1. "In Advent the church emphasizes these ways of continual change: Repentance. Conversion of life. Self-examination. Awakening. Deepening. "
– Suzanne Guthrie
2.
"Advent invites us instead to pause for a moment that we might reflect long enough to assess our deep need and longing for something more, for something beyond ourselves, for something of the divine to penetrate the ordinary even if for just a moment to remind us that there is indeed, something beyond the possible that will save us. "
– David Lose
3.
Advent
Alone, alone, about a dreadful wood
Of conscious evil runs a lost mankind,
Dreading to find its Father lest it find
The Goodness it has dreaded is not good:
Alone, alone, about our dreadful wood.
Where is that Law for which we broke our own,
Where now that Justice for which Flesh resigned
Her hereditary right to passion, Mind
His will to absolute power? Gone. Gone.
Where is that Law for which we broke our own?
The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss.
Was it to meet such grinning evidence
We left our richly odoured ignorance?
Was the triumphant answer to be this?
The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss.
We who must die demand a miracle.
How could the Eternal do a temporal act,
The Infinite become a finite fact?
Nothing can save us that is possible:
We who must die demand a miracle.
W. H. Auden, from For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio
4.
"To see visible objects we need the eyes of the body.
To understand intelligible truths we need the eyes of the mind.
To have the vision of divine things we cannot do without faith.
What the eye is for the body, faith is for reason.
To be more precise; the eye needs the light which puts it in contact with visible things; reason needs faith to show it divine things."
-Theodoret c.393-c.457
the Cure of Pagan Diseases
quoted from Drinking From the Hidden Fountain
ed. Thomas Spidlik
5.
"Witnesses tell how Jesus is transforming their lives
and bringing them a new inner freedom, peace and joy.
People in our world find hope when they find credible witnesses,
men and women with a living faith,
bearing witness to the presence of God-
more by their lives, their growing compassion
and their dynamic love than by their ideas or their words.
Jesus said that people will know his disciples
by the love they have for one another.
-Jean Vanier
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John
6.
The greatness of John the Baptist is due to his humility and self-forgetfulness. He is bathed in the radiant light of the Messiah, whom he is so anxious not to hide from others: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30)
-Adrian Nocent OSB
The Liturgical Year: Advent Christmas Epiphany
7. Silence – Barbara Massey, St. Stephens
"Voices. So many voices. We hear them each day. Words in the Scripture readings for today from Isaiah and Mark indicate the presence of voices: Speak. Proclaim. Cry out. Raise your voice. Shout.
"Especially during this time of year, we hear voices calling to us from every direction, crowding out the messages of hope, peace and love of the Advent season. A spiritual tradition or sacrament of the Quakers is Holy Silence–creating space for God’s voice, believing that when our hearts, minds, and souls are still, and we wait expectantly in holy silence, the Christ becomes present among us. Poet and songwriter Carrie Newcomer has found spiritual community with the Quakers and says, "Something really amazing happens when you are quiet long enough to hear."
"Silence requires that we "be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10). "Silence is God’s first language" wrote the 16th century mystic John of the Cross. God’s voice speaks in silence. Advent is a time of holy silence, of holy waiting. Silence is where the Divine meets us. That is what the incarnation is about. God came to be with us and continues to speak to us. As we continue on this Advent journey, may we prepare interior space, the deep silence of the soul, for God’s voice to speak."