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.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our scripture readings roll out before our prayer the long line of salvation history. It is a line that we can walk in wonder, winding from Isaiah’s prophecy, through the House of David, down to Joseph dreaming in the Nazarene night, and Mary fully waking to God in the Nazarene morning.
It is a story filled with words we love because, ever since our childhood, they have carried to us the fragrant scent of Christmas. These readings are the thrilling stuff of prophecies and dreams, all the more wonderful because we know them now fulfilled.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.
Isaiah 7:14
Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew 1:20
This long wick of Promise, burning slowly through the biblical years, bursts into light with the birth of Jesus Christ, the Fire of God.
Through our faith, that Divine Light kindles us – we who now, through our Baptism, carry the sacred DNA of Jesus into our times.
On this final Sunday of Advent, when the world’s “crazy Xmas” tries to hijack our souls, let us be very intentional about the true meaning of these days. Let us take the time to “go into our heart cave” and prepare for Jesus.
Poetry: And in Her Morning – Jessica Powers
The Virgin Mary cannot enter into
my soul for an indwelling. God alone
has sealed this land as secretly His own;
but being mother and implored, she comes
to stand along my eastern sky and be
a drift of sunrise over God and me.
God is a light and genitor of light.
Yet for our weakness and our punishment
He hides Himself in midnights that prevent
all save the least awarenesses of Him.
We strain with dimmed eyes inward and perceive
no stir of what we clamored to believe.
Yet I say: God (if one may jest with God),
Your hiding has not reckoned with Our Lady
who holds my east horizon and whose glow
lights up my inner landscape, high and low.
All my soul’s acres shine and shine with her!
You are discovered, God; awake, rise
out of the dark of Your Divine surprise!
Your own reflection has revealed Your place,
for she is utter light by Your own grace.
And in her light I find You hid within me,
and in her morning I can see Your Face.
Music: Emmanuel – Tim Manion (Lyrics below)
Baby born in a stall. Long ago now and hard to recall Cold wind, darkness and sin, your welcoming from us all.
How can it be true? A world grown so old now, how can it be new? Sorrow’s end, God send, born now for me and you
Emanuel, Emanuel What are we that You have loved us so well? A song on high, a Savior’s high, angel hosts rejoice Thy glory to tell
Lord, lead us to know. You lay like a beggar, so humble, so low; no place for Your head and straw for a bed, the glory of God to show.
Babe on mother’s knee, child so soon to be nailed to a tree; all praise, till the end of our days; O Lord, You have set us free
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we begin the recitation of the O Antiphons.
No doubt many of you, like me, love these beautiful verses for any number of reasons:
First off, they alert us that we are very close to the astounding miracle of Christmas!
They capture, in a very simple way, the riches of the Hebrew Scriptures which foretold and longed for the Messiah.
The dramatic “O” introducing each one conveys the depth of our own longing and “O”penness to God’s grace.
The O Antiphons are Magnificat antiphonies used at Vespers of the last seven days of Advent. They are also used as the Alleluia Verse during the daily Mass.
Each antiphon is a name of Christ, one of his attributes mentioned in Scripture. They are:
We begin today with a heartfelt plea to God to fill our world with a Wisdom that orders all things and teaches us prudence.
O, how our world needs this prayer to be answered. How we need to return to a Wisdom rooted in truth, justice and mutual love!
Let us pray this prayer together today, dear friends, by opening our hearts like the wide space of an “O”. Let our hearts be ready to receive, on behalf of the world, the transforming gift of Jesus – given on Christmas, and on every day of our lives.
O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge! R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Poetry: Journey into Wisdom – Renee Yann, RSM
Music: Michael G. Hegeman, 1997 Performed by: The Lauda! Chamber Singers
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we stand at the edge of the final deep dive into Christmas.
Tomorrow, we will begin the magnificent O Antiphons with their rich and repeated invitation for God, not only to enter, but to take up residence our lives. We hear the hint of those invitations in today’s Responsorial Psalm:
Alleluia, alleluia. Come, Lord, bring us your peace that we may rejoice before you with a perfect heart.
It’s a perfect prayer for these last few days before Christmas, because so many of us get caught up in a contradictory kind of frenzy of shopping, gifts, parties, decorating, cooking, wrapping, buying…. and on, and on, and on.
The hyperactivity doesn’t leave a lot of space for peace and the perfection of our hearts to welcome the Savior.
This lovely poem by Geoffrey Brown has always helped focus me on the peace-making of my heart so that I could welcome Grace as it comes to me.
The Heart Cave
I must remember
To go down to the heart cave & sweep it clean; make it warm with a fire on the hearth, & candles in their niches, the pictures on the walls glowing with a quiet light. I must remember
To go down to the heart cave & make the bed with the quilt from home, strew the rushes on the floor hang lavender and sage from the corners. I must go down
To the heart cave & be there when You come.
Isaiah, with a powerful “how-to”, reminds us that we are all called to this spiritual readying:
Thus says the LORD: Observe what is right, do what is just, for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed. Happy is the one who does this, whoever holds fast to it: Keeping the sabbath without profaning it, keeping one’s hand from doing any evil
As a last reminder before our journey through the O Antiphons, Isaiah coaches us in inclusivity – assuring us that all people are welcome in the arms of the One Who is to come:
Let not the foreigners say, when they would join themselves to the LORD, “The LORD will surely exclude me from the people.” The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, ministering to and Loving the name of the LORD, and becoming God’s servants– All who keep the sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, Them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer …
Music: Rorate Caeli – sung by Harpa Dei
“Rorate caeli” (Drop down, ye heavens) are the opening words of Isaiah 45:8. The text is frequently sung to plainsong at Mass and in the Divine Office during Advent where it gives expression to the longings of Patriarchs and Prophets, and symbolically of the Church, for the coming of the Messiah.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Isaiah uses powerful, passionate images to describe the relationship between God and Israel.
The Lord calls you back, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, A wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back. In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid my face from you; But with enduring love I take pity on you, says the Lord, your redeemer.
Isaiah 54:6-7
This relationship is best conceptualized as COVENANT. The great prophets use human covenants as images to help describe an otherwise indescribable God. For example, there are biblical passages which imagine God as Father, Mother, Friend, King, Shepherd, Lover, and Spouse.
Of course, God is infinitely more than any one of these relationships, but that “more” is beyond our human capacity to comprehend. So these human images give us some starting point to open ourselves in prayer as to how God wants to be with us at particular times in our lives.
In today’s passage, Isaiah speaks to a people devastated by captivity in Babylon. Jerusalem is occupied, their Temple is destroyed, and their reality is particularly bleak. They feel abandoned by the God who once companioned them to the Promised Land. And they feel like they brought the abandonment on themselves by their faithlessness to the Covenant.
What does the passage say to me?
Have I ever felt forgotten by God? Or at least invisible and unimportant?
Do I regret a bit of “faithlessness” in my own life?
Do I wonder if some of the difficulties in my life are merited because my faith is weak?
Well, if so, then Isaiah 54 was written for me, because the God who is in covenant with me is ever-faithful, loving and forgiving. God is always with me and for me. Despite my worries, ideations, or scruples, God is eternally committed to me:
Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, My love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the Lord, who has mercy on you.
Isaiah 54:10
Jesus Christ is the infinitely gracious fulfillment of this Covenant. Advent invites us to draw ever closer to such Wondrous Faithful Love.
Poetry: Where Is God? – Mark Nepo is a poet and spiritual adviser who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for over 40 years. Nepo is best known for his New York Times #1 bestseller,The Book of Awakening. A cancer survivor, Nepo writes and teaches about the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship.
It’s as if what is unbreakable— the very pulse of life—waits for everything else to be torn away, and then in the bareness that only silence and suffering and great love can expose, it dares to speak through us and to us.
It seems to say, if you want to last,
hold on to nothing. If you want
to know love, let in everything.
If you want to feel the presence
of everything, stop counting the
things that break along the way.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, through the lyricism of Isaiah, God proclaims his majesty and omnipotence. But as awesome as that Power is, it descends over us in the gentlest form – justice and salvation like morning dew and springtime blossoms:
Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop it down. Let the earth open and salvation bud forth; let justice also spring up! I, the LORD, have created this.
Isaiah 45:8
Our God invites us all into that gentle embrace, asking us to deepen our hearts in faith and worship:
Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God; there is no other! By myself I swear, uttering my just decree and my unalterable word: To me every knee shall bend; by me every tongue shall swear, Saying, “Only in the LORD are just deeds and power.
Isaiah 45:22-24
Our Gospel is a repeat of this past Sunday’s, only this time told by Luke instead of Matthew. It again reminds us of what this just and gentle reign of God will look like:
“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
Luke 7:22-23
Praying in these twilight days of Advent, let’s ask to be drenched in gentle Justice and life-giving Mercy so that we may be living signs of the One Who is to come on Christmas.
Poetry: Annunciation – Scott Cairns – a wonderful poet. Read about him here:
Deep within the clay, and O my people very deep within the wholly earthen compound of our kind arrives of one clear, star-illumined evening a spark igniting once again the tinder of our lately banked noetic fire. She burns but she is not consumed. The dew lights gently, suffusing the pure fleece. The wall comes down. And—do you feel the pulse?—we all become the kindled kindred of a King whose birth thereafter bears to all a bright nativity.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we feel the Church moving ever closer to the miracle of Christmas. The prophet Zephaniah, not quite as lyrically as Isaiah, paints a picture of who is ready for that miracle – because it is a fact: some will be able to receive it, and some will not.
Thus says the LORD: Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted, to the tyrannical city! She hears no voice, accepts no correction; In the LORD she has not trusted, to her God she has not drawn near.
Zephaniah 3:1-2
But the prophet also makes clear that there will be a “remnant people” in whose hearts the miracle will take life:
I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, Who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD: the remnant of Israel. They shall do no wrong and speak no lies; Nor shall there be found in their mouths a deceitful tongue; They shall pasture and couch their flocks with none to disturb them..
Zephaniah 3:12-13
As Jesus told the chief priests and elders in our Gospel:
“Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.”
Matthew 21: 31-32
Our readings today reiterate a truth that threads through all of scripture: the “Kingdom” is composed of the least likely in the world’s eyes. Wealth, power, influence, or appearances don’t cut it. Faith and dependence on God define the “remnant” who are God’s people.
I don’t think there are a lot of tax collectors among my readers, and probably not too many prostitutes either. 🙂 So who are we when we take a good look at ourselves? Are we our power, money or upper hand in the world? Or are we faithful souls who try to keep our hearts open to the Divine call to love God and our neighbor?
The more we try to be the latter, the more we will comprehend the Miracle we celebrate just twelve days from now.
Prose: Advent Credo – Allan Boesak (from Walking Among Thorns)
It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss— This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;
It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction— This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.
It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever— This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.
It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world— This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.
It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers— This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.
It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history— This is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.
So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope.
Let us see visions of love and peace and justice.
Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage:
Jesus Christ—the life of the world.
Music: Just after today’s passage from Zephaniah, the prophet preaches in a more reassuring tone in verse 17. I thought you might like to pray with it.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Isaiah gives us the best news anyone could ever want to hear:
Here is your God… Who comes to save you!
The news inspires great joy in the waiting heart. Our first reading is full of exultant words pulling us from the shadows of waiting into the hope-filled Light.
What Isaiah proclaims for all generations is that we never need remain in darkness and confusion; that the Lord of Light wills a sunrise for us; that something wondrous and holy is not only possible but inevitable if we but have faith.
This is a powerful revelation and call. If we receive and accept it with open hearts, we are bound to live in joy.
In our second reading, James tells us the secret to living with this kind of joy – PATIENCE.
Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.
James 5: 7-8
We too must welcome into our lives both “the early and the late rain”. We must not only believe; we must ponder our faith within the circumstances of our life and the world around us. This pondering deepens us and allows the power of God to visit the world through our lives.
In our Gospel, Jesus explains what the world looks like when we let the Mercy of God shine through us:
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
Matthew 11: 4-6
On this beautiful Gaudete Sunday, as we come closer to the Gift of Christmas, let us choose to be agents of God’s joy, love and mercy in our world.
Poetry: Gaudete – Brad Reynolds, SJ
Because Christmas is almost here Because dancing fits so well with music Because inside baby clothes are miracles. Gaudete Because some people love you Because of chocolate Because pain does not last forever Because Santa Claus is coming. Gaudete Because of laughter Because there really are angels Because your fingers fit your hands Because forgiveness is yours for the asking Because of children Because of parents. Gaudete Because the blind see. And the lame walk. Gaudete Because lepers are clean And the deaf hear. Gaudete Because the dead will live again And there is good news for the poor. Gaudete Because of Christmas Because of Jesus You rejoice.
Music: The Medieval Carol “Gaudete” sung by the Choir of Clare College with the London Cello Orchestra (lyrics and translation below)
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
It is time to thank you for what we have hoped for. Tempus ad est gratiae hoc quod optabamus,
We devoutly sing songs of joy. Carmina laetitiae devote redamus.
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
God became man, being nature, Deus homo factus est naturam erante,
The world has been renewed by the reigning Christ. Mundus renovatus est a Christo regnante.
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
Ezekiel’s gate was closed by the passerby Ezecheelis porta clausa per transitor
Whence the light arose, the finder of pebbles. Unde lux est orta sallus invenitor.
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
Therefore, our congregation sings already in the twilight, Ergo nostra contio psallat jam in lustro,
Bless the lord of the saddles for our king. Benedicat domino sallas regi nostro.
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
Rejoice, rejoice Christ is born Gaudete, gaudete Christos est natus
From the virgin Mary, rejoice. Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
(Today, I am re-publishing an earlier blog. I used it for my own prayer this morning and I thought it really deserved another read.I hope you agree.)
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 1 and its confident responsorial verse.
Last night we watched a public television Christmas special, “Rick Steves’s European Christmas“. From its many beautiful scenes, one in particular remained with me: a little group of friends tobogganing down a snow covered hill at night. Their only lights came from the small lanterns they held and the full moon’s generous luster against the white snow.
My first reaction to the scene was to wonder, “What if their light goes out?”. Then I realized that there was a light beyond them which would guide their way.
There are times in our lives when the light, if it doesn’t go out, at least flickers. I wrote about that awareness in this story a few years ago:
She had arranged to visit with an old college friend. They had been separated too long by the distancing choices that life often demands. She wanted to reconnect to that rare experience of shared transparency found just once or twice in a lifetime – the gift of a real friend.
They sat on a porch overlooking a gentle pond. The day was bright, the coffee hot, the chairs comfortable. But the magic was gone. Only half her friend had arrived for the cherished conversation. The other half – joy, adventure and the excess of youthful hope – had been lost. Somewhere in the intervening years, the light had gone out. Her friend had suffered a wound she did not share. This one afternoon would be too short a time to give that wound a name.
During our Advent journey, God is waiting in the seeming darkness to guide us. God already knows the wounds we carry. God sees where our heart’s light has dimmed. Holding our half-heartedness next to the Divine Heart, God yearns to rekindle us.
Today’s psalm reminds us that there is a always Light waiting beyond us to guide our way.
Blessed the one follows not the counsel of darkness nor walks in it ways, nor remains in the company of the insolent, But delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on its Light day and night.
Psalm 1:1-2
Poetry: from Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the belief that Mary was conceived without the mark of Original Sin.
Beyond the intricate theology underlying the feast, what we treasure is that Mary made a holy place for Christ to dwell as he became incarnate, grew, lived and redeemed the world in loving mercy.
Mary chose to be God’s partner in our salvation!
Our Gospel story today invites us to pray with the most important word Mary ever said, “Yes. Fiat.” Think about it. Mary was not TOLD to become the mother of Jesus. She was asked. She could have said, “No” … for any number of logical reasons.
I’m too young.
I’ve got other plans.
Joseph won’t like this!
I don’t trust angels.
I’m afraid.
I’m sure all of us can think of a few more very rational excuses to tell our “angels” that we’re not ready for transforming grace. I know I have quite a few of them tucked away from over the years. But Mary calls us to something more – she calls us to an “irrational season” of love which responds to the irrational love God has for us!
Mary chose to say “Yes.” She may not have had to work too hard to find the courage for it within her heart. She was already “full of grace”, having lived her short young life with a faithfulness that made her ready to bear Christ to the world.
We pray that, with Mary’s love and guidance, we too may find the courage to make choices that sanctify our hearts, readying them to receive God.
God will come to us today – not on angel’s word – but in the human form of someone poor, sick, desperate, heart-broken, lonely, or just plain tired. May our faith allow us to respond as Mary did, with a grace-fullness that invites God into the situation.
Lavish Mercy 