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Nourish Your Spirit Online
Advent Calendar |
 December 2
Reflection by Sister Geraldine Hedinger Director of Adult Formation for Evansville Diocese Be prepared! Besides being the Boy Scout creed, “be prepared” is an over-arching message of the Advent Gospel readings. The meaning of the root word prepare is to get ready before. This mindset of “getting ready” jumps out at us hundreds of times a day. Think of all the times we get ready for something: prayer, going to work, planning menus, cooking meals, typing and sending reports for meetings, waiting for the washer and dryer, cleaning, doing budget reports, studying for class, going to bed.
Being prepared means different things to different people. Those more organized among us have every detail in place long before the actual happening so they are not caught off guard by a “surprise.” Some like to risk a bit, having major over-all tasks complete, but like the go-with-the-flow attitude, leaving room for some spontaneity. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, some camped in the cold all night to prepare for shopping when stores opened at 4 a.m. Others do their Christmas shopping at the eleventh hour on Christmas Eve. Preparing for future security, preparing for a party or any of life’s activities, or preparing for first dibs at some object we desire, takes a lot of energy, financial resources, and time. Getting ready for something demands discipline, focus, and sometimes sacrifice. Scripture provides some poignant examples of getting ready. The Israelites are told to prepare a hasty Passover meal before being led into freedom. The prophets are laughed at for their message of “repent,” “turn your life around,” “change your hearts.” The five foolish bridesmaids missed a wedding feast because they did not prepare well. Jesus tried to ready the disciples for his coming death, but they could not hear it. In the Gospel reading for this weekend, we hear Jesus telling us that the coming of the Son of Man will be similar to what happened at the time of Noah and the flood. A small handful (Noah and his family) listened to a voice deep within their hearts. They got ready for a flood. Despite Noah’s explanations for building this huge boat, the people continued their life of complacency and pleasure. Then we hear the reason why they continued their carefree lifestyle. “They did not know until the flood came and carried them away.” Did not know what? Jesus then talks about several scenarios where one will be taken and one left behind. Did some know and others not know? Jesus seems to imply that we must be “in the know.” For us, that means being ready for the coming of Jesus at a moment’s notice. Preparing has an edge of unknowing. Our human efforts can go only so far. The final outcome of our preparation rests in God’s desire to lead us to the riches of glory. Stay awake! When we least expect it, another sister, a co-worker, a child, or a stranger, someone out of the blue may say or do something that lifts us out of our complacent, ho-hum lifestyle, prodding us to wake up and listen to the voice deep within our hearts. There is an Advent attitude that calls us to know how God works by not knowing. It is an attitude always to be prepared — for we do not know how or when Jesus comes into our hearts and lives. Be prepared!
Reflection by Sister Jolinda Naas Pastoral Associate/DRE at Resurrection Parish, Evansville, Indiana
How much better things are in life when we accept God’s words in faith that everything will be all right! Things are not always going to be the way we want them to be. God needs our prayer — not our advice. When we take the time to look at things and pray that “what God wants for us” will be done, we have a great opportunity to grow in our spiritual journey.
Reflection by Sister Carlita Koch
The image of this passage is usually depicted in art forms as a lion and a lamb resting, snuggled together in peace and harmony. How appropriate a metaphor for this season as we await the coming of the Prince of Peace! This image has long been one of my favorites. Just glancing at the plaster lion and lamb figure on my window sill is, for me, a prayer for peace.
Reflection by Sister Mary Charlotte Kavanaugh Ministry of Prayer in Hildegard Health Center; (Former Director of Religious Education at Fort Rucker, Alabama) After I listened to the readings for this day and linked them to the Advent and Christmas season, I thought of how we all carry Christ — how God is constantly with us. He is born again in us. Just as he was with Mary, he is with us. It wasn’t easy for Mary to go to Bethlehem. But we know, as Mary did, that God loves us and takes care of us along the way. It helps to remember this and that we will see Christ, who is with us, when we die.
Christmas reminds us that Christ is present to us. We should see Christ in one another. We are God’s hands and feet.
Reflection by Sister Carlita Koch Monastery services; (Former hospital chaplain and parish pastoral associate) Not an ice cream flavor, but a theme of rocks is given in the readings for today — not a rocky road to follow, nor rocks that cause us to stumble, but a rock that gives us security and a rock that is our support and strength. “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my Savior…. God is my rock, in whom I find protection…. For who is God except the Lord? Who but our God is a solid rock.... The Lord lives! Praise to my Rock! For this Lord, I will praise you among the nations; I will sing praises to your name…. You show unfailing love to me. (Ps. 18)
In the second reading Jesus promises security to the one who builds a house on rock rather than on sand. We can follow the advice of Jesus by building our lives on the rock of Christ, the cornerstone, as we are told in Ephesians 2:19b-22: “… they all drank from the spiritual rock… and that rock was Christ. Christ is the cornerstone on which we rely to support us as we build a life of virtue and right living. Jesus is sturdy. We can build our lives on him and his teachings. He is the “Rock of Ages” as the hymn names him. Do you have stones or things made of stone in your house, garden, or lawn? Look at them today with a new awareness so that you will see them as symbols of God’s faithful presence with you. Where do you need support or strength in your life? Ask Jesus to be the cornerstone supporting you in your needs. Some artists show the Nativity scene with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in a cave of rock. The rock is a shelter for them. When do you need God to be a rock of shelter for you? “I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart… .” (Ezekiel 11:19) In what ways do you need to ask God to help you melt your stony heart? Ask him today.
Reflection by Sister Sarah Cathleen Yungwirth Teacher at St. Raphael School, Louisville, Kentucky As I was reflecting on today’s readings, I noticed that a deep sense of hope pervaded both of them. These readings speak of God’s desire and ability to offer healing in whatever parts of our lives may need it. God longs for each of us to have an abundant and full life. This is a message of peace for our hearts, our lives, and the world. In the Gospel, Jesus asks, “Do you believe I can do this?” to the two men who had asked for his help. Jesus asks you and me the same question. Do you and I have faith and trust enough to allow God to come into our lives and heal those parts that are broken, hurting, or neglected? Can we believe that the divine touch will strengthen us, will truly help us, even when we do not know exactly how things will turn out in the end? During this Advent season, may we ask God to come into our lives with the healing that we need. And then, may we be willing to accept the awesome gifts that God gives us and allow their graces to transform us.
Feast of the Immaculate Conception Reflection by Sister Louise Laroche Religion Teacher at Holy Family School in Jasper, Indiana Grace and liberation is what the feast of the Immaculate Conception is about — grace and liberation. On this feast we honor Mary as the first truly liberated woman in that Mary’s freedom from sin permits her to be filled with God’s love and to be in “right relation” with God. Her liberation came not by means of social activism but by God who blessed her “in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.” Applying Paul’s words to the Ephesians (Eph. 1:3-6) to Mary, it was God who chose her in Christ, “before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” Therefore, the angel greets Mary as, “full of grace! The Lord is with you.” Theologian Elizabeth Johnson states, “It is fitting that grace be freely given to her from the first moment of her existence because of her role in being the faith-filled mother of Jesus.”
It is said that Fyodor Dostoevsky, troubled and often depressed, went to Dresden each year for the sole purpose of sitting for hours on end in front of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna. (By the way, a replica of this Madonna, painted by our Sister Gregory Ems, is in our Benedictine parlor.) Asked why he did this, he answered, “In order not to despair of humanity!” There is no need to despair, for as Elizabeth Johnson explains, “That God generously graces Mary signifies the Good News that for every human being grace is more original than sin.” In the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium (65), we read that through the fullness of grace, Mary has been formed by the Holy Spirit as “the beginning of a new creation.” The new creation restores the original plan for humanity — there was to be a harmony and union between creation and grace. Mary embodies this new creation. St. Paul reminds us in his Second Letter to the Corinthians 5:16-21, that we, too, are to be new creations in Christ. The Church reminds us that on every feast of Mary, anything that we say or sing of Mary, we also say and sing of ourselves. “The Immaculate Conception,” as theologian Megan McKenna puts it, “is the marvelous work of our merciful God and that, by Christ’s life, passion, death, and resurrection, all of us are called and chosen to be blameless and holy in this life and to know the mystery of Mary’s own conception in our life as Christian.” How blessed we are that our monastery is named after Mary, the truly liberated woman, the Immaculate Conception! Mary, full of grace, is our patroness and our sister in faith. Mary is our hope that we, like her, can be full of grace; that we, like her, are truly liberated women proclaiming that God is surrounding our life with redemptive love and fidelity, inviting us to be a new creation. May this be done in us according to God’s word… for nothing is impossible with God. References Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (65), Promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964. Elizabeth Johnson, “Immaculate Conception,” Encyclopedia of Catholicism, New York: The HarperCollins, 1989. J D Crighton, Our Lady in the Liturgy, Ireland: The Columba Press, 1997. Megan McKenna, Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany: Stories and Reflections on the Sunday Readings. New York: Orbis Books, 1998. Vatican II Sunday Missal, Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1998 http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/immac. |
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Insurance companies and banks remind us that our families will have an unsure and insecure future if we don’t prepare and put money aside now.
When we look at the story of the centurion and his servant, on what will we focus? We can see that Jesus did what the centurion wanted him to do. At the same time, the centurion took Jesus’ word that everything would be all right. 
But a recent reading has added another dimension for me. The reading pointed out that the Scripture passage includes the peaceful scene of these animal world opposites eating together — “the cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” (Isaiah 11:7)
Isaiah 25:6-10a; Matthew 15:29-37 [
I like to listen to some tapes by Padre Pio. Padre Pio died in 1968, but some of the soldiers that I met at Fort Rucker knew him because they had met him in person. They loved him because clearly he was united to Christ. But Padre Pio advises us not to canonize people before they have been buried, as we sometimes do in our funeral rituals. He advised us to pray for them. And if they don’t need our prayers, God will give them to someone else who needs them.
The first reading calls us to trust in God as an everlasting Rock. We can recall how Moses was asked to strike the rock, but his faith was weak. When he obeyed, nonetheless, there came forth water from the rock to satisfy the thirsty people. 
Isaiah 29: 17-24; Matthew 9:27-31 [
Yet, that healing and wholeness might take a different shape than anything we can initially imagine. And that unknowing may cause unease and block God’s activity in us.
Genesis 3:9-15, 20; Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12; Luke 1:26-38 [
Reflecting on the title of the feast, we see that its meaning goes far beyond mere “preservation” from sin. Mary was so filled with grace, so finely tuned to the will of God, so completely open to the grace of God, that she never experienced the alienation we call sin. God’s grace so filled her being that she was established in the right relationship with God we call salvation. The Immaculate Conception affirms that grace and guilt are not equal. The Immaculate Conception is proof that the final word about humanity is not futility and condemnation, but affirmation of grace and joy of the divine love at work in our lives here and now. © 2009 Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand, Indiana |
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