Annunciation reflection...

 The Lord finds a way to get His work accomplished. 

We see Ahaz today.  

His heart is closed…his excuses, weak.

His heart, lukewarm.

Thinking that he is doing good, he refuses to listen to the prophet.

However, the prophet speaks the Word…

What I hear is: “Despite your unfaithfulness, I will be faithful”.

 

Today, as I am faced with the ways in which 

I have been unfaithful to the Lord…

in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving…

I also need to hear that God will accomplish His work…

despite my hard-headedness…despite my hard-heartedness.

Lord, please forgive my folly,

my self-preoccupation and indulgence.  

Help me to turn away from sin and to be faithful to the Gospel.  

Bring me a confessor!  

I need Your grace, for I have fallen away!

 

Let it be true once more as if I were a new Ahaz…

Lord, accomplish Your work in me, 

though I may be opposing it!  

 

Lord, find a way to get Your work done in me.  

Lord, I am afraid.  I lack courage. I lack trust. 

Be faithful despite my unfaithfulness. 

Be faithful…O Lord.

 

Set me free from my sin and I will do your will (Psalm refrain).

 

You send the angel Gabriel to announce words of amazing revelation.

His words rouse me from slumber, sadness and lukewarmness.

How could You be so good, O Lord…who can fathom Your goodness?

To the Virgin Mary, yes.  I can see that.  But to me – who art sinful and lowly?

I cannot fathom You, O Lord.  Your goodness exceeds all goodness!

 

You find a way to accomplish Your good work.  

You find a way where there was none.

- ak

Vespers for Advent: A New Season Awaits

On this the eve of Advent, the first Vespers, I come before You, Lord. The journey has wearied me. And this season of hope, renewed hope, stretches like a vast desert before me. I know You will provide water, for You are the Living Water, the Source of all good.

I share for your reflection from Pope Benedict’s Angelus from 2007 (Dec. 2nd) the following:

"This Sunday is therefore a day specially suited to offering the entire Church and to all men and women of good will my second Encyclical, which I wanted to dedicate precisely to the theme of Christian hope. It is entitled Spe Salvi, because it opens with the expression "Spe salvi facti sumus - in hope we were saved" (Rm 8: 24). In this, as in other passages of the New Testament, the word "hope" is strictly connected with the word "faith". It is a gift that changes the life of the one who receives it, as the experience of so many men and women saints demonstrates. In what does this hope consist, so great and so "trustworthy", to make us say that in it we have "salvation"? In essence it consists in the knowledge of God, in the discovery of the heart of the good and merciful Father. Jesus, with his death on the Cross and his Resurrection, has revealed his Face to us, the face of a God so great in love as to communicate to us an uncrushable hope that not even death can break, because the life of the one who entrusts himself to this Father opens itself to the prospect of eternal beatitude.

The development of modern science has always confined faith and hope to the private and individual sphere, so that today it appears in a clear and sometimes dramatic way that man and the world need God - the true God! - otherwise, they remain deprived of hope. Science contributes much to the good of humanity, but it is not able to redeem it. Man is redeemed by love, which makes one's personal and social life good and beautiful. This is why the great hope, the full and definitive one, is guaranteed by God who is love, by God who has visited us and has given us life in Jesus, and who will return at the end of time. We hope in Christ, we await him! With Mary, his Mother, the Church goes to meet her Spouse: she does so with works of charity, because hope, like faith, is demonstrated in love.

A good Advent to all!"

Blood shed for Him

"Life sometimes leads us down paths we haven't chosen but which we must consent to out of love. This consent then becomes a source of grace, a way of union with God (...) each time we accept the conflicts and difficulties of life with faith in Christ and love for Him, the Holy Spirit rests upon us." - father jacques philippe Fire and Light: Learning to Receive the Gift of God p.16 "Tempestuous times, periods of trouble and worry, are bound to come, but our perception of reality is so distorted by negative emotions that we must wait for peace to return before changing any fundamental resolutions." (ibid, p.18)

Is The Tide Turning...?

Hello friends...It has been a while! 

I am excited to write again. As with anyone who has a love affair with writing, you know the ups and downs, the torrential output and the great stretches of desert faced by those who endeavor to write. It would seem that, after a long hiatus, the tide is finally turning. Alleluia! 

This grace of writing came by virtue of going on retreat with the Franciscans of Halifax during the last week of July 2022. 

I was also encouraged to keep penning the virtual verses of my life by Mal and Kara, who noted my absence.  A little encouragement, as it turns out, goes a long way.

The healing grace extended to me by God on this retreat amounts to what I consider a defining moment, a game-changer, in the last 14 years of ordained priesthood. 

I look forward to sharing that blessing with you over the next few posts. 

Farewell to 2020

Refresh us with Your fire, O Lord.

Out with the old.  In with the new.  

Except let us not forget, the old vintage is best (Luke 5:39). 

December thoughts from a friendly wordsmith

I received this email from a good friend this week.  I always anticipate his reflections this time of year.  He has entitled this year's reflection "Muddling Through", which goes along nicely with the titles of my most recent posts.  I felt it was a sign, and asked my friend if I could post this year's sharing to my blog.  He graciously conceded to my request.  



to: knox_11@yahoo.com et al

Muddling Through


Hi Folks,


As part of my annual consultation with the muses of Christmas, I have been wondering recently what I might offer by way of a seasonal message that would be appropriate to the wholly unprecedented experience this year presents to all of us.



As always, the soundtrack for my journey through December includes The Sinatra Christmas Album. The songs in this collection, both sacred and secular, and ranging from silly to solemn, feature the trademark Sinatra vocalizations and outstanding arrangements and instrumentation from the great bands which backed him up during the ‘60s and ‘70s when these recordings were made. This album has been a staple of my holiday listening for 25 years.



Among the tunes featured is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” originally written to be performed by Judy Garland in the 1944 film, Meet Me in St. Louis. Garland’s character sings to comfort her sister who is despondent on Christmas Eve over the family’s plans to relocate to New York.



The song’s lyrics address the melancholy that sometimes infects our holiday preparations and celebrations. Despite our best efforts to be merry and festive and because we want, so desperately, for the Christmas season to offer the rich emotional blessings of comfort and joy, any feelings of separation, anxiety or disquiet can be even more acute at this time of year.



So, if ever there were a time for music to come to our aid and offer some balm for the beleaguered soul, 2020 would be it. In this year of epochal pandemic upheaval and social unrest, with all the attendant uncertainties and distancing of varying degrees and type, we need to be consoled. We need to rely on memory, to believe in the power of hope and to accept the nourishment that can be derived from the timeless connections of the heart.



Some of you may think it’s unreasonable to expect a pop song to offer the antidote for these afflictions or to furnish the necessary consolation. You may be right. A pop song is not necessarily a work of philosophical or psychological import.



And yet, the offerings of the popular culture, especially those which worm their way into our ear year after year, can offer us inspiring insights into our journey through uncertain times. In a simple way, the song’s encouragement to “let your heart be light” and its prediction that “next year all our troubles will be out of sight” do allow us to realize that moments of melancholy must pass.



Even more poignantly, the song concludes with words that speak not only to the acute separation we feel in this moment, but also offer an intimation of eternity and a hope for the more permanent reunion, on that farther shore, with those who accompany us now in the mind’s eye and in the inner recesses of our hearts.



Someday soon we all will be together,

If the fates allow.

Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow

So, have yourself a merry little Christmas now.



This year, I expect many of us feel like we are “muddling through.” We are doing the best we can. And, of course, this sentiment speaks to the larger challenge we face through all of life to avoid letting loss or separation impair our capacity to experience joy, or hinder our efforts to celebrate.



Again this Christmas, as always, we need to revel in the moments of love and friendship which present themselves to us, accepting gratefully the reaffirmation they offer to us of the very truth of our existence.



I hope Frank’s singing (link below) offers you some of the consolation it has afforded me in these recent weeks, and in years gone by.




I hope as well that you have a safe, happy and holy Christmas.



+ a friendly wordsmith


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnx7thMjYX4

Plodding (again)

SO...Advent started a couple weeks ago and I had firm faith that there would be great surprises within - a gift of faith and renewal. I'm disheartened as I see old patterns continue seemingly unabated. If there is growth it is in areas hidden from view. I continue to plod along. Not in the dark. Yet not fully in the Light.

Come, O Spirit, awaken new life in me. Save me from the endless me inside me. Turn my gaze to You!



In the meantime, from my Dad's prayer vigil...he writes the following:

The Gift
While praying the rosary this morning I had a moment...
I saw a gift being delivered. It was like an Amazon delivery. 

The one who delivered the package left it on the doorstep after knocking on the door/ringing the bell. 

I became aware of the passage from Revelation 3:20 “Behold I stand at the door and knock...” 

it was the gift of God‘s love!
The door was not answered, the gift was not received. 

The gift remained on the doorstep through all the seasons of the year 

- the blistering heat of summer soon to be covered in fallen leaves only to be buried 

under winter snow and ice. Year after year it waited. 

The package became weathered and decayed. The gift was the living Heart of Christ! 

Many, inconsequentially, passed by, not even casting a glance in His direction. 

Unbeknownst to them the scene was filled with adoration. 

Angels, saints and martyrs etc were adoring the Lord. 

A person came out from the house and kicked the package off the porch onto the muddy ground.

The place of adoration had changed. 

And now our Lady, experiencing the pain of unrequited love, 

now kneels in the mud adoring her Son, her Saviour and Lord...

“Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ...” (S Pope John Paul II). 

 

- Tom Knox, night vigil