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Sunday, November 30, 2014

attention, sunday

Sunday, November 30 (First Sunday in Advent)

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.
          
Opening Prayer: My God, since You are with me, and since it is Your will that I should apply my mind to these outward things, I pray that You will give me the grace to remain with You and keep company with You.  But so that my work may be better, Lord, work with me; receive my work and possess all my affections. (The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Luke 12:35-40

Reading for Reflection:
 
     The word advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means coming. Thus Advent is a season in which we are invited to watch and wait for God’s arrival among us—making it a time of intense yearning and deep longing.  It is a time filled with hope and anticipation, a time that reflects the 400 years (between the Old and New Testaments) that God’s people waited for Him to appear, to speak once again after all of the years of silence.  Can you imagine?  Four hundred years of silence.  Four hundred years of watching and waiting.   
     How easy it would have been to lose hope.  How easy it would have been to be filled with doubt and despair.  How easy it would have been to give up, to lose heart, to stop believing that God was ever really going to show up again.  How easy it would have been to say, “My master is taking a long time in coming” and begin living by our own rule and by our own agenda.  Advent is the time where we take heed of the words of Jesus, “Therefore, keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”  So during the days and weeks ahead, may we pay very careful attention, lest when he finally arrives, we miss him altogether.

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
    
                    
Closing Prayer: Lord, I ask for the grace to let go of my own concerns and be open to what you are asking of me, to let myself be guided and formed by my loving Creator. (Sacred Space: the Prayer Book 2010 by Jesuit Communication Centre)

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