Advent Meditations: Thursday 15 December

Dec 15, 2022 by Jill

ON THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR: Paul of Latros – Byzantine Monk and Hermit, 956.

St. Paul was born at Pergamos, near Smyrna, in Asia Minor, the son of an officer in the Byzantine army. His father was killed in battle, and after his mother died, he became a monk in a community on Mt. Olympus in Greece, with his brother, Basil. Paul later left the monastery and became a hermit on Mount Latros in Bithynia, Asia Minor. Soon he attracted followers, and Paul was compelled to organize them into a community. After twelve years, Paul departed Mount Latros and settled on the island of Samos to live in a cave. More followers gathered around him, and Paul oversaw the creation of several more monastic communities before returning to Latros, where he died after years of prayer and mortifications.

BIBLICAL REFLECTION – When you consider the Psalms appointed for today, do their tone and tenor cause you to stop and take pause?  One of the most constant themes of the Psalms (and for me Ps, 33) clearly, God has a will and a plan for the world. Despite our best efforts in the fullness of time that will is to be revealed and his grace abounds. Despite our best efforts, we individually or collectively cannot stalemate God’s revelation and salvation.

We tend not to view the world biblically because it is not in vogue like technology but despite what we think the Psalms today remind us that God is intimately involved in human history – not only the history of a few of us, but in all creation. This means people and nations for example as well as the natural order of creation. We foolishly think that history is simply the study of things past as if they are mere “happen-

stances”. The ultimate reality is that history as the Psalms remind us of is truly a story as

to how God has intervened to accomplish his purposes in the world sometimes with us as his agents and at other times despite us. What story will you allow God to tell?

PRAYER: O Lord, at times we are the most unworthy of servants grieved by the guilt of our deeds, we pray that you may gladden us by the saving advent of your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. — Amen.

ADVENT DISCIPLINE/ACTIVITY – Today, seek to serve the needs of another person, with utter humility. It should be someone that you have thought less of and better of yourself in comparison. Ideally, this act of humble service should be done without that person’s knowledge. Ponder how this has changed you and that person.

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “”We too can wait only if what we are waiting for has already begun for us.”- Henri Nouwen

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