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Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
The Trees of the Forest Rejoice!
Today’s Advent Reading is the Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 96.
The Lord our God comes with power.
Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all you lands.
Sing to the Lord; bless God’s name;
announce God’s salvation, day after day.The Lord our God comes with power.
Tell God’s glory among the nations;
among all peoples, God’s wondrous deeds.
Say among the nations: The Lord is ruler;
God governs the people with equity.The Lord our God comes with power.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in the!
Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice.The Lord our God comes with power.
They shall exult before the Lord, for God comes;
for God comes to rule the earth.
God shall rule the world with justice
and the people with constancy.The Lord our God comes with power.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons
Let Us Catch the Changing Seasons
It is a spectacular thing when cacti blossom! The flowers have a way of overshadowing the cactus, and in the stark landscape of the desert, we can be overcome by their beauty. It is wonderful to catch the changing of the seasons by seeing the bloom of the cactus.
And really when we can catch the change of any season, it is amazing! To catch the color of the leaves in autumn – to catch the ice crystals hanging from a tree – to catch the butterfly emerging from its cocoon – to catch the warm sun on long summer nights. When we truly catch these moments and allow them into our souls, we just might “rejoice with joyful song.”
Today’s Advent reading comes from the Prophet Isaiah.
The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom.
They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song.
(Isaiah 35:1-2)
Advent – The Season of Hope
Today’s reading is from the Prophet Baruch, who lived at the time of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. A time of great mourning and sadness for the Hebrew people. And yet the prophet says to them:
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
For God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
– Baruch 5:1,3
Advent is the season of hope. And the prophets, like Baruch, though sometimes they rightly predict the downfall of those who are walking in the wrong direction, offer us words of hope in the midst of sadness and tragedy. We sometimes may think of them as speaking gloom and doom. But when we keep listening, we find abundant sources of encouragement.
Mary Trusted God
Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception – a Feast of Mary. We look to her as a model in the way she responded to God’s call. She listened to God’s word, believed in its’ blessing, and thus acted on it, trusting that God would be there for her and see her through. Her words:
Be it done to me according to your word.
– Luke 1:37
Might I have that kind of trust.
The Lord Is My Light
Today’s Advent reading is from the Psalms.
The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear?
– Psalm 27:1
On What Is My Life Built?
Today’s Advent reading is from the 7th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew
Anyone who hears my words and puts them into practice is like the wise one who built a house on rock.
-Matthew 7:24
We have recently witnessed the ravages of Sandy, and our hearts go out to those who are still without shelter as winter is upon us. We are reminded of the precarious nature of life. And truly, there is no way to insulate and protect ourselves from tragedy whether we build our homes on sand or rock. So how do we build our inner lives? And how do we reach out to others when tragedy strikes? On what are our lives built?
Sharing Our Abundance
Our Advent reading is from Isaiah today:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples , a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
– Isaiah 25:6
If we open our eyes an truly see, we can surely see the abundance of creation. There is enough for all! God has provided for all. The Hebrew Scriptures and the teaching of Jesus tell us to share this abundance that the earth provides so that all may eat and be satisfied.
What are ways that I can share from my abundance during this Season of Advent?
What Do We See? What Do We Hear?
In today’s passage from Luke 10: 21-24, we read:
Many . . . desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. (Luke 10:24)
What do I choose not to see? What do I need to aid my vision?
Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflection
What an auspicious theme as we begin the Season of Advent: Reflection! And what better place to reflect than in the desert? The photo above was taken while I was driving with another sister from Minnesota to California. It is from the part of the journey through the Salt Flats of Utah. A more desolate and eery landscape you could not find! And yet there is such beauty in the midst of it.
Next Sunday, the Second Sunday of Advent, we will be reminded of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord!”
May we, when we are on our desert journeys take the time to reflect and find the beauty around us and within us. Then, surely, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
The Season of Advent Begins
—Richard Rohr
While the stores are all decked out in their Christmas attire, our churches are holding out and putting out blue or purple and an Advent wreath. And just what is Advent? I like how Richard Rohr, OFM, puts it in his book, Preparing for Christmas.
“[I try] to invite people beyond a merely understanding of Christmas as “waiting for the baby Jesus” to an adult and social appreciation of the message of the Incarnation of God in Christ. We Franciscans have always believed that the Incarnation was already the Redemption, because in Jesus’ birth God was already saying that it was good to be human, and God was on our side.”
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