Spiritual Articles

Below are articles on spirituality you may find enlightening. These will change regularly according to the liturgical season.

November 24, 2011.

Advent Reflection

by Clara Santoro, CSJ.

Advent

Advent engages us in the mystery of waiting, the balance of the visible and invisible, the tangible and intangible, dormancy and life.

For us on this part of Earth, there is a connection between the liturgical year and the rhythm of the seasons. We are approaching the winter solstice, the shortest day of our year, the day when the light and warmth of the sun is at its farthest distance from us– the beginning of winter. Yet, the next day, we begin to experience our journey back toward the sun, and, even as we face the barren, cold days of winter, little by little, the days become longer. Deep in the earth light and warmth penetrate dark, hidden places. For patient Earth, the cycle toward spring has begun.

For us, this patience in the paradox of distance and closeness, barrenness and fruitfulness, visible and invisible is the experience of Advent. It is the paradox that our humanity can be made godlike and God can be expressed through what is human. But, silence and patience are needed. There must be time to become aware, to be receptive to the generative touch of the Spirit at work in the deep places of ourselves, places we may hardly know.

Our faith in the healing, life-giving work of the Spirit attunes us to the vision of the reign of God…

The virgin shall be with child
The blind will see
The deaf will hear
The lame will leap
The calf and the young lion will browse together
The baby will play in the cobra’s nest.

It is the vision of a creation that is whole and integrated – where our spirits are set free—our blindness, deafness, stumbling and violence are healed—and we live in hope, patient in the darkness even as we work in the promise that Jesus Christ will bring all people and all things into the unity and peace of God’s reign.

Let us bring into our Advent prayer the needs of this earth…
The cries of the suffering, the poor, the hungry and the oppressed
The pain of all who are lonely and unloved
The longing for unity and goodwill among all.
The yearnings of Earth’s people for peace.

Let us pray for all who try to live with integrity and in truth that they may be freed from all evil and fear and witness to the love of God.

Advent reminds us that the ‘wonderful exchange" continually takes place, that our God shares our human condition and that we are all caught up into God’s love and grace.

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