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Our Advent clock is an alarm that the church sets to wake us up to a continuing coming of Christ in our daily lives, to a greater awareness of the divine presence and a deeper knowledge of the divine love. Christ is still being born, not in his own human flesh but in our hearts if we offer him the hospitality of our discipleship. Ours is the dignity and challenge to accept the Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit, into the most intimate depths of our lives, and then bear him to others. This is not the season for gazing nostagically into a crib or fearfully into the heavens. It is a time to rise from sleep, to pray, to avoid the premature celebration of Christmas, to wait with eager readiness rather than exhausted idleness for the advent of the Lord who has come, is coming, and will come again.
Extract from Welcoming the Word in Year B: Sowing the Seed,
Verna A. Holyhead, SGS, John Garratt Publishing
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 All holiness is about learning to hear the voice of your own soul. It is always there and the more deeply you learn to listen, the greater the surprises and discoveries that will unfold. To enter into the gentleness of your own soul changes the tone and quality of your life. Your life is no longer consumed by hunger for the next event, experience or achievement. You learn to come down from the treadmill and walk on the earth. You gain a new respect for yourself and others and you learn to see how wonderfully precious this one life is.
John O’Donohue (1954-2008)
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When you search for me, you will find me;
when you search wholeheartedly for me, I shall
let you find me.
Jeremiah 29:13
I search for God,
elusive, hidden God,
I long to dwell
in the heart of Mystery.
I search for my true self
more of who I already am,
knowing there's so much
yet to be discovered.
I search for a quiet heart
amid life's harried schedule;
my soul cries out,
yearning for solitude.
I search for compassion
in a world gone deaf
to the cries of the hurting,
and the pleas of the powerless.
(extract from Joyce Rupp's Prayer, Seeking and Finding from May I have This Dance, Ave Maria Press, 2nd Revised Edition 2007)
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The Effects of Poverty on Women |
Women are
over-represented among those who live on low incomes, and single parents and the
children they care for are a particularly vulnerable group who continue to be
exposed to the effects of poverty. Sole-parent families, usually headed by women, face the greatest
risk of poverty of all types of family. Even
when sole parents enter the paid workforce, they are likely to be in part-time,
casual or insecure employment and, like many
women, are less likely to have the opportunity to accumulate wealth and
superannuation during their working lives. Costs of education, training and
child care remain prohibitive.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, 2008 Social
Justice Sunday Statement
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Last week I heard a wonderful homily. It began with this prayer:
O Lord,
Remember not only the men and women of goodwill,
But all those of ill will.
But do not remember all the suffering
they have inflicted upon us;
Remember the fruits we have bought thanks to this suffering:
Our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility,
our courage, our generosity,
the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this;
And when they come to judgement,
let all the fruits we have borne
be their forgiveness. Amen.
(Prayer found at the side of a dead child at a concentration camp 1945.
Printed in, In Search of Meaning (p.189-190) by Joan Chittister.)
... and concluded with, “Love, love, love, everything else is bla, bla, bla”
An extraordinary challenge for all of us!
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‘The present moment is sacred ground.’
I’ve said it often
as I’ve continued to plan and organise
in expectant anticipation of the ‘might-bes’ and ‘not yets’.
The body grounded in the present;
the mind living ahead,
leaping, bounding.
Anticipation – I like its garden of satisfaction.
But it’s also a swamp of imagined fears.
The body here;
the mind there;
the heart unmoored.
And then again it rings:
The present moment is sacred ground.
The home of ‘my country’,
my heart.
God is in this place and I did not know.
The invitation to pause,
to notice,
to savour,
to be, to belong.
The time of be-ing
of be-longing,
or longing to be with and for.
The present moment:
grace-filled, surprise-charged with miracles aplenty –
well, at least three a day.
It is the God-moment,
the place of yearning and yielding.
The meeting place of origin and destiny.
The still-point on the journey
between where I’ve come from
and who I’m called onwards to be.
The gathering of past and future
in the gift of the now.
The time of choice
fruiting into an unknown future.
The place to lay aside
with grace and gentleness
the roles and images
diverse and gifted though they be.
It is the heart-space time
wherein I notice the mystery in the ordinary.
Fuelled by water and fire
it is the nexus of revelation and, hence, commitment.
The present moment in which the Word is spoken.
The invitation to listen.
Here, God speaks her Word of love.
Patty Fawkner sgs
Five Dock, New South Wales
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Invocation Prayer of Australian Representatives to the Cebu Dialogue |
All: Gracious G-d, we praise you for our country, Australia
Indigenous: A wide brown land of desert and tropical rainforests, of snowy mountains and long yellow beaches.
Christian: Our land reflects the marvels and diversity of Your creation.
Hindu: Your spirit permeates the land.
Christian, Buddhist and Jewish (together): From the Dreamtime, with the Indigenous Australians, to our multicultural, multi-faith nation of the present day, Your spirit has always been with the people.
Christian, Jewish, Muslim (together): We have come together as Australians of diverse backgrounds and faiths, from the original people of the land and from those who have come across the sea in more recent times.
Christian: To learn from each other and to listen.
Christian: To engage in conversation and to share.
All: We pray that our spirits may be united in that purpose. We pray that we meet in mutual respect.
Indigenous, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, English speaker: (a one-line prayer in one’s own tongue)
All: We are honoured to represent our nation. We are honoured to represent the many peoples that comprise our nation. We are honoured to represent our faith communities. And we give You thanks, Almighty G-d.
Taken from Gesher The Official Journal of the Council of Christians and Jews (Vic) Inc. Vol.3 No.3 October 2006.
(This prayer was prepared and prayed by the Australian Representatives at the second regional Dialogue on Regional Interfaith Cooperation for Peace, Development and Human Dignity held in Cebu from 14-16 March 2006. Trish Madigan OP was part of the Australian delegation and mentioned the uniqueness of all representatives participating in this prayer during her presentation.)
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God of Hope, lift my drooping spirit
when I am low and losing confidence.
Revive my joy when it fades away.
Call me home to your abiding peace
when I am lost in the realm of chaos.
Amen
From Joyce Rupp,
Inviting God In: Spiritual Reflections and Prayers Throughout the Year, 2001.
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 Blessed are you who live in a world of anxiety,
You shall speak of hope.
Blessed are you who rely less on formal religion,
You shall perceive the sacredness of ordinary life.
Blessed are you who perceive “the silent sigh”,
You shall speak for others.
Blessed are you who have resources, experience and confidence,
You shall empower others.
Blessed are you who have been hurt by the church,
You shall tend the wounded.
Blessed are you who let go of the old answers,
You are free to ask “What if ..?”
Blessed are you who are open to covenant,
God shall walk with you.
Andrea Dean
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At The Threshold of Womanhood |
It is like awakening into a morning
Where everything is touched with change,
Now your body has a mind of its own
As it curves and fills into womanhood.
The lightness of being a girl is leaving
And your thoughts too are taking you
To places you have never known.
Becoming a woman, you feel the moon
Tug at your blood, and you begin to sense
The mysteries of your new body.
May you enter beautifully into the feminine,
Learning to trust the world of feeling you inherit,
Finding ease and elegance in all you are.
May your respect for your beauty
Become visible in your dignity
And how you hold yourself in the world.
May the expectation of other eyes
Never decide how you are to be;
Learn to trust the advice of your heart.
May you feel life as an irresistible invitation
To discover and develop your talents,
Each day bringing something new to birth.
May you be wise in choosing love;
When you trust, give all your heart
And allow love to pervade you like breath.
May you have friends who can see you.
May your senses be windows of wonder
And your mind a prism of spirit.
John O’Donohue - Benedictus
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Mary's courage, faithfulness and strength will only come to life for us
today as people connect their experience with hers. She is a model for
all disciples, both women and men. Any portrayal of her as a passive
recipient, who only faced one choice in her life and then followed some
preordained plan, diminishes her as a human being. Jesus' affirmation
of her as Woman shows he did not reduce her to one relationship, that
of Mother, but recognised her full personhood.
As we tell the story of this woman, first among the disciples, we
might come to realise that we do not need to over-emphasise Mary's
role. As a woman, as a disciple, she is a pilgrim like us, a wisdom
figure to whom we can turn, to learn what it means to be open to a God
who keeps calling us into new and unexpected places.
Text Source: Christine Burke, Through a Woman's Eyes: Encounters with Jesus, Harper Collins Religious, 1997.,112.
Picture used with permission: Jan Hynes.
The Visitation: Elizabeth meets Mary at the C-Bar over skinny decaf cappuccino and carrot cake. 2002
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