Las Posadas

Las Posadas, December 16

The Nine-Day Novena, celebrated in Mexico, is a rich and enthusiastic preparation for Christmas.  The nine days correspond to the nine months of pregnancy.  Each night a procession, with parts played by the Virgin, Joseph and often a real donkey, sets out in search of hospitality.  These 'pilgrims' led by an angel sing songs as they seek a welcoming inn.  The doors are opened to them and a meal is shared.  And on the ninth day the pilgrims may end at a church.

Still preparing

those who participate

continue to push open the doors of the heart

What does it look like for me to give shelter to the coming Christ?

From the Posadas Prayer:

Forgive us, God and Lord of the universe,

and help us to walk alongside Mary and Joseph,

thus giving us the courage to fight against

and triumph over

every adversity.

Amen

Endurance and Preparation

Wednesday of the 3^rd Week of Advent

Feast of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)

Luke 7:19-23

The endurance of darkness is the preparation for great light.

-A great Advent quote from John of the Cross

Today it is Luke’s version of John asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”  And like the Matthean version, Jesus points to the concrete.  What do you see? Tell John what you have seen and heard:  the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.

And then on v. 23 there is:

And blessed is the one who does not find me reason to falter.

(Sara Pagina translation)

The term used is skandalizo from which we derive scandalize.

Oooh!  A scandal!

What happens then? 

At the whiff of a scandal the imagination is abducted. 

We go to the lowest possible interpretation. 

We focus on the clothing and the diet

…camel’s hair and locusts. 

If we get caught in this scandal

we won’t be able to hear or see what is truly there.

Blessed is the one who doesn’t go there

Blessed is the one

who is open to the truth of the prophetic voice

even if it rubs up against

some of our cherished assumptions

Blessed indeed!

Today is the feast of Saint John of the Cross,

Priest, Doctor, who,

directed by St. Teresa of Avila,

championed the push to reform the Carmelite order. 

Surprise! 

The church authorities didn’t like the idea. 

They were scandalized at the thought of it

and refused the prophetic truth in their midst. 

St. John, the great sinner,

suffered imprisonment

and severe punishment

at the hands of the monks of Ubeda in Andalusia. 

But by the time he died at the monastery

his holiness was recognized with enthusiasm.

So much time, energy, and giftedness

wasted being scandalized!

Blessed indeed!

St. John of the Cross, pray for us!

Maternal Correction

Monday of the 3^rd Week of Advent

Our Lady Of Guadalupe – Feast

Juan Diego is stopped in his tracks by Mary’s question:  Where are you going?

He becomes Mary’s messenger to the Church. 

Mary sees. 

The Church needs a bit of correction. 

Build…re-build…

a Church open to the cries of the poor and oppressed. 

Of course. 

We don’t mean not to hear. 

Benign neglect creeps in slowly. 

Fraternal…in this case maternal…correction

Welcome!

She appears as one of the poor…with, among, akin. 

She’s hard to ignore.

Our Lady

Keep our exploring

In the direction of the vision

Which always seems to involve a return

With the drawing of his Love and the voice of his calling

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

                                    T.S.Eliot, “East Coker” in Four Quartets

Rejoicing…A Sign Of Wholeness

ADVENT Sunday Week 3

Entrance Antiphon (Phil 4:4-5)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near

Psalm 146

Lord come and save us

James 5:7-10

Be patient, make your hearts firm

Matthew 11:2-11

Are you the one who is to come

or should we look for another?

Isaiah Makes some big promises today

A parched desert can bloom

We can bloom again.

The world we live in can bloom again.

Are you the one?  John asks on our behalf. 

What DID they go out to the desert to see?

They wanted to see what we want to see. 

Conscious of it or not,

our deepest desire is for what Jesus does in the desert.

We want our sight restored.

We want legs moving and dancing. 

We want our skin cleansed and our ears opened. 

We want life flowing and Poverty enriched.

WHOLENESS is what they went to the desert to see. 

WHOLENESS has a kind of gravitational pull

We are attracted

It is what we want

Right now, if I were to scan through the recent years

Looking for a time when I felt particularly whole

Chances are it would be in proximity to this place.

But not just this physical place,

all the people too, all of us.

In the midst of all of us

and in the midst of the prayer that fills this body

this is where my scanning would land

And chances are the wholeness I would land on

would have been a direct result

of being healed in some way

of being healed or forgiven or reconciled.

At Sunday Eucharist, in the confessional,

at our communal celebrations of God’s mercy. 

But not only here in our church home,

but in domestic life too. 

Like when Rob and I have had a particularly ugly fight

and we find ourselves exhausted and no better off,

we finally give up. 

The contrition, the apologies,

the hugs…tears…the eventual laughs,

that is what makes for feeling WHOLE again.

This Sunday is named Gaudete Sunday. 

Gaudete means rejoice!

and it comes from the first word of the Entrance Antiphon: 

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!

Rejoicing is a fruit, it doesn’t stand-alone,

you can’t pick it off the grocery store shelf.

It flows from something else

It is the rejoicing of the forgiving father

at the return of his son. 

He is running; his sandals have fallen off;

his turban is flying

Before the son can even begin to make his act of contrition

…the father rejoices. 

God rejoices

when we turn our gaze toward our deepest longing. 

Rejoicing has a prior. 

We rejoice because something…

         inside of us or outside

something that was dead is alive again.

We rejoice because brokenness has been made whole.

We rejoice after the work is done

         and we have chosen

         to continue to grow in discipleship.

With firm and patient hearts

This Advent we complete the prerequisites

Rejoice!