Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent
December 19, 2022
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121922.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray, “O Root of Jesse’s Stem”, addressing, in this short prayer, the whole historic ancestry of Jesus.
The phrase, taken from Isaiah 11, recognizes Jesus as the sign of deliverance for both Jews and Gentiles.
This Antiphon is unique in that it not only beseeches the Savior to come. It says, “Tarry not!”
Do you ever ask God to hurry up and answer your prayers?
What is most urgent for you to place before God today?
Let us pray this prayer together today, dear friends, for our urgent needs and those of our needy world:
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
O Root of Jesse’s stem,
sign of God’s love for all his people:
come to save us without delay!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
In our readings today, we meet two great prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, both born miraculously; both fully dedicated to revealing God’s Presence in the world.
Praying with them today, we prepare ourselves to encounter the greatest of all miraculous nativities, the birth of Jesus Christ – the ultimate revelation of God’s own Self.
Poetry: Song of Zechariah – Irene Zimmerman, OSF
(LUKE 1:59–79)
At the circumcision of his son,
relatives and neighbors came
to speak for Zechariah of the tied
tongue. The child, they concurred,
would bear his worthy father’s name.
But during her husband’s silence,
old Elizabeth had found her voice.
“His name will be John,” she said.
Why this strange, unprecedented choice,
the relatives and neighbors wondered.
Armed with writing instrument,
back they went to poor, dumb Zechariah.
But during the long confinement,
as young Mary and Elizabeth
spoke about the missions of their sons,
he had listened and grown wise.
Straightaway, he wrote: “His name is John.”
He caught Elizabeth’s smiling eyes,
felt his old tongue loosen, found his voice,
sang of God’s tender mercy,
sang of the breaking dawn,
sang of the prophet, their son,
who would make straight the way
for the long awaited One.
Music: O Root of Jesse – Michael G. Hegemony
Lavish Mercy 