Preparing for Our Savior's Coming

As we are enter the second week of Advent, we continue readings from the book of Isaiah.  Today, Monday, the 11th f Dec., Isaiah again brings us a message of hope:  The desert and the parched land will exalt; the steppe will rejoice and bloom....The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carol and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God."  The prophet  asks us to "strengthen the hands that are feeble make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he does with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you."

May our hearts rejoice at the coming of our God, a God as tender and loving as an infant, a God who has the power to melt those parts of us frozen by hatred, greed, or deceitfulness; a God who has the power to turn sin into holiness, a God who is able to transform that within us that which is  enslaved to God substitutes: power, pleasure, and control.  God "comes to save" us from all that causes division and from all that prevents us from loving freely and generously, from all that creates indifference among us.

Let us prepare for the coming of our Savior by taking time to call upon the Lord on a daily basis, reflecting on the Word of God in the Scriptures or in a favorites book that lifts our souls to the Lord in prayerful reflection on the meaning of Advent.

Advent: Preparing for Jesus' Coming

Advent:   A time to be alerted to the coming of Jesus, God with us,

Devoting time to seeing the Lord above all else,

Vying for greater intimacy with God, your Savior,

Ever mindful of one's need for redemption.

Now is the time to become reconciled

To the Lord, your God, and to one another in Christ Jesus and to make peace your goal!

God, the Sower and the Farmer

In today's Gospel, Mk 4: 1-20, Jesus tells the story of the sower who sowed seeds on rocky soil, the seed could not take root, on soil filled with thistles and weeds that choked off the seed and on good soil that yielded a rich harvest.

God is like no other farmer. A professional farmer makes sure that the soil is prepared to produce abundantly, that the rocks and weeds are cleared away before planting, that the season is the right time for planting. God pays no attention to any of that. He sows copiously, all year round, at any season, in all soils, rich and poor, rocky and weedy, moist and nutrient-laden.

No matter in what condition I am, no matter how hard my soul might have become or how resistant to grace, how weedy my interior is, God is always at work in my plot, cultivating, weeding, providing nutrients, "fertilizing," clearing "rocks" and planting seeds of holiness and healing, forgiveness and reconciliation, love and peace. He never grows weary and never gives up on my plot of land. He will work patiently, wait as long as need be, for me to cooperate with His efforts to make me one with the Father as He and the Father are one, to prepare me to receive the love God has for me and to be open to His power, the Spirit, at work within me as the Spirit worked in Jesus.