Opening Prayer:
Almighty God, who came to us long ago in the birth of Jesus Christ, be born in us anew today by the power of your Holy Spirit. We offer our lives as home to you and ask for grace and strength to live as your faithful, joyful children always. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants)
Psalm for the Week: Psalm 85
Scripture for the Day: Matthew 1:18-25
Reading for Reflection:
God in Himself is the transcendent One. As such he exceeds and explodes all of our human thought categories. No human mind can capture Him. He who is light in himself is darkness for the human mind.
How,
then, can he communicate himself to fleshbound human beings in a way calculated
to grasp us and grip us and lift us up into a lifegiving personal relationship
with him?
The
first way God chooses to bridge the gap is creation. He creates our universe, the bewildering
variety of touchable, seeable, hearable, palpable beings, so that we can stand
before star-studded heavens, before sunrise and sunset glories, before Yosemite
and Coldwater, the might of the Pacific in storm, before the complexity of the
atom and DNA and the human body, and know something of that Maker: his majesty, his intelligence, his beauty,
his power. In a real sense, “the world
is charged with the grandeur of God.”
Creation is the first preaching of the good news. The universe is truly a sacramental universe,
disclosing Him. He is the radical secret
at the heart of the universe. And so it
has been for me in my experience.
But he
chooses to bridge the gap in a more significant, personal way. He chooses out of many nations one people and
in the years of their history discloses—progressively from Abraham and Moses
on, but most specifically in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Hosea—his
holiness, his desire for human beings, his longstanding, faithful love for his
rational creatures.
And yet
this is not enough. He must say it in a
way no one can miss. He must lay his heart
open to us and give us the supreme argument of love. He must pour out his inmost identity in an
ultimate symbol worthy of himself which would convince us even in our cynicism.
Thus
the final way he gladly chose to reveal himself is in his own Son, existing
before the stars, who would become a limited human being with a body like me,
an emotional life like mine, a thinking loving spirit, and a developing
identity—consciousness like mine. So
Jesus began life as an infant and grows up in a backwater town, takes up the
carpentry trade, is called at the Jordan ford and teaches and heals and forms a
small group of followers, dies and rises.
And precisely through this short life of carpenter and teacher, God the
Father is revealed to the world in stunning clarity. Jesus then is the great sacrament, symbol,
revelation of the very depths of the incomprehensible God. What Jesus reveals is the Father’s love for
us humans: a self-giving love unto
death, an unconditional love accepting our flawed condition, forgiving
endlessly our weakness and malice. (A Traveler Toward the Dawn by
John Eagan, S.J.)
Reflection and Listening: silent and written
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Song for the Week: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set our people free;
From our fears and sins release us;
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.
Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone,
By thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.
Closing Prayer:
Come, Lord Jesus!
You are my righteousness. You are my goodness, the cause and the reason for goodness. You are my life and the light of life. You are my love and all my loving. You are the most noble language I can ever utter, my words and all their meaning, my wisdom, my truth, and the better part of myself. Amen. (Preparing for Jesus by Walter Wangerin Jr.)
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Song for the Week: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set our people free;
From our fears and sins release us;
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.
Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone,
By thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.
Closing Prayer:
Come, Lord Jesus!
You are my righteousness. You are my goodness, the cause and the reason for goodness. You are my life and the light of life. You are my love and all my loving. You are the most noble language I can ever utter, my words and all their meaning, my wisdom, my truth, and the better part of myself. Amen. (Preparing for Jesus by Walter Wangerin Jr.)
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