Advent

 

ADVENT 

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These are the days when the whole pattern
is spread before us:  the long intricate past,
the wars and wanderings, prophets and kings;
and the future as well, the vineyards and orchards 
of the age to come, the safe and happy children
playing in the streets, the high road to peace.

And our eyes are drawn to the center,
to the jewel at the heart of the plotted web,
to a girl in a village and her ordinary life,
to her willing response to mystery
when it came seeking her,
to the answer she gave
and the light it poured
over the whole story.
KM 
 
Advent, 09webadalter

Our Advent Chapel: a place for remembering and longing…

 
Fr. Mike Joncas with Sr. Margaret following Eucharist celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Fr. Mike Joncas and Sr. Margaret in the sacristy following our beautiful Eucharist honoring  Our Lady of Guadalupe.
 
On the 17 of December we begin singing the great O Antiphons:
O WISDOM!

O WISDOM      Ansgar Holmberg, CSJ

            O WISDOM!
You are the Source of this love-enfolded universe,
life-breath of its inmost grace.

            This is what we breathe: your joyful plan
            that we receive our life from yours,
and play and make and dream
in you and from and unto you.

  O WISDOM!
Breath of Life in all that is!
You are our imagination and our gasp of wonder.
When we whisper words of  tenderness
we are your gentle respiration,
when we sing or sigh or pray
      we are your voice, your energy, your intent.     

            O WISDOM, divine Pattern of all that is,
            wind for the weather
            fragrance for flowers wild and gardened,
            earth for the potter, color for the artist’s eye,
            sound and rhythm for the piper and the violinist.
And love for lovers, Holy Wisdom, you are love for lovers.

  O WISDOM!
These manifest your presence and so do we all.
In everything you make you make yourself known.
            Come! we say, and when you come among us,
it is the truth of who we are meant to be, that is revealed.

                                             Kate Martin, osc

webadonai

Ansgar Holmberg, CSJ

O ADONAI 

Suppose that Moses rose before first light
And saw the unexpected glow,
the incandescence, where on other mornings
Only darkness waited .
 
Mountains, desert, storm clouds in the background;
night, reluctant to depart;
and there, alive and dangerous with holiness,
a bush on fire,
growing its ruby flames like leaves,
bearing an awesome seed,
a saving Name.too holy to be spoken.

O ADONAI!  O LORD OF ALL
Who are we to name Your Name, recite Your covenant,
proclaim Your boundless love for us?
Your Name, when we attempt to speak it, turns to fire in our mouths,
so we contain it in a title:  LORD!  ADONAI! 
and take the fire inside to purify our hearts.

When you entrust us with your Name
you draw us near until,
in the flames that cauterize our dry assumptions
You reveal Your Name enfleshed:
 
O SAVING LORD!
The burning bush will bear its fruit
wherever seekers  wake to the illumined night,
and, stumbling barefoot toward the Holy One,
reach toward the fire
and call upon the Name.                              Sr. Kate

webkey

           O Key of David!                      Sr. Ansgar

 

O Key of David, Liberator, come!

From his great heart erupts a tide of tenderness

rushing to sweep away the barriers,

all the blocked and burdened places on this planet:

 

To every home shut up in sorrow,

To every fortress built of loneliness and guilt;

To every dank cave of shame and hopelessness,

O Key of David, come, come in!

 

He is the Free One, and his freedom bursts upon our shadows

like the lightning.

He holds the key releasing every heart sentenced to darkness,

rescuing the fettered imagination,

opening the clenched fist.

O come, Key to the Kingdom; unbind, unshell, untangle us.

 

Those in the half-light sense the changing climate of their prison  

when his love breaks in,

they recognize a sudden light and air and movement. 

He grasps their hands and leads the way to liberty. 

O Key of David, interrupt our long captivity;

free us from the limits of our love.   

                                                                           Sr. Kate

VariousThe Sisters with our dear friend, Jill Geoffrion, following Sunday morning prayer.  To learn more about Jill and Tim, and their ministries see: www.fhlglobal.org, www.jillgeoffrion.com.

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