Advent Prayer Experiences 2016 – Page 6

Daily Advent Prayer Experiences for 2016 by DailyGraces.net

December 10, 2016 – Let us see Your face

Published on December 9, 2016December 4, 2016 by KateLeave a comment

I love the Psalm refrain for today: Lord make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved. This beautifully sums up most of what we have been talking about this week, namely looking at Mary to teach us how to unite our will with God’s Will.

Lord make us turn to you: The psalmist is asking God to help us reorient our lives, our wills, to God’s design and purpose for us. We are asking God to clear the path and show us the way to submitting our broken wills to His perfect Will. What better guide than Mary?

Let us see your face: We are asking God to reveal His Will to us. How does God reveal His Will? Sometimes we see it through people around us, sometimes through certain experiences or moments of clarity. But to see God’s face, to come that close to God, there is something we absolutely have to do. We have to read the Bible, which we believe is the inspired Word of God. We have God’s Words, His promises, His desires for humanity and how we are to live with one another all written down for us in a living text that is as relevant today as the day Jesus read from it in the synagogue. If we truly wish to see the face of God and to know His Will we must read His Words.

We shall be saved: Here we bring in again the blessing of Elizabeth: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Key in on the phrase “spoken to you.” You might think, well God doesn’t speak to us today like He did back then. Friends, God does. Remember, the Scriptures are not dead words on a page but are God’s inspired and creative Words. If we open ourselves to God in Scripture we will find Him in our hearts. We will come to know God’s Will and grow in our union with Him.

St. Augustine explains how during the time of the prophets God made promises to His people. St. John the Baptist was the last prophet. The coming of Christ signaled the beginning of the fulfillment of the promises God had made. We are still in this time of fulfillment, but during Advent we take time to reflect on the original promises God made as we prepare for Jesus to come. For today, spend some time reflecting on the following passages from St. Augustine regarding God’s promises and their fulfillment.

He [God] promised us eternal salvation and an unending life of blessedness with the angels, and an imperishable inheritance, the joy of seeing his face, a dwelling-place with him in heaven, and the fear of death removed from us through the resurrection. This is, if you like, his ultimate promise. We look forward to it, and when we reach it, we will want nothing more. But as to how this final end is to be reached, he has also told us in promises and prophecies…

Even so, it was not enough for God to send his Son to point out the way – he made his Son the way itself, so that we can go on our journey guided by him as he walks along his own way (http://www.catholic.org/advent/story.php?id=30978).

***Are you finding the experience of focusing on what you are waiting for providing opportunities for growth? Is your time spent in prayer over these situations bearing fruit in your life as you unite your will more closely to God’s? Please feel free to share your experience, thoughts and offer support to one another in the comments, on Twitter with the #DailyGraces or on the Facebook page.

December 9, 2016 -Waiting Well

Published on December 8, 2016December 4, 2016 by KateLeave a comment

Most powerful symbol of #Advent: an expectant mother! Actively, patiently waiting, worrying, wondering… pic.twitter.com/sjKH2WNHnA

— Maryknoll Missioners (@MaryknollFrsBrs) November 29, 2016

I absolutely love this picture and message. Though this is my fourth pregnancy, I have only been pregnant during Advent one other time (with John) and that was early in the pregnancy. This time around, I’m now almost 34 weeks along (anything 38 weeks and beyond is considered full term) I’m feeling much more attune to what Mary may have been going through during this same time.

Mary must have been thrilled with how things turned out for her. Not only was she not stoned or outcast from her community (definitely a plus), but her husband Joseph choose not to divorce her and still took her into his home (double bonus). Things were going well. Then, at some point during the pregnancy, a census is ordered. Because she was now Joseph’s wife, she had to travel with him to his family’s town of Bethlehem. Remember that journey she took to visit Elizabeth (approximately 80 miles) while sick and exhausted? Now she had to make a similar trip, somewhere between 70 and 90 miles, but this time with a growing baby who kicked her bladder, tried to burrow under her ribs and an insatiable need for more food and rest. Again, Mary is way tougher than I am.

Things went from comfortable to extremely uncomfortable quickly. We don’t know the exact timing of the census, but it is completely possible that the couple found out about it on one day and had to leave the next or within the week. Can you imagine needing to gather items for that kind of journey in less than 24 hours. And oh yes, you will also probably have to deliver a baby somewhere along the way or if you are lucky, after you reach Bethlehem. I love you Ben, but I think Joseph might be a bit tougher than you too =)

Waiting, wondering, worrying. Mary and Joseph must have shared these emotions with one another on that grueling journey. What if? How will we? Why now? We ask these same questions today.

In the spirit of Advent, today choose one of these questions and finish it with whatever you are struggling with or waiting for.

What if?
How will we/I?
Why now?

Then, go back to the blessing Elizabeth offered to Mary. “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45). Those words that must have comforted Mary early in her pregnancy would certainly continue to support her at it’s end. They are waiting to offer you solace and strength in the here and now.

***Are you starting to see how uniting our will with God’s is the key to not only getting to heaven, but to our current happiness? Even when life is swirling around us, God’s Will is ever steady. Please feel free to share your experience, thoughts and offer support to one another in the comments, on Twitter with the #DailyGraces or on the Facebook page.

December 8, 2016 -Time Travel

Published on December 7, 2016December 1, 2016 by KateLeave a comment

Mary is an incredible creation of God. There is so much to be said about Mary, but we have just a short space and today happens to be a significant Marian Feast, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, so let’s focus on that. Mary was immaculately conceived, which means that she was born without Original Sin. She did not have the inclination towards sin that the rest of humanity inherited from Adam and Eve. How, you might ask?

Time travel.

Ok, so maybe not literally time travel, but it’s a good analogy. When Mary was born the gates of Heaven were still closed. Jesus had not entered the historical timeline of the world yet, since He was obviously physically born after Mary. BUT, God (aka Jesus or in John’s Gospel, The Word, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1) is outside of our fixed and limited construct called time. So, in what some call a “preemptive strike” (here’s the time travel bit), Jesus, who exists out of time, took the salvation He was going to win for humanity and gave it to Mary before He accomplished it within our timeline. Pretty cool, huh?

Why is this important? Mary remained in this pure state throughout her life. She was protected from both Original sin and personal sin. She is immaculate. When we enter heaven, after a life of friendship with God and having been cleansed in purgatory, we too will be immaculate or stainless. Mary shows us our destiny, the way we were designed to be. She perfectly united her will to God’s Will throughout her whole life.

As we continue preparing for Christ’s coming, both at Christmas and the end of time, Mary is the ideal example for how to best turn our lives toward Christ. By uniting her will with God’s, she completely oriented her life to serving God’s purpose, aka what it means to be a saint. St. Maximilian Kolbe famously wrote on the board for a group of students the following formula.

w + W = S

My little will in union with God’s Will brings me to sainthood. A few days ago we looked for small everyday moments when we could better unite our wills to God’s Will. Today, let’s spend our 3 minutes of prayer reading the following passage from the book of Hebrews. What stands out to you from this passage? Does it shed any light on an area you are discerning God’s Will or struggling to unite yours with His?

May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, Jesus our Lord, furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will. May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever [and ever]. Amen. – Hebrews 13:20-21

***Did you discover anything interesting while you reflected on how you wait for things? How did Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary help you grow in your time of waiting? Please feel free to share your experience, thoughts and offer support to one another in the comments, on Twitter with the #DailyGraces or on the Facebook page.