Quote of the Day: November 29, 2016

“Look with mercy on these follies, Lord, and deliver us who now call upon you. Deliver also those who do not yet as pray, that they may call upon you and you may set them free.”

– St. Augustine, Confessions

Advent Week #1: Preparing for the Coming of the Messiah

Around this time approximately 2,000 years ago, a young, and probably very beautiful, maiden named Mary was thinking about the miracle that was inside of her. What would he be like? Will he be healthy? Will he look like me? These are all reasonable questions – and ones that every mother asks while she is pregnant. What’s more, this baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was to be the one to save his people. She was, understandably, very curious about this child. While we should ask very different questions about baby Jesus, let’s be like Mary this advent and become overwhelmingly curious about him!

Quote of the Day: November 24, 2016

“True devotion, Philothea, presupposes, not a partial, but a thorough love of God.”

– St. Francis de Sales, An Introduction to the Devout Life

Image of the Day: Toul Cathedral

Anticipation: A Musing on Advent

The beginning of Advent is only 4 days away! Advent comes from the Latin word adventus (Greek: parousia) meaning “coming.” During Advent we anticipate the coming of Jesus in two ways:

• We celebrate his first coming into the world as an innocent infant.
• We also wait for his glorious return to the Earth, when he will judge the living and the dead.

This Advent, most of my musings will be focused on this parousia of Christ; his coming into the world as an innocent infant and what this means to us as Christians, and also what it means for people who aren’t Christians.

There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. 

– Luke 21:25-27, NRSVCE

via Daily Prompt: Anticipation

Quote of the Day: November 23, 2016

 

“Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and do not forget all his benefits—
who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

– Psalm 103, NRSVCE

Quote of the Day: November 22, 2016

“And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling ever more,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.”

Excerpt From: Edgar Allan Poe. “The Works of Edgar Allan Poe – Volume 1.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/JZiNx.l

Quote of the Day: November 21, 2016

“I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.”

– Dorothy Day

The Prayerbook of the Church: A Musing on the Psalms

There is no literature in the Bible that portrays such an overwhelming longing for God other than the Psalms. They are prayers, and we should use them as such! When we long for God and raise our minds and hearts far beyond ourselves, it is there that we reach the heights of spiritual contemplation. When our pride is stripped away from us, and we stand before God naked and vulnerable in all of our sin, then we are praying – then we are talking to God!

Quote of the Day: November 20, 2016

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

– St. Augustine