ISBN eBook: 978-1-941709-17-7
Table of Contents
EDITORIAL
Advent Penance Service
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6
MONDAY, DECEMBER 7
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13
MONDAY, DECEMBER 14
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20
MONDAY, DECEMBER 21
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25
The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Advent Stations Office of the Ancestors of Christ
ADVENT PRAYERS
Christmas in the Land of Saint Wenceslaus
PRAYING THE O ANTIPHONS
Acknowledgments
Brief Biographies of Contributors
Index of Hymns
EDITORIAL
FATHER PETER JOHN CAMERON, O.P.
It was November and I was in Walmart for a new watch band. I asked the associate if she could install it for me, because those spring pin thingies can be tricky. If you’re not careful, like the famed Official Daisy Red Ryder Range Model 1938 Air Rifle BB Gun of the classic Yuletide film A Christmas Story, they can put your eye out.
As she set about her task, hunched over my Timex with the seriousness of a surgeon, I commented on the Christmas music playing over the store’s PA so early in the season. “Yeah,” she nodded. “The other day I heard a new version of ‘I Want to Wish You a Merry Christmas.’ The guy sounded like he was dying. You need José Feliciano.”
That struck me. A great song. An able artist. But the woman wanted more. And what she wanted was joy.
The joy we seek is not a feeling, not an emotion. It is someone…someone as tangible and recognizable and immediate as José Feliciano was absent. Joy arises when we possess the thing that makes us truly, deeply happy. This Advent we are waiting for Joy-Made-Flesh: Jesus Christ.
Don’t worry if your Advent starts off in sadness. Sometimes we don’t realize what we really want until we go through the experience of some sort of dying. But from that comes the certainty of what we need.
Check your watch. Let’s use the time afforded us to start begging for Him.
Feliz Navidad!
Advent Penance Service
FATHER RICHARD VERAS
Greeting
Advent is a time of waiting, longing, and begging. It is a time to pray “Come, Lord Jesus.”
We look forward to celebrating the first coming of Jesus at Christmas. We look forward with hope to the second coming of Jesus in his glory. We seek out Jesus here and now in the Mass, when he comes to us in the Eucharist. We seek out Jesus in the people and events of our lives, when he comes to us in ordinary ways. Today, as we examine our conscience and confess our sins, we ask Jesus to come to us in his mercy. For Jesus offers us a true experience of salvation here and now through the forgiveness of our sins.
Hymn
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
Opening Prayer
God our Father, out of loving obedience to you, and out of love for all that you created through him, your Only Begotten Son became human and dwelt among us. He was born as a baby, just like us. He went through the joys and sufferings of living, just like us. He suffered and died and rose again, just for us. Give us hearts of repentance, so that we may weep for the one who was pierced for our sins, and rejoice as our sins and impurities are washed away. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Scripture Passage
[The word of the Lord came to the Prophet Zechariah, speaking of the deliverance of God’s people:]
“On that day, the Lord will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the weakling among them shall be like David on that day, and the house of David godlike, like an angel of the Lord before them. On that day I will seek the destruction of all nations that come against Jerusalem.
“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and petition; and they shall look on him whom they have thrust through, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they shall grieve over him as one grieves over a firstborn.
“On that day there shall be open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.” (Zec 12:8-10; 13:1)
Scripture Meditation
The weakling among them shall be like David. Who is weaker than an infant without shelter? This baby, in these meager surroundings, is like David? Yes, he is like David and like us in all things but sin.
This baby is like a king? Yes, the unimaginable king of an unimaginable kingdom.
What is this kingdom? What will it be like? Will it be like the house of David?
In one sense, yes, for we who follow this newborn king, this descendant of David, are now members of the house of David.
…and the house of David will be godlike. How can this be? We are sinners! How can our unity on earth be like God on earth?
Because this new house of David, this unity, is the Church, and the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, the continuation of Christ’s presence here and now. His method is to become present in the least likely of places, in a stable, on a cross, and through the faces of sinners—but sinners who have been transformed by his saving love. Sinners who have discovered that this king is truly with us and dwells among us as we are.
Our Lady must have done all she could to make those poor surroundings beautiful for her Son. Let us beg that we poor sinners who make up the Church may sincerely confess our sins and have our sins and impurities washed away, so that we, the Church, may become a place where his presence is acknowledged and welcomed.
Examination of Conscience
Come, Lord Jesus!
For the times when I forget that I need a Savior, and arrogantly conceive of myself as sufficient to myself,
For the times when I do not believe Jesus and instead give in to the lie of perceiving God the Father as being indifferent or hostile to my well-being,
For the times when I trust my self-pitying accusations more than the Father’s love,
For the times when I desecrate the presence of Christ by making my own opinions, my own criteria, or my own likes and dislikes the measure for measuring the circumstances of life and other people,
For the times when I have shunned the presence of Christ, whether it be his sacramental presence or his presence through the people he puts in my life,
For the times when I have blasphemed the presence of Christ through using other human beings as things that I can manipulate or use for my own selfish ends,
For the times when I have disregarded the will of Christ through abuse of those things he has given to me for the building up of his kingdom,
For the times when I justify my sinfulness and thus treat God’s mercy with disdain,
Closing Prayer
God our Father, open to us your promised fountain of mercy, the Word made flesh, to wash our sins and impurities away. Prepare us to welcome our Savior who dwells among us. Pour forth, we beseech you, Father, your grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son is to be made known anew through the sacrament of confession, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord.
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29
First Sunday of Advent
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A reading from |
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the holy Gospel according to Luke |
21:25-28, 34-36 |
JESUS SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.
“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” The Gospel of the Lord.
Nothing Is Impossible with God
Advent begins by reminding us of the second coming of Christ, the thought of which can be frightening. Even Jesus himself acknowledges that people will die of fright.…
However, Christianity begins with an angel telling a Virgin, Do not be afraid.… And at the culmination of time, Jesus tells us not to be among those who die of fright, but instead to raise our heads and stand erect before the Son of Man. How is this possible for us who are sinners?
Well, is it possible to say that Judas died of fright? Perhaps frightened of the judgment he imagined, or frightened to face the depth of his own sin, or its violent results?
And is it possible to say that Peter stood before Jesus, allowing Jesus to ask, Do you love me? And Peter sincerely responded Yes, recognizing that his love for Jesus is truer than his sin. His love for Jesus can endure for ever, while his sin will be vanquished by Jesus’ love for him.
If this is possible, then I think it might be possible for me, a sinner, to stand erect before the Son of Man, hoping that his love for me will for ever awaken my love for him.
I am not afraid when I recall the words that angel said to that Virgin, nothing will be impossible for God.
FATHER RICHARD VERAS
Almighty Father, known and revealed by your Son, may the Son continue to reveal you to me and bring me to the salvation made possible by your love.
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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30
Saint Andrew
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X Marks the Spot
“Nothing is worse,” warned Reinhold Niebuhr, “than the answer to a question no one is asking.” When Jesus turns to his disciples, having already asked about the identity others assign him, to ask whom do they think he is, it is hardly a venture in triviality. Indeed, it takes them by the throat. So what possesses them to stay? Why is the encounter with Christ an absolute game-changer? Because of the decisive difference his coming makes in a world broken in two by sin. For here is the Incarnate God himself, on the strength of whose exceptionality an entire race may be redeemed. Beginning with the two brothers, Peter and Andrew, who, in thrall to this man and his message, leave everything behind for his sake.
How can this be? It is because they are not like others who have already figured him out. They are thirsting for something entirely new and true. Thus their total transparence before the Mystery that has suddenly burst into history. If the answer to the question that is your life were to come knocking at your door, wouldn’t you want to open it? There is nothing you would not do for this man. In fact, like Andrew, the first to find the door Christ throws open to the future, you’d be willing even to die for him.
Reflection based on Matthew 4:18-22
REGIS MARTIN
Merciful Father, give me courage to configure my life to the cross so that, like Saint Andrew nailed to his X-shaped cross, I too am willing to hang in mortal agony upon it.
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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1
Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
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Seeing Is Believing
In Alice McDermott’s beautiful novel about a 1960s-era Catholic family, entitled After This (“…and, after this, our exile…”), a mother and one of her daughters travel from their Long Island home to Queens to visit the 1964–65 World’s Fair. It’s a hot summer day, and they stand in line for hours with other patient fairgoers to see the Vatican Pavilion where, by special arrangement with the Vatican, Michelangelo’s Pietà is on display.
Once inside the exhibit, a moving sidewalk slowly ferries them into a cool, dimly lit auditorium, and then the lights come up ever so briefly to reveal the famous statue of the Blessed Mother cradling in her arms her crucified Son. And then the lights go dim again and the moving sidewalk eases them back out into the hot afternoon.
But that short glimpse of sorrowful, sacrificial love memorialized in marble is enough. The mother in the novel has seen her vocation affirmed in Mary’s embrace of Jesus. What she sees is enough to sustain her as the rest of the novel and her life and her family’s life unfolds.
Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, our Lord says to the Apostles after they report that in his name they have seen demons falling from the sky.
We can have a similar experience if we close our wise and learned eyes from time to time and see instead with eyes of faith.
Reflection based on Luke 10:21-24
FATHER TIM S. HICKEY
Heavenly Father, always open to your Spirit, help me to see the world and my role in it through eyes of faith.
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2
Wednesday of the First Week of Advent
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The Flashing Lights
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