(Was a) Deacon's Blog

The LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.”

Welcome as we enter the fourth week of this Advent. In actuality, this fourth week of Advent lasts only seventeen hours, from midnight until 5pm when the Vigil of the Nativity begins.

For some of us who have Polish ancestry, the Vigil or Wigilia starts when the youngest child sees the first star in the sky – a fitting reminder of the star appearing this night over Bethlehem. 

As we recognize, this year’s Advent was short and the Church accounts for the varying length of Advents by calling this time Late Advent.

Lateness carries various meanings – but the key meaning for us is that time is running short in our preparation for Jesus’ re-advent in our lives. Are we prepared to welcome Him anew into our lives? Are we expecting Him with the eagerness of a child? And… once reborn in our lives what do we plan to do with this great grace He will impart to us?

Throughout this week we have heard from the Prophet Samuel. We saw the parallels between Hannah, the barren woman who by the grace of God becomes the mother of Samuel the prophet and how she offered her son back to God for His service and Mary the virgin who would bear the Son of God Who would be offered for us. Both sang a canticle of joy to God.

Today in Samuel we reach toward the other end of things begun with Hannah. David is at rest in Jerusalem, having overcome his enemies and resolves to build a Temple for God.

God speaks to David through Nathan. “Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in?’ The question may seem odd to us – wouldn’t God want a Temple? Well, yes, He does – but not as David envisioned.

Indeed, God longs for a Temple and the one He desires exists within us.

As we approach Him in the manger tonight at Midnight or tomorrow or throughout the forty-day season ahead, let the feelings in us, the tear we may shed, be for the joy of welcoming Him anew into the Temple of our hearts.

May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Welcome as we enter the third week of our new Church year and this Advent.

We have been focusing on our call to active engagement and preparation, both for Jesus’ return at the end of time and on our need for renewal for Jesus’ re-advent within us.

As Peter did last week, St. Paul writes in his letter to the Church at Thessalonica in relation to the kind of people Jesus’ followers – Christians – are to be, a people: holy and blameless in their entirety. Preserved blameless.

Well, thanks Father, great advice, Now, how are we to do that? I know that I try and fail much more than I would like. When confronted by stress and life’s everyday goings on I seem to slip back into old habits and sinfulness. When I know I should say something or do something, especially if I am unsure of a relationship, I get afraid and draw into myself. I can hear the priests and Levites asking me: “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Now we must be careful. We could let the facts of our current life, and the times we fail and sin, cause us to give up, to say I just cannot do it. We must not do that because as Isaiah proclaimed and Jesus admitted: the LORD has anointed Me; He has sent Me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners. We had recourse to that renewal in today’s Advent Penitential service

You see, we can check ourselves, we can say I can and will, I will not give up but rather rejoice in the very fact that Jesus came to set me free from my old ways and most particularly from being down on myself. 

The practicalities, taking it one item or step at a time. I get mad driving – admit that and then practice exchanging curses for blessings and prayers. Overly critical of others, offer to help instead. Afraid to speak, take the risk. It won’t be easy, but it is possible especially when we keep an attitude of rejoicing in our freedom in Christ. He will not blame us, but rather grant us the grace to overcome.

The Baptist and Forerunner said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord.’” So let us remind ourselves to rejoice as we make our ways ever straighter, holy, and blameless in our entirety.

John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Welcome as we enter the second week of our new Church year and this Advent.

Last week, Prime Bishop elaborated on Advent as a transitional time between a focus on the last things, being ready for Jesus’ return at the end of time and our need for personal preparation right now so we may best welcome Jesus anew into our lives.

As St. Paul noted in our Epistle last week, we are prepared for this task of readiness by the enriching grace we have in our knowledge of Jesus. Paul reminded us that we have this time to focus on what we have learned about Jesus and the opportunity to put that knowledge into action.

This week calls us deeper into the active engagement we are to have as the people of Christ – Christians. Today, Peter sets the stage regarding the kind of people we are to be, a people: conducting ourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

Now it may occur to us – how do we hasten God along? Besides what we might think, it is the actual work we are to do in building the Kingdom of God so the saying Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus will come to fruition.

We build the Kingdom by this: taking action that contributes to the purposes of God here and now, in our community, among friends, family, and coworkers. Among the many Kingdom building actions we need to engage in are: Evangelism: bringing people into the kingdom; Benevolence: showing the love of God to others through our charity and kindness; Having godly relationships that show the reality of the kingdom by example.; Encouraging love and good deeds; Building up knowledge of God by study, reading of scripture, and practice; Regular worship; Carrying out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy; and… Doing all in the Name of the Lord, being dedicated to Him.

The Oxford Dictionary tells us that fruition is the point at which a plan or project is realized and the action of producing fruit occurs. Indeed, Advent is about that. The Blessed Virgin carries within her the fruitfulness that will save us all. So too, like John we must go out and proclaim a fruitful message: Prepare yourselves, Christ is in our midst, and He waits for you. Join me in knowing Him.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.”

Welcome as we begin a new Church year and enter the shortest Advent season in a while.

Advent, a season of expectation and anticipation can last from 22- and 28-days and this is a 22-day one.

I suppose that for a people who are to live in expectation and anticipation a much shorter time to wait is kind of nice. We only have to hear ‘are we there yet’ for 22-days.

A compressed schedule may be experienced in a few different ways. Some might spend the time valuing each day of expectation more deeply. Some might choose to rush through it, not paying too much attention. Some might choose to live frustrated, focused solely on getting ‘there.’

Of course, the Church is solidly recommending that we value each day of expectation more deeply for there are not too many of them.

That recommendation comes from thousands upon thousands of years of experience from the Old Testament period through today. The Holy Spirit guides us in doing what is right and in the end, what is best for us. 

The other approaches each diminish our experience of God and thus our lives. Not paying attention, rushing, being frustrated, let’s just get there approaches take our eyes off God and fill us with such unease that we draw into ourselves becoming blind to the very gifts being offered to us.

Jesus enjoins us to be alert, to stay awake and to watch. To be busy about our work for Him.

That command is not about arriving at the goal. Jesus will take care of that, but about our growth as a people confident and trusting in God. That type of attitude leads us to grow into the image of God, to act (it is not about sitting around) by living Jesus’ way most fully, and to deal with those things in us that must change – our very inability to be patient with God’s timeline.

Much of the history of the Old Testament is about waiting and becoming; lessons learned, repentance undertaken, and to be prepared for the Messiah. Speaking of waiting, the time between the last prophet and Jesus was about 500 years of silent waiting, yet each moment had value for growth.

As St. Paul tells us, we have been enriched in the knowledge of Christ so that this time may be grace filled, focused on what we have learned, and engaged in the work that helps us be ready for welcoming Him again.