December 6/First Friday of Advent One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. ~ Psalm 27.4 At the end of whatever time I can set aside for prayer in…
Category: Keeping Advent
Keeping Advent 5: Following Through
December 5/First Thursday of Advent “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” ~ Matt 7.21 To many skeptics of Christianity, the gap between our profession of faith and our enactment of it in daily life – between words and actions…
Keeping Advent 3: Awesome
December 3/First Tuesday of Advent His delight shall be the fear of the LORD. ~ Isaiah 11.3 Midway through a retreat I was leading for faculty and staff of a Jesuit high school some years ago, a young teacher sitting in the back raised her hand. “How,” she asked with a hint of exasperation, “do I explain ‘fear of the…
Keeping Advent 2: Higher Up
December 2/First Monday of Advent In days to come, the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. ~ Isaiah 2.1 In an age of discord and incivility, we are in desperate need of a vision of hope. The prophet Isaiah — writing perhaps as early as the 8th century before…
Keeping Advent 1: Stand and Deliver
December 1/First Sunday of Advent But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. ~ Luke 21.28 We begin the season of watching for the light with a reminder that we are a people who dwell in darkness. Luke’s apocalyptic text in today’s Gospel reading might have been lifted right…
Keeping Advent 22: The Lord Be With Us
December 24/Fourth Sunday of Advent I have been with you wherever you went. ~ 2 Sam 7.9 Some people have a knack for picking out wonderful gifts — the book that delights, the scarf that adorns, the kitchen gadget that transforms. Others of us worry, as we put the last presents under the tree, whether we have chosen well. Will…
Keeping Advent 21: MYOB
December 23/Third Saturday of Advent So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. ~ Luke 1.51 For the past few years, I have carried around in my wallet a nugget of wisdom from the great contemporary Presbyterian minister and author, Frederick Buechner, reminding me that I should mind my own business when it comes…
Keeping Advent 20: Devil’s Food
December 22/Third Friday of Advent He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. ~ Luke 1.51 PEWSAGL: the mnemonic I created for the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust, since you asked) still occupies space in my brain from my high school study of Chaucer (and yes, it is fair to ask what…
Keeping Advent 19: Why Me?
December 21/Third Thursday of Advent Elizabeth . . . said, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” ~ Luke 1.42 If there are any fashionable virtues these days — and sometimes it seems that the very concept of virtue is obsolete — we can be sure that humility is not among…
Keeping Advent 18: Ordinary People
December 20/Third Wednesday of Advent Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” ~ Luke 1.38 The culture in which we live and breathe seems to idolize the extreme and the extraordinary. Leading an ordinary life is not enough: we have to be the best, the richest, the…