Patrick Comerford
Advent began yesterday [29 November 2015] with the First Sunday of Advent and the beginning of the new Church Year.
Over these few weeks, as we wait and prepare for Christmas, I invite you to join me in my own Advent Calendar each morning for a few, brief moments as I reflect on the meaning of Advent through the words of the great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945).
In a sermon preached in Barcelona on the first Sunday of Advent, 2 December 1928, Bonhoeffer said:
“Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting, however, is an art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the ripe fruit when it has hardly finished planting the shoot. But all too often the greedy eyes are only deceived; the fruit that seemed so precious is still green on the inside, and disrespected hands ungratefully toss aside what has so disappointed them.”
Readings (Revised Common Lectionary): Isaiah 52: 7-10; Psalm 19: 1-6; Romans 10: 12-18; Matthew 4: 18-22.
Collect of the Day:
Almighty God,
who gave such grace to your apostle Saint Andrew
that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ
and brought his brother with him:
Call us by your holy Word
and give us grace to follow without delay,
and to tell the good news of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
1 comment:
Patrick - I have come to realise that often it is in the waiting itself, the anticipation of what we hope to receive or discover, that, with reflection, we begin to recognise new understandings, new revelations about that we seek to encounter and about ourselves.My favourite lyricist once wrote 'the point of the journey is not always to merely arrive.'
From the vantage of middle age I can now perhaps, identify the long weeks of excited waiting and restlessness before Christmas day as of equal if not greater value than the 'big day' itself.
Advent is the season of preperation. An opportunity to 'get ready' to respond to the God-child Christ.It has increasingly become the season were I can prepare to lay myself open before God and await new revelations about myself and my response and to and my relationship with him. Rhys.
Post a Comment