Advent Meditations: Thursday 17 December

Dec 17, 2020 by

Thur
Dec 17
am: 50, 59
pm: 60, 33
Isa 9:18-10:4 2 Pet 2:10b-16  

Matt 3:1-12

ON THE CALENDAR FIRST DAY OF THE O ANTIPHONS – O Sapientia – WISDOM!

December 17 marks the beginning of the “O” Antiphons,  dating back to the fourth century, one for each day until Christmas Eve. These antiphons address Christ with seven Messianic titles, based on the Old Testament prophecies and types of Christ. The Church recalls the variety of the ills of man before the coming of the Redeemer.

1st “O” Antiphon: O WISDOM, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with Your strong yet tender care. Come and show Your people the way to salvation

MEDITATION: From the Psalter today, we pray Psalm 33 which calls us to consider the spirituality of worship in our relationship with God. Whether it be in the eucharist or through the Offices of the Church, each day we are summoned as God’s people to give him praise and honor. While the Psalmist refers to the people of God as righteous and upright, we must go beyond that and be humble and faithful because we have received God’s covenant and his steadfast love.  Our worship should be with our lips nut also with our lives, lives that are being transformed, due to the growth we have in our walk with God each day. In this season of Advent, we sing great hymns and carols not just because they are nostalgic who part of the season but because God is moving amongst his people. The question is when we approach God in the prayers and worship of the Church are, we open to transformation

 

This Psalm is also a good for us to ponder in Advent because it reminds us, we must wait with trust and hope, because the work which God has started in the world is not yet completed. Being in Christ, we endeavor to have hope, in these difficult and uncertain days of COVID. The Psalm reminds us that in God we have an opportunity for restoration in all the areas of our lives if we are to be his people.

 

PRAYER: O ALMIGHTY God, do thou lovingly, holily, mercifully, clemently, and gently inspire me with Thy Grace. Please teach, guide, and strengthen the comings in and goings out of my senses and my thoughts.  And let Thy discipline instruct me even to the end, and the Counsel of the Highest help me through Thy Infinite Wisdom and Mercy, Amen.

discipline/ACTIVITY: Pray the first of the O Antiphons with friends, church, or family members, whether during grace at meals, in front of the manger scene, or in front of the Advent wreath or Christmas tree, is very appropriate. To make this devotion even more fruitful, read and meditate together on the Scripture texts on which the antiphons are based

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “Such as do not grow in grace, decay in grace. There is no standing at a stay in religion, either we go forward or backward; if faith does not grow, unbelief will; if heavenly mindedness doth not grow, covetousness will. A man that doth not increase his stock diminisheth it; if you do not improve your stock of grace, your stock will decay. The angels on Jacob’s ladder were either ascending or descending; if you do not ascend in religion, you descend.” – The Rev Thomas Watson, English Puritan and Evangelist of the 17th Century.

Fri
Dec 18
am: 40, 54
pm: 51
Isa 10:5-19 2 Pet 2:17-22  

Matt 11:2-15

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