MULLING THINGS OVER 12\10\17
It is the Second Sunday of Advent and there are only two weeks to Christmas. I am sure things in your life are beginning to spin. This might be the week to take a moment and step back. One of the hallmarks of the Advent Season is reflective prayer. It is born in silence and often with a memory or a dream. Perhaps this would be a good week for you to begin. Try this… Choose a Christmas card that you have recently received or one you will receive this week. Take the card, sit down in your favorite chair. Look at the picture on the front of the card. Read the message inside. Close your eyes for a moment picture the sender in your mind. It may be one person or it may be a family. It may be a close relative or a good friend. Or, it may be someone you only hear from at Christmas. Separate the two in your mind: person and card. Think first of the person. What is it that links you to this person? Do you get a warm feeling when you think of this person? Why? Why not? If you could choose, what does this person need most in the world? Pray for that and, pray for that person (and his/her family). No, we are not through yet! Take another look at the card. Close your eyes, get focused again. Pray that the same wish on the card for you now becomes the wish you send by prayer to the sender. You may have time to choose another card and repeat the process. I am guessing that you are busy and need to be on your way. You will have a new appreciation of people and holiday wishes after this experience. Another moment for reflection prayer can be with your Christmas Tree or a favorite Christmas object. Almost everyone has an ornament or two that have special meaning. It may be the heirloom on your family. It may be something given to you by a special friend. It may be something of significance, i.e., first Christmas, first child, anniversary, etc. Once again, put the object in your hand. Look at it and think of the giver or the event of its importance. Close your eyes. Think of the giver, picture that person in your mind. What feelings do you experience as you think of this person why is this object so precious to you? [One of the ornaments on our rectory Christmas Tree once hung on our family Christmas Tree. Whenever I see it and hold it, I remember past Christmases when we were all home and anxiously awaited another Christmas Day. I then think of my parents (in heaven now) and my sisters and brothers who all have their own families.] Say a prayer for all of those about whom you think and pray for blessings on them this Christmas as they enjoyed them in years past. Replace the ornament on the Tree or in its special place and pray that all that view it might also share in this year’s Christmas Blessings. These moments of reflective prayer are simple and, in some ways, may seem trite. They invite us to slow down for a moment in the midst of a very busy time of year. They invite us to humanize our Advent days by thinking of people not things. They offer us the opportunity to internalize the Christmas wishes and the generosity of another in order to enrich our lives. Then, they invite us to prayer and sharing these folks and these experiences with God who, after all, made them all happen. Advent does not necessarily mean the absence of things. It can also mean developing with grateful hearts an appreciation of those things that are Christmas. As the Advent weeks progress, this reflective prayer will add a deeper meaning to almost every Advent (or preChristmas) activity in which you participate. You may see one of the senders of the card or receive another ornament from a family member or friend. You may think a little bit before you write a Christmas card and pray for the receiver of this card. You may come to appreciate just a little more the memories or the stories that surround your beautiful decorations. Your Advent Prayer will deepen because you know you are already sharing, in spirit, the Christmas blessings meant for you and your family/friends. Advent does invite us to go back into our history and appreciate our ancestors who awaited the fulfilment of the promise that our Savior would be born. Advent, also, asks us to go into the future recognizing the living Presence of our Savior moving among us today. Then, we are called to be thankful for our blessings. In this Year of the Eucharist, we may want to try this exercise at Mass. Look at the consecrated host held high before you look at that Sacred Chalice. Think of all the priests who have stood at that altar and repeated this gesture, and those who knelt as you do now to adore the Sacred Species. Then, pray that as God blessed them so God will bless you and all you hold dear. It is Advent. Seize those times that invite you to step into the mystery of God’s time. Have a great week!
