Advent Meditations: Tuesday 13 December

Dec 13, 2022 by Jill

ON THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR: St. Lucy, Martyr of Syracuse, 304 – According to the traditional story, Lucy was born to rich and noble parents about 283. Her father died when she was young. Fifty-two years prior to Saint Lucy, Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr was executed. Saint Agatha’s fame attracted many visitors to her relics in Catania. Lucy and her mother, Eutychia, made the pilgrimage, where Eutychia was healed of a hemorrhage. Lucy persuaded Eutychia to distribute a great part of their riches among the poor. This angered the young man to whom she was betrothed. He reported her as a Christian. She was executed by using a sword in the year 303. She was first condemned to suffer the shame of prostitution but in the strength of God she stood unmovable and could not be dragged away to the place of shame. God also saved her from being set on fire. There are some accounts that suggests, Saint Lucy’s eyes were plucked out during her torture and God miraculously restored her sight. Her feast day is celebrated especially in Sweden, where elements of light and sight, as well as the martyr’s crown, are combined in a beautiful family custom appropriate for Advent celebration.

BIBLICAL MEDITATION – The words from the Prophet Isaiah in the first lesson resound with the fullness of the Promises of God. For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. It is not possible for many people to hear that passage and not hear the chorus from Handel’s Messiah: “For unto us a child is born. How God must have moved him to write such beautiful music to such powerful words (especially when you consider that Handel composed the music for Messiah over the course of just 24 days in 1741 ( The first performance was 1742 in Dublin, and it raised 400 English pounds to free 142 men held captive in debtor’s prison). That

beautiful music combined with these prophetic words is profound. When we read and listen, we are reminded that long before his birth, it was foretold that the role of the son of God for humanity was revealed. Clearly, he would be the savior of all mankind. My response when I hear those words in that music is one of awe and gratitude.

Isaiah in chapter 9 dissolves the fearful gloom and utter darkness that we all fear which he writes earlier. This is significant especially when you consider that the prophet Isaiah, serving as an advisor to the King, comes to the war a council on war in the offering a different vision than war

Rather, he offers a vision of a vulnerable, harmless child, who will show the foolishness of wars. Isaiah came to speak a word to a people who were in the darkness of war, with a vision of peace in the birth of a child, in the vulnerability of a baby. Who do we know that is in conflict that needs to hear this message and meet this child?

PRAYER:  O Gracious Lord, whose servant Blessed Lucy demonstrated the light of faith without counting the cost. Bestow upon us we pray light of faith, increase and preserve this light in our souls so that we may avoid evil, be zealous in the in the faith, commit to acts of charity and abhor nothing so much as the blindness and the darkness of evil and of sin. Amen

ADVENT DISCIPLINE/ACTIVITY – A few possibilities for this day. St. Lucy Day is especially significant in Scandinavia and Italy where the day has traditionally been celebrated with bonfires, processions, and other illuminations. In Sicily St. Lucy, dressed in a blue cloak showered with stars, brings gifts to children on the eve of her feast day. Children leave their shoes outside on St. Lucy’s Eve to collect her offerings. Sicilians also remember the miracle that St. Lucy performed when famine struck the island. Legend has it that hunger had weakened so many that the people of Syracuse went as a group to the church to ask the saint to deliver them. While they were praying, a ship loaded with grain sailed into the harbor. For this reason, Italians celebrate St. Lucy’s Day by eating a boiled wheat dish called cuccia or cuccidata. Alternatively, send links to For Unto Us A Child is Born to those who need to hear this message of hope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS3vpAWW2Zc

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “The name Emmanuel takes in the whole mystery. Jesus is “God with us.” He had a nature like our own in all things, sin only excepted. But though Jesus was “with us” in human flesh and blood, He was at the same time very God”. – J.C. Ryle

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