swaddles the child as she has seen her neighbors do, and Joseph plumps up the straw to receive him. God s incredible idea has brought Emmanuel among us. Nothing on this earth will ever again be the same. We come in awe to this place as we whisper: What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary s lap is sleeping? In prayer, let us wait with them, alone, for the Child.

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18 C AROL PERRY, S.U., is Resident Bible Scholar at New York City s historic Marble Collegiate Church. She leads studies of the Bible in Marble s Spiritual Growth and Education Ministry and in business locations throughout Manhattan as part of the church s Spirituality in the Workplace outreach. Her standing-room-only Bible Class each Sunday morning is webcast live at 10:00am and repeated most Sundays at 12:45pm (ET) at A gifted teacher, Sister Carol uses her extensive scholarship and imaginative storytelling skills to offer a fresh and innovative approach to exploring the Scriptures, bringing people and stories of the Bible to life. Former Chair of the English Department at John A. Coleman High School in Kingston, New York, she received her Master s degree from St. Mary s at Notre Dame, Indiana, and studied at Fordham University and Regina Mundi in Rome. Carol Perry is a Sister of Saint Ursula. Photo: Dave Cross Designed by Robert Romagnoli

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