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Advent 2008 Readings
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After reading the twelve readings the refrain “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” stuck in my mind.
The theme of the retreat is “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”
Fr. Matt indicated next year the church is going to be focusing on something along the line of the year of the Word of God or the Word made flesh.
Blending the three together a proposed theme/ focus is “Listen and Your Soul Will Live"
In reading a consensus of Isaiah’s Writings, the author of the consensus mentions that his message was, “Return, Repent and be Renewed”. As I read over the passages for the Advent Season this theme keeps coming back to me.
At our March 27th meeting we did not reach conclusion on a focus for Advent.
So for the only comments we have are:
1. After reading all 12 readings “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” comes to mind and combining that with Fr. Matt suggestion and “Guess who’s coming to dinner?” theme of retreat suggest “Listen and Your Soul will Live” as focus for Advent
2. A consensus of Isaiah’s writings is “Return, Repent and be Renewed” is another proposed theme for the season.
At the meeting there was a mention of carrying over a form of the theme from the retreat. The overall theme of the retreat is Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner yet there is a separate theme for each of the three nights.
Monday – “Up a Tree” Jesus comes to dinner at the house of Zaccheus. Best guess this is from Luke 19: 1-10. Zaccheus shows repentance and is saved
Tuesday – “Who is That at the Next Table?” Jesus comes to dinner at the house of Simon the religious leader and in comes a woman with a ‘bad reputation around town.’ Best guess this is from Luke 7: 36-50. The Pharisee’s self-righteousness leads to little forgiveness by God with little love shown toward Jesus. The sinful woman, on the other hand, manifests a faith in God that has led to her forgiveness showing a relationship between forgiveness and love.
Wednesday – “A Breakfast at the Beach” Jesus asks the question that really matters: ‘Do you love me?’ Best guess this is from John 21: 1-17. In this discourse Jesus asks Peter three times and he answers Jesus are “Yes, Lord you know that I love you.” Jesus’ three responses are; ‘Feed my lambs,’ ‘Tend my sheep,’ and ‘Feed my sheep.’
We should be able to think of a focus tying all these references together.
After reading the passages some words stand out to me, from Is: 40-consolation; 2 Pt clearly tells us to "be ready" an "prepare his way" from Mark:1. In Is 61 I saw the word "hope" everywhere, but we had that last year. In The Annunciation in Lk 1 we have "the Word made flesh".
About the themes for the retreat it really stand out to me "Humility"- we just have to recognize that we are sinners, even when we're trying not to, and like Zaccheus and the sinful woman Seek Jesus; up a tree may mean to go out of our way to "see" Him and realize that He is there calling and waiting for us.
Like the Woman, acknowledging that we are sinners, surrender entirely to God.
And at "breakfast at the beach" Jesus is giving us a mission, to "take care of His sheep", but to do that, He wants to be sure that we love Him first.
"Love Jesus, no matter what", it's all I can come up with, maybe too simple, but just to give some ideas.
Our relationship with God is basic. There is no life apart from it. A nourishing communion with God is as essential for life as eating: God is the very Substance (Bread) of Life, not just the giver of substances for life.
We have to break open the bread of our everyday lives (by loving God and preparing for eternal life), but making bread takes time. Ingredients are measured, combined, stirred, left to rise, kneaded and finally baked. The word ‘bread’ is derived from roots pointing to actions of boiling, bubbling and burning – the processes of transformation where one substance becomes another.
Suggest ‘Bread of Life’ for focus, see Jn 6: 32b -33, 35
Called to the Table?
LOVE, would be a nice focus; because of Love, God came to us, because of Love, He wants us with Him. It is what have to move us to do everything.
If we chose to go with the ‘Love’ theme I think we need to differentiate the type of love we are talking about from the romantic valentine love that might pop into the minds of the adolescents of the parish.
If we framed it at Jesus did in the gospel speaking to Peter, ‘Do you love me?’ or Love one another or Love as if your soul depended on it. It could be anything that puts love in the proper perspective.
Advent is the time when we commemorate the coming of Emmanuel who came for several reasons:
1.To reveal what the Father is like
2.To atone for our sins
3.To break the human bonds of our slavery to sin
4.To prepare us for the second Advent
During Advent our thoughts turn with anticipation and gladness to the first coming of Jesus. We're reminded of the songs that the shepherds heard, and of the hope that filled their hearts, and of the star that shone over the place where Jesus lay. And yet we are all conscious of the fact that this present age cannot continue on like it is going.
Look at the world around us. Crime is on the increase. Lawlessness is sometimes encouraged. Peace and righteousness have not been established. Mankind threatens to wipe civilization off the face of the earth. Deep down within, we realize that something more is needed.
Most people live as if life as we know it today is going to continue forever. They say the grass is still green, cows give milk, hens lay eggs, and dogs bark at the moon. This is the way it always was. But remember, the same Jesus who came to Bethlehem is going to come a second time. Life as we know it today will come to an end.
Jesus is coming the second time to complete our salvation. He came the first time as the Author of salvation; He's coming the second time as the Finisher of our faith. He came the first time to atone for our sins; He's coming the second time to execute judgment on earth. When He came the first time, there was no room for Him in the inn; when He comes the second time the whole world will make room for Him.
Each of us has the power of choice, and the greatest thing we can do is to accept God's unspeakable Gift into our lives. It is not enough that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He must be born in our hearts. Each of us has to open the door to welcome Him into our lives.
I believe it is our mission to help people understand and SEE that we are talking about a different kind of love, a much greater and powerful Love. We just need to let that power work in us, all the time, so even the young realize that there is much more than that "romantic, valentine," temporary love.
The first step might be to allow Jesus to be born in our hearts (from the above great posting), so "Let Jesus be born in you" sounds good to me.
The ideas for an Advent theme on this blog so far are all pretty good. They have driven me to think about about Advent in a way I naver had to do before.
Reflecting on it Advent teaches about waiting. I say this as someone who hates to wait. I'm the sort of person who, if I'm getting ready to check in at an airport or check out at Meijer, quickly calculates which line is moving the quickest so I can minimize my waiting. We're an instant gratification society, no question about it.
Advent is about delayed gratification. Rather than hop scotching from Thanksgiving right into Christmas, Advent is a time of waiting. We remember how the Jews waited centuries for the Messiah. And like someone said in a couple of posts back we are waiting for Christ to return.
If I remember correctly a couple of years ago the theme was Yearning which was supposed to teach us patience. It challenged us to trust God even when He does not act according to our schedule or expectations.
Waiting also intensifies joy. Delayed gratification actually increases gratification. During Advent, we enhance our delight when we finally sing "Joy to the world, the Lord is come."
Last year our theme was Hope. I thought it was great, and who doesn't need hope? Yet the hope of Advent isn't like other kinds of hope. We can hope that the economy will be strong, that terrorists won't strike here again, and that the flu won't kill us, but we can't be sure of any of these things.
Advent hope is not wishful thinking. On the one hand, when we remember the hope of Israel, we know that God has fulfilled that hope in the birth of Jesus. On the other hand, we look forward to the time when Christ will come again. We embrace this hope with the confidence of faith.
Advent hope empowers us to live today with greater gusto. Another blogger suggested the theme of Love. We seek to love, knowing that Love will one day be victorious over hate. We seek justice, knowing that the ultimate judge will one day make all things right.
Trying to homogenize my thoughts and the themes I have read so far let me offer two twists in one suggestion:
Waiting
or
A multiple theme Advent:
Week 1 – candle 1 . . . Hope
Week 2 – candle 2 . . . Peace
Week 3 – candle 3 . . . Love
Week 4 – candle 4 . . . Joy
After I read through the readings a few times, I kept hearing that we should be ready & prepared for the coming of the Lord through prayer and repenting.
If we can connect the theme of being prepared for the coming of the Lord with showing how that can be accomplished by "Coming to the Table",(Eucharist), "The Word made Flesh", (Prayer & scripture), and by renewal, (repentance and forgiveness), than the readings and the mission theme could be tied together.
If anything that has been expressed so far in the 12 comments, I would agree to the theme of "Listen and Your Soul Will Live" or "How do You Prepare so Your Soul Will Live?" Make the theme a question to the parish. How will each person answer the question. The readings & the mission can show them the different ways through the word made flesh and the table of the Lord how "Your Soul Will Live."
What do catsup, changing the calendar to a new month and detaching a check along a perforated line have in common? Well, they, coupled with the last post helped generate another Advent idea.
Not so much along a theme idea, but an idea to support the theme when it is chosen.
From my experience kids like Advent Calendars and adults like puzzles. The last post suggested choosing and advent theme in the form of a question.
Just as Fr. Murphy always ends his homilies with a question, so too a properly framed Advent theme may cause us to think and anticipate the birth and second coming of Christ.
Remember the old Heinz catsup commercial where in an-tic-i-pa-tion and ever so slow-ly the thick, rich, red catsup was tantalizingly coaxed out of the bottle?
In the Chancellor the page with the Liturgical Minister schedule and Week at a Glance is perforated. What if we created a four week Advent Calendar/Puzzle (based on our theme) that was perforated that would cause people to talk about, read, discuss or wonder about a profound question of the week during advent? Of course, they would have to stay tuned until the following week to get the answer. Maybe in the last week we would have the answer buried on a different page.
If adopted perhaps we could get Joan, Patty Danks and the Education Commission to help design and put it together based on the theme, readings and, time permitting, things we learned from the retreat.
CHARITY. Everyone feels the need to give something at Advent and Christmas times, so it can be a great opportunity to understand the real meaning of charity.
To give, not just to be in peace with our conscience, but to identify ourselves with those who we're giving to.
Does it really makes sense when we bring one or two things for the needy and then go and buy five or more for ourselves, especially when we don't need anything else? Or when we waste many things, because we have so much or because it is easy to get more, forgetting the ones who need even the basics?
I think we need to stay focused in every day life, and offer the people something concrete, something real, that will bring their attention to the important things of the season and away from the propaganda.
The Son Will Shine
See
http://loveandforgive.org
for
Love and forgiveness in action!
To All and For All. A mandate to reach out to all as coheirs of Christ and sharers in His promises.
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