First Sunday of Advent_C - To You, O Lord, I Lift My Soul_112821

Deacon Tom Writes,

“To You, O Lord, I Lift My Soul”

First Sunday of Advent, Year C

In the silence of our Advent reflection, the words of the Prophet Jeremiah can stir our hearts with expectant hope and longing for promises to be fulfilled, for the days when, “all shall be safe and dwell secure.” For this to become a reality we must first, however, place ourselves in the presence of the Lord and breath the prayer we hear in the Responsorial Psalm today, “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.”

Every year we all face the challenge of Advent; we need to get everything ready for Christmas, the shopping, the cooking, the visits to family and friends, the writing out of Christmas cards. And when do we stop to put it all in perspective and reflect upon the “Reason for the Season?”

This year can be different. We can break the distracting spirit of consumerism…. if we want to! We can take a tip from St. Paul and ask the Lord to make us, “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.” How our lives would change if we were to follow St. Paul’s advice! So, some questions to ask during this Holy Season are these: What holds us back from attempting to love those people in our lives that irritate us; reconciling with those family members from whom we have intentionally distanced ourselves? What prevents us from seeking the Holy or entering into the Mystery of the Incarnation? Are we afraid of the changes that an injection of love into the fabric of our lives would cause? Are we afraid of what the newborn Babe would ask of us? Are we afraid of the confrontation with self that can take place in the time we spend in holy solitude? There are a lot of reasons why we avoid silence and fill our lives with busyness. But it doesn’t have to be this way. This year can be different!!!

Jesus tells us to, “Be vigilant at all times and pray… to escape the tribulations….and to stand before the Son of Man.” This Advent gives us another chance to renew our efforts to center our lives around prayer and to create a quiet space where we can go and rest awhile with a friend, Jesus, who comes to us as a little child bearing many gifts to all who come before him singing the refrain, “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.”

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

First Sunday of Advent - Rend the Heavens_112920

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Rend the Heavens”

The First Sunday of Advent, Year B

 

No one likes waiting! We anxiously await hearing from the doctor about the last CAT Scan; waiting for word that we were hired for that new job that will advance our career; waiting to get the acceptance letter from the college we desperately want to attend; waiting for a vaccine to enable us to resume what we took for granted back in February… going about our lives as we have been accustomed. This Sunday we begin a New Liturgical Year, one that calls us into a period of, guess what? “Waiting”, but a different quality of waiting, a waiting of the soul, an entry into a time of “holy longing” for that event that has been prophesied throughout Holy Scripture, the arrival of the Prince of Peace. We wait in expectant hope for the heavens to open and for the presence of the Lord to fill the earth. Waiting is a sign of our faith, just as it had been for the people of Israel. The waiting, longing, hoping for arrival of the Messiah was an essential mark of their faith also. They awaited the Messiah, a King, a Warrior, a Liberator who would save His people from foreign oppression, who would usher in a Kingdom of Justice, of Mercy, and Peace and restore Israel to its promised glory as the Light to the Nations. Generations lived and died without this desperate longing being fulfilled. Yet, generation after generation kept watch. And now, it’s our turn. It is our turn to keep not only the watch, but the faith to believe that this ancient promise will be fulfilled… at any moment. 

It is for this long-awaited Redeemer and Savior of the world that we Christians keep a vigilant watch and that distinguishes these next three plus weeks as a most special time of the Church year. It is a time when we watch and wait in hopeful anticipation for the heavens to open and the coming of our Lord and Savior; a time of longing for His return as He promised.  We wait while we seek God’s peace and consolation to come into our lives because there is so little of it in our world today. We are desperate for God’s peace.  We truly hunger for His joy and consolation.  There is an emptiness in our lives that cannot be filled by all the creature comforts this world has to offer. And so “we wait”.  

Isaiah knew this.  He begged God, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down”   And you know what???  God did just that!!!.  He became one of us in every way except sin.  Jesus, Son of God, entered into the human drama as a tiny infant born into our world of material poverty, into a world at war, a world of scarcity and want, a world of fear and anxiety Sounds pretty much like the world around us today! 

The problems of the world didn’t go away when Christ entered into it.  And they still haven’t.  No one person has the power to fix what is wrong with the world.  The only way to fix the world is to fix ourselves.  And Christ showed us how to do that.

When we were Baptized, we were called by name and anointed with the Sacred Chrism to share Christ’s work.  St. Luke quotes these words from the Prophet Isaiah to describe the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee:  

  

“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners”.

Let this Advent season be one of waiting, waiting for the Spirit of the Lord to fill us with His Presence so we may be the instruments of His peace, the bearers of His glad tidings, the healing balm for those who are brokenhearted and discouraged, and witnesses and agents of hope and encouragement for all who are bound up.  And may He who came down from heaven, take away our emptiness and fill us with His never-ending Joy.

Happy Thanksgiving and Enjoy the Day!

Deacon Tom

Image Credit: A Peaceful Christmas from Charlie B, Italia, dec.2006

 

 

First Sunday of Advent_A - An Advent Journey_120119

Deacon Tom Writes,

“An Advent Journey”

First Sunday of Advent, Year A

Advent is traditionally a time of waiting, expectation and preparation. Expectation is what the Prophet Isaiah envisions as he looks forward to the days when people from every nation will make their way to Jerusalem where their journey finally ends as they “…climb the mountain of the Lord and arrive at the house of the God of Jacob, where they learn his ways and walk in his paths”.

For many people today the Advent journey is drudgery. It is a time of going to the malls and wandering through a maze of stores and kiosks. For the tech savvy, it is endless hours of searching on-line and calling upon Amazon for overnight delivery of our digital shopping tour. Any wonder that the real meaning of the season is lost in the busyness of buying gifts and preparing for the “Holidays”. The sheer exhaustion from the pace leaves little energy or time for any reflection on the profound meaning of the Incarnation and the gift from God most highthat is eager to enter our world and the recesses of our hearts from God most high.

The words of the Prophet Isaiah invite us to go on a journey this Advent. No, we don’t have to pack our bags and head off to Jerusalem and climb Mount Zion, although that would be a wonderful experience. We can stay right at home and be engaged in just as challenging an experience. We can use this Season of Advent as a spiritual ascent, a time of reflection to identify and resolve to overcome the obstacles that limit our growing closer to Our Lord, surmounting the mountains, if your will, that keep us from experiencing the depth and totality of God’s love for us. The journey to overcome the hurts and scars others have caused us and forgive them may be more difficult than climbing the highest mountains. How very difficult is it for us to change our mindsets and be opened to the ways of peace as Jesus taught throughout His ministry.

Isaiah invites us to do just that in this image he presents today of recasting spears into pruning hooks. Can we use this holy time to seek all that is necessary to find interior peace within ourselves for all that is troubling us? Can we find the time this holy season to consult and listen to the Holy Spirit to direct our lives and heal our troubled consciences for all the wrongs we have done, and all the hurts we have caused others? I doubt there is a more difficult uphill climb than this: finding peace by yielding our thought and ways to the One who came to dwell among us. 

A  very Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones also.

Enjoy the day,

Deacon Tom

Find this blog on the web at www.deacontomwrites.com

An Advent Journey

Deacon Tom Writes,

“An Advent Journey”

First Sunday of Advent, Year A

Advent is traditionally a time of waiting, expectation, and preparation. Expectation is what the Prophet Isaiah envisions as he looks forward to the days when people from every nation will make their way to Jerusalem where their journey finally ends as they “…climb the mountain of the Lord and arrive at the house of the God of Jacob, where they learn his ways and walk in his paths”.

For many people today the Advent journey consists of only going to the malls and wandering through a maze of stores and kiosks. Any wonder at the real meaning of the season is lost in the busyness of buying gifts and preparing for the “Holidays”. The sheer exhaustion from the pace leaves little energy or time for any reflection on the profound meaning of the Incarnation and the gift that we are about to receive from God most high.

The words of the Prophet Isaiah invite us to go on a journey this Advent. No, we don’t have to pack our bags and head off to Jerusalem and climb Mount Zion, although that would be a wonderful experience. We can stay right at home and be engaged in just as challenging an experience. We can use this Season of Advent as a spiritual ascent, a time of reflection to identify and resolve to overcome the obstacles that limit our growing closer to Our Lord, surmounting the mountains if your will, that keep us from experiencing the depth and totality of God’s love for us. The journey to overcome the hurts and scars others have caused us and forgive them may be more difficult than climbing the highest mountains. How very difficult is it for us to change our mindsets and be opened to the ways of peace as Jesus taught throughout His ministry.

Isaiah invites us to do just that in this image he presents today of recasting spears into pruning hooks. Can we use this holy time to seek forgiveness from those we have hurt or make peace within ourselves, with our troubled consciences for all the wrongs we have done, and all the hurts we have caused others? I doubt there is a more difficult uphill climb than this: finding peace by yielding our thought and ways to the One who came to dwell among us. 

Enjoy the day,

Deacon Tom

Find this blog on the web at www.deacontomwrites.com

To You, O Lord, I Lift Up My Soul

Deacon Tom writes

“To you, O Lord, I lift my soul”

First Sunday of Advent, Year C

In the silence of our Advent reflection, the words of the Prophet Jeremiah can stir our hearts with expectant hope and longing for promises to be fulfilled, for the days when, “all shall be safe and dwell secure”.  This deep longing for safety and security is shared by all humanity in the aftermath of the Paris tragedy and the ongoing suffering countless victims of war, violence, poverty, and illness throughout our hurting world. For this to become a reality we must first, however, place ourselves in the presence of the Lord and breath the prayer we hear in the Responsorial Psalm today, “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul”.

Every year we all face the challenge of Advent; we need to get everything ready for Christmas, the shopping, the cooking, the visits to family and friends, the writing out of Christmas cards. And when do we stop to put it all in perspective and reflect upon the “Reason for the Season”?

This year can be different. We can break the cycle of insanity….if we want to. We can take a tip from St. Paul and ask the Lord to make us, “increase and abound in love for one another and for all”.   How our lives would change!  So some questions to ask during this Holy Season are these:  What holds us back?  What prevents us from seeking the holy?  Are we afraid of the changes that an injection of love into the fabric of our lives would cause?  Are we afraid of what the newborn Babe would ask of us? Are we afraid of the confrontation with self that can take place in the time we spend in holy solitude?  There are a lot of reasons that we avoid silence and fill our lives with business. But it doesn’t have to be this way. This year can be different!!!

Jesus tells us to, “Be vigilant at all times and pray… to escape the tribulations….and to stand before the Son of Man”.  This Advent gives us another chance to renew our efforts to center our lives around prayer and to create a quiet space where we can go and rest awhile with a friend, Jesus, who comes to us as a little child bearing many gifts to all who come before him singing the refrain, “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul”.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom