Daily Reflections for Advent
Daily Reflections for Advent
Initial Blessing for the Vigil on the Last Saturday of Ordinary Time
Leader: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
Leader: O God, by whose Word all things are sanctified, pour forth Your blessing upon this wreath and grant that we who use it may prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ and may receive from You abundant graces. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen
Weekly Prayers
Week One [Hope]:
O Lord, stir up Thy might, we beg Thee, and come, That by Thy protection we may deserve to be rescued from the threatening dangers of our sins and saved by Thy deliverance. Through Christ our Lord.
Week Two [Peace]: A Light Prepared: The Immaculate Conception
O Lord, stir up our hearts that we may prepare for Thy only begotten Son, that through His coming we may be made worthy to serve Thee with pure minds. Through Christ our Lord.
Week Three [Joy]: Illumination of Joy: Saint Lucy
O Lord, we beg Thee, incline Thy ear to our prayers and enlighten the darkness of our minds by the grace of Thy visitation. Through Christ our Lord.
Week Four [Love]: The Week of Grace: Saint Servulus of Rome
O Lord, stir up Thy power, we pray Thee, and come; and with great might help us, that with the help of Thy Grace, Thy merciful forgiveness may hasten what our sins impede. Through Christ our Lord.
Daily Reflections at the Wreath
November 27
This particular first Sunday of Advent marks the longest possible journey to Christ
On the Feast of Saints Josaphat and Barlaam, (a Christianized retelling of the story of Siddhartha Buddha) we remember how long the Gentiles pursued the light of Christ absent the fulfillment of Abraham. Astrologers foretold that the son of King Abenner would one day become a Christian. To prevent this, Abenner began persecuting the Church and had his son Josaphat placed under house arrest.
In spite of these precautions, Barlaam, a hermit of Senaar, met him and converted him to the Faith. Abenner tried to pervert Josaphat, but failed, and shared the government with him. Abenner himself later became a Christian, abdicated the throne, and became a hermit.
Josaphat governed for a time, then abdicated, too. He traveled to the desert, found Barlaam, and spent his remaining years as a holy hermit.
Of all those Christ delivered when he harrowed from hell as his body lay in the tomb, Sidhartha seemed least likely due to his cosmological conclusions. But his long journey to Enlightenment was sincere enough to let him see the light of Christ when it came. This saint is truly our symbol of Hope in Christ beyond our expectations.
Saints Josaphat and Barlaam Pray for us
November 28
Two Saints today give us a picture of hope, each in their own variety. Saints Sosthenes and Irenarcus show us conversions in two ways, an intellectual path and a path of horrific experience. Saints Sosthenes was a leader of the synagogue at Corinth. He was converted to the faith by Saint Paul the Apostle. Given his position, he was most likely a pharisaical rabbi much like Saint Paul. His conversion would involve speech and intellectual engagement.
This is contrasted by Saint Irenarcus who was an official torturer and executioner who murdered Christians in the persecutions of Diocletian. He was so impressed by the courage and faith of his victims, the women in particular, that he converted and was martyred himself. These Celestial friends together give the Christan hope in the darkness that Christ will help us recognize him in whatever medium we most need.
Saints Sosthenes and Irenarcus Pray for us
November 29
Today two saints, Saint Francesco Antonio Fasani and Saint Hardoin of Brittany, signify two motions to reflect on for our Advent journey. Saint Francesco Antonio Fasani, was a Franciscan Priest who was a sought after confessor and preacher, a loyal friend of the poor. He was also a mystic, known for his deep prayer life, he was known to levitate while praying. Saint Hardoin of Brittany, was a hermit priest in the area of Landerneau. He was an immigrant from the British Isles to Brittany (France). He was brought to France in a stone boat propelled by angels.
Each motion takes place on this terrestrial realm. The First Motion is upwards toward heaven in prayer. Though Saint Francesco did not reach heaven his psycho-spiritual reaching out is met with by divine assistance that effects his entire being, even his physical person. The second motion is across the deep via the stone. Saint Hardoin shows a transition from one land to another. Land itself carries him over the depth as lingering perception retains a dream. All the while he is aided by a celestial companion reminding him that none of us are ever alone in this world.
As we begin our Advent journey, each of these saints shows us three things. First, that spiritual motion is also physical motion because a human is both physical and spiritual. The call during this season is to alms fasting and prayer; external, interface, and internal. Second, these saints together demonstrate that this motion should be vertical and horizontal. That is, how we relate to our environment, especially our neighbor who we greet as the image and likeness of God. It is our task to discover which aspect we a deficient in and exercise that motions specifically this season. Lastly, these saints remind us that we are not alone. God’s power is with us and his heavenly court is at his disposal to help us on our journey.
Saints Francesco Antonio Fasani and Hardoin of Brittany Pray for us
November 30
Today is the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle. But glancing elsewhere among the feasts of the day we fined Saint Anders of Slagelse. He was a priest in the 13th Century. While on pilgrimage in the Holy Lands he received a vision of a man on a white horse who miraculously transported him home so that he could celebrate Easter with his parishioners. The rider then transported him to shrine of Santiago de Campostella in Spain, and then to the shrine of Saint Olaf in Norway. Upon his return to Slagalse, Anders was able to heal the lame and blind by prayer.
Saint Anders is a good meditation for the transcendent nature of a loving community. In seeking to return to the roots of Christianity, that first intimate community where the brothers Peter and Andrew drop all they have to follow Christ, Saint Anders seems to experience a way to bind to his specific community (his parish), The furthest reaches of geographical Christianity (The end of the Compostella, which is the “end of the world”) and an expansive sense of political-cultural Christianity (The Shrine of Saint Olaf). This communal unity is catalyzed by an angelic being on a white horse, but it is effected by a Eucharistic celebration with his own community. This is the key to our meditation today. The Eucharist is what re-presents Christ’s sacrifice to all Christians and units the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit in that sacrificial love.
Saint Anders’ journey to the geographical roots takes him back to his own small community where we are presented with a deeper experience of Christ than any geographical location. Then, as if to make the point, Saint Anders is moved across the scope of the world and the scope of the messiness of political-cultural Christianity, reminding us that in all these places we have access to the source through those small communities of believers receiving the grace of Christ together.
In this time of Advent, we can turn to the same source of grace and bind with the furthest expanses of history and geography by simply being with our group of loved ones. Gathering around a small wreath and praying is a start. Sharing sacrificial love in your community and going to the sacrifice of the Mass to bind those sacrifices with Christ’s collects all loving effort into one transcendent instant that encompasses the Eschaton, this moment now, the incarnation, and even before. Awareness of this is the greater healing and light that Saint Anders brings in this dark season.
Saints Andew and Anders Pray for us
December 1
Today two saints give us a picture of our hope in God’s justice and our response to the process of that justice. First, today is the feast of the Prophet Nahum. He asserts God’s moral governance of the world by noting that Nineveh’s doom is evidence that God stands against oppression and the abuse of power. He does this by prophesying of and rejoicing in the destruction of the capital of the bloodthirsty Assyrian empire. We can look with hope upon all the enemies of the poor and oppressed, all the enemies of justice, and know that God’s justice will prevail.
But that hope is not passive and God’s justice works in unexpected ways. Today is also the feast of Saint Simon the Cyrene. He helped Christ carry the cross on the way to Calvary. In this season of Advent, as we hope for God’s justice, we remember that Christ’s crucifixion is the summative instant of God’s compassionate, merciful justice. By his death on the cross, the world tries to show cruel justice, which often seeks not only to exploit, but to destroy the oppressed and impoverished. By his death on the Cross, God shows that such cruelty will not prevail. But his compassion and mercy in his saving act are to all who are willing to accept it, even the rich and powerful.
Saint Simon the Cyrene is our personal response through redemptive suffering. We must use our baptismal priesthood to carry Christ’s cross in our life because our hope for the fulfillment of God’s plan is of no avail if it does not effect our lives. In this season we exercise our priesthood through mindful acts of alms, fasting, and prayer. From our sacrifices and the hope they instill we change and learn in our own small way to effect God’s justice in the world, knowing that Christ will complete the sacrifice (in our case, when our personal sacrifices are bound to his sacrifice through the collect of the Mass).
Saint Simon the Cyrene and Nahum the Prophet Pray for us
December 2
Today the Church helps us contemplate hope and peace by celebrating the life of Saint Athanasius of the Caves. Saint Athanasius was a hermit in the caves around Kiev. When he was found dead his brother monks and hermits prepared to bury him. He suddenly returned from the dead and sat back up in their midst. He would not tell the brothers what he had seen, just told them to stay true to their Rule and obey their abbot. Known as a healer and miracle worker.
The image of Saint Athanasius living in a cave in absolute solitude gives off the image of one already dead. He is “found dead” which implies that when he did physically pass away he died alone. The pivotal moment of the hagiography is when his brothers come together to show him honor and in that community, he revives. The first lesson of hope and peace Saint Athanasius teaches us is that they are both found in community. But the story does not end there. The postscript informs the reader how to go about attaining that peace as it is founded on a solid hope. Saint Athanasius refuses to answer the brother’s inquiries concerning the afterlife, but rather urges them to stick to living the day to day of their lives with a beatitude of simple trust. The development of peace hinges on existing hope that does not question the plan of God or worry about the future. Saint Athanasius’ advice seeks to instill an abiding peace in the present moment without anxiety concerning the conditions of the future.
Saint Athanasius Pray for us
December 3
Today the Church offers a sign of hope and an example of peace in celebrating Saint Theodulus of Edessa. Saint Theodulus was prefect in the court of Theodosius the Great in Constantinople. When his wife died, Theodulus felt drawn to the life of a hermit, claiming that all the world's glories meant nothing to him. He sold his estate, gave his fortune to the poor, and lived as a hermit on top of a pillar near Edessa, Syria. There he exhibited the gift of inedia, living solely from Communion for 38 years.
As one “raised up” Saint Theodulus is a sign of our yearning to strive upwards to God. There are three basic significations of this in hagiography, one is this act of prayerful levitation such as Saint Francesco Antonio Fasani (See: Nov 29). This sign communicates God’s grace. It also communicates our cooperation, which is fleeting (levitation usually does not last long). The other two concern the long road of our journey. One sets their dwelling (which could be a hermitage or a monastery) on a mountain top, or one becomes a stylite (a person who lives on top of a pillar or stalagmite). Each of these latter signify our attempt to reach God, but they are as opposed to the Tower of Bable. In these cases, the terrestrial end of the elevation is not “constructed” by the human, but natural to creation. The protrusion symbolizes the sacramental connection to the created, material, world necessary for us to reach to God, natural as it is according to God’s plan.
We are given hope and peace by the life of Saint Theodulus. The hope comes from his living sign of the promise of the gift of grace in the sacraments, which come through the material matrix of this natural world, living upon an umbilical cord that stretches to the heavens and sustained only upon the bare necessity of the eucharistic species. The peace comes from Saint Theodulus’ ability to shed all that is peripheral in order to signify this hope. His detachment from all that is unnecessary reminds us that we too must detach from whatever holds us bound to this world over our yearning for God.
Saint Theodulus of Edessa Prays for us
December 4
Today the Church celebrates Saint John Damascene. He represents a particular kind of hope for humanity and exhibits a peace and cooperation beyond one’s comfortable community.
Saint John was a representative of the Christians to the court of the Muslim caliph Abdul Malek. He thrived as a Christian in an Islamic kingdom, ultimately becoming chief financial officer for the caliph. An Islamic caliphate can give the Christian two distinct impressions.
The first is the more probable. A caliphate symbolizes antagonistic Islamic dominance. This instills fear in those who do not have hope in the Holy Spirit. The fear is that the gospel of Christ is somehow failing, because Islam is a younger religion than Christianity. If Islam grows more powerful as Christianity wains, then evidence seems to suggest that the progress of history has returned against the Church. This view assumes tribalization and competition among “religions”.
The other impression that an Islamic caliphate can give is one of a synthesis of the secular and sectarian by a fellow Abrahamic faith. This situation is still not ideal, but neither was the world of pagan imperial dominance that Christ came to. What is supplied is a “situation” to practice virtuous life in Christ. The life of Saint John Damascene reminds us that as a fellow Abrahamic faith Islam is fairly well disposed to Christianity.
This applies even regarding one of our key figures of Advent, the Virgin Mary. At one point, political enemies plotted against Saint John. They forged a letter in which John betrayed the caliph; the caliph ordered John's writing hand chopped off, but the Virgin Mary appeared and re-attached the hand, a miracle which restored the caliph's faith in him. Notice the problems here were political, not religious. When people of the world are seeking God and open to his work, no matter their faith, they are Christian allies in the human journey no matter what religion they objectively belong to. The destructive element here is the political lust for power exhibited by those who vie for dominance. This danger is true of pagans, Muslims, or Christians who value worldly influence over harmony with God.
The calif’s recognition of Mary’s miracle suites both his and Saint John’s religion (Muslims have a deep devotion to the Virgin Mary). This event symbolizes the coming together of two traditions in the quest for understanding God’s will over and above the quest for worldly power. Saint John Damascene’s entire life is one of navigation and success in a complex religious environment toward not only a peaceful coexistence but hope in a mutual striving for understanding God’s will. He practiced the Greek Orthodox faith. He was educated in the best Islamic institutions as well as being tutored in his youth by a captured Italian monk named Cosmas. This entire synthesis made him a master of classical pagan learning. He was the first Christian Aristotlean and is a Doctor of the Church. Our hope in this Advent season is to emulate the ordered synthesis he was able to exhibit and live the mutual peace he brought about.
Saint John Damascene Pray for us
December 5:
Today the Church honors Blessed Niels Stenson who reminds us of the beauty of observing and understanding our earthly home. Blessed Niels was an anatomist, a geologist, and a priest. Among his anatomical achievements was the discovery of the excretory duct of the parotid glands and the circulation of the blood in the body and the first scientific explanations of petrifactions in the earth. Blessed Niels’ navigation between inductive observation of the external world and offering glory to God in the sacrifice of the mass was hard for western society to maintain through the Enlightenment.
In this season of Advent we are seeking a light, the light of Christ coming to destroy the darkness. Since the Son permeates reality, which was created through him, one can find this light by faith and deduction of the evidence of the world or one can look to the world and, bit by bit piece, together the glory of God by induction. Each of these enlightenments hints to the Advent of Christ in the mind of the rational observer.
Our society popularly sees a great struggle where no struggle actually exists. Much how during Advent we experience hope for the Eschaton, yet remember that the peace and joy of the Eschaton have already been actualized by the incarnation, we look to knowledge and understanding of God’s mysteries through observation, even while trusting the revelation of those mysteries which have already come through salvation history. The ultimate theoretical framework for all deduction should be the revelation in the incarnation. All else is subsidiary or pointless. The ultimate goal of induction is a path to some benefit of understanding the incarnation. All else is agnosticism. Holy men and women like Blessed Niels who use their minds to bring glory to God through engagement with His creation are a beacon to us in these dark times, a ray of light leading to the source.
Blessed Niels Stenson Pray for us
December 6
Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Nicholas. This saint is particularly connected to the season and has many amazing adventures to share, all grim for this dark time of the year. For this meditation we will focus on the Clerks of Saint Nicholas (also known as the Knights of Saint Nicholas). This is the name of the thieves under the patronage of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas is that patron of many things, but it may be surprising that one of the “vocations” that comes under his patronage is thievery. The patronage springs from a host of stories where Saint Nicholas appears before thieves, shows them the evil consequences of their actions and convinces them to repent and amend their deeds. In most popular piety concerning Saint Nicholas he is used as a tool to keep children well behaved. He is also often accompanied by some sort of companion who serves as the counterbalance of justice to Nicholas’ mercy, the most famous currently being Krampus and the Elf on the Shelf.
Saint Nicholas himself presents a deep meditation in this time of penitence. Advent calls us to remember that none of us is perfect as our heavenly Father would have us. To see Saint Nicholas as the patron of thieves makes the “good Christian” wonder, “why would thieves be assigned patronage? Let them first mend their ways, then they deserve the graces of this great saint’s intercession.” Such arrogance assumes that the interlocutor is free of blame. Do we ‘deserve’ any patronage as we are now? Are we not all struggling with our vices both consciously and unconsciously? It is worth remembering that “While Jesus was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard this and said to them [that], “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
During this Advent season as we rightly use Saint Nicholas to bludgeon small children into mechanically good behavior, low on the scale of Fowler’s stages of faith development, we too should seek the intercession of this celestial companion. “Saint Nicholas, please help me to see where I am blind to my own evil. Please help me to have the fortitude to use my will in acts of good rather than evil. Please help me to distribute the gifts of God with largess to those in need, being worthy to be one of your clerks. For I am a thief, I have stolen my time from God and his honor demands that I return what is not mine.”
Saint Nicholas of Myra Pray for us
December 7
Today the church honors Saint Sabino of Spoleto. Saint Sabino was a bishop during the persecutions of Diocletian. As punishment for continuing to spread Christianity in defiance of imperial decrees, Sabino had his hands amputated so he could live on as an example to others. He was imprisoned, and while there, Sabino restored the sight of a blind fellow prisoner. The prison's executioner, who had chopped off the hands, suffered from an eye disease and went to see Sabino; the bishop healed the man, and talked to him about Christianity; the other guards were so angry at the continual defiance, they beat Sabino to death. Some of Saint Sabino’s relics were later stolen and taken to Ivrea, Italy, in order to combat an epidemic that was raging in the city. The result was miraculous and the relics were processed through the center of the old city every July for centuries.
Saint Sabino can be compared and contrasted with Saint Lucy, whose feast is coming up on December 13th. Both involve retrieval of sight in the dark season of Advent. As the days grow dark, the cosmos reflect the psycho-spiritual slumber that we rhythmically fall into when we are too immersed in our day to day and not taking the time to observe God’s glory around us, which is illuminated by the incarnation. In such cases, the world becomes not only dark but cold and barren. Each of these Saints comes to give vision to our weak, dim, or darkened eyes. With that ability, we can then receive the light that is Christ.
Saint Sabino is particular in that, unlike Lucy, he does not lose his sight. In this regard, he is only known for giving sight to others. But he does go through a series of other corporeal detachments. The fact that his hands are cut off, and his body is scattered even after his death, shows that it is the vision of Christ that makes one act out of love, even to one’s enemies. Any corporeal concern beyond this is secondary to the ability to perceive this light. As an example of that light, each time his body was broken, Saint Sabino’s response is to give help (even sight) to that person or people, in seeing him, they see the justice of God, which is mercy. He becomes a catalyst for their ability to see Christ in the world. Following the classic monomyth of Joseph Campbell, this disassemblage should result in a reassemblage that brings knowledge or insight. In Saint Sabino’s case, there is never a reassemblage. His body remains broken and continues to offer sight in dark times so that those who seek his aid, even after they brutally mistreat him, can see the light of Christ. May the light we see this Advent, thanks to Saint Sabino, be the justice of God, to love our enemies and do good to those who harm us.
Saint Sabino of Spoleto Pray for us
December 8
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. But often the great feasts outshine other saints that have much to teach. Today is also the feast of Blessed Alojzy Liguda martyred on 8 December 1942 in the concentration camp at Dachau during the Nazi persecutions.
Blessed Alojzy is a good lesson on the second half of the dual end of Advent devotion. The devotion of Advent is patient hope and waiting. The patient hope is expressed backward and projected forward. That is, the hope is remembered as the hope of the people of Israel, and the world, as they waited for the coming of the Messiah. The hope is actual in the hope Christians have now of the Eschaton, the new Heaven and new Earth where every tear will be wiped away and the cosmos will be ordered according to God’s will.
Blessed Alojzy’s brutal martyrdom demonstrates the current lack of God’s good order in the cosmos. But possibly, more importantly, his execution at the hands of the Nazis shows our anthro-centric grasping to apply a perfect order without divine permeation. All of the modern secular ideologies that have arisen along the political spectrum seek to implement a vision of perfection that forgets or manipulates God. The consequence s that the ideologies forget the universal dignity of the Imago Dei. Each ideology, from communism to capitalism, to fascistic nationalism, finds some portion of the human population abhorrent or absent dignity. This population is exploited and killed under every system. These ideologies are a rebirth of pagan brutality that demands human sacrifice.
But our hope that looks back reminds us that any sacrifice necessary has already been made. The urge and impatience to have a perfect society now, and have it as we are now, without adapting to a life in Christ makes us turn inward for validation. Then as we look out, we see a host of populations that ruin the world “for us”. The result is a disgrace to the dignity of the Imago Dei.
By his death, Blessed Alojzy reminds us we are still waiting for God’s perfection, and that we cannot bring that perfection of our own accord. His death calls us to appropriate the patience of the season of Advent. God made the world wait for the right time to incarnate and bring redemption. But the redemption was retroactive through the harrowing of hell. God waits according to his purpose to bring order to the cosmos in Christ. Our focus is to read his signs and act according to his merciful instruction, not grasp this world as our own and mistake our sense of justice for God’s true justice.
Blessed Alojzy Liguda Pray for us
December 9
Today the Church honors Blessed Clara Isabella Fornari. She joined the Poor Clares as a teenager. She experienced long and frequent ecstatic including visions of Jesus, Our Lady, Saint Clare of Assisi, and Saint Catherine of Siena. During one of these, Jesus placed a ring on her finger, and pronounced her his "spouse of sorrow." She was a stigmatist, with constant marks and periodic bleeding. Driven to depression and despair from the pain, she was often tempted to apostasy and suicide by demons and even physically abused by them. Toward the end of her short life, she even lost the memories of her earlier, consoling visits from Heaven. However, not long before she died the memories of those earlier, ecstatic times returned to her, her joy in God returned, and she experienced the transitus with bliss.
Blessed Clara’s life presents an interesting developmental process to meditate on for Advent. Her life is a life of intense connection to the spiritual realm and also of intense suffering. As a time of fasting and prayer, Advent seeks to connect us to each of these. The darkness of the season generally brings out a darker psyche in people and even seasonal depression. The suffering of Blessed Clara is balanced by a spiritual ecstasy that springs from a special connection to Christ, bolstered by her connection to his mother and certain saints who are personal to her situation, Clare of Assissi, the founder of her order and Catherine of Siena, expounder par excellence on mystical marriage. When she experiences her intense dark night of the soul, in connection to her deep suffering, it is this community, particularly the memory of it, that rejuvenates her and gives her fortitude.
The lesson for Advent is twofold, community, and memory. First Blessed Clara helps us call to mind the communities we surround ourselves with, both terrestrial and celestial. Second, the memories of joy we form with them give us the push to follow through. This connection encapsulates Advent perfectly. The memory of the incarnation, together with our participation in the community it created, is joined with the hope of the Eschaton. These together catalyzes our ability to pass through darkness into light.
Blessed Clara, in her worst time, forgot this joy, and the darkness weighed heavy. We should not feel guilty if we are absent-minded or unable to connect to the joy of the past. But as we light the candles of the wreath we can call on Blessed Clara, a celestial friend who understands, to help us remember.
Blessed Clara Isabella Fornari Pray for us
December 10
Today the Church celebrates two feasts that together show two visions of potentiality in stark contrast. The first is Saint Eulalia of Meri. From her early youth was confident in the providence of God. So much so that not only did she not fear persecution, she actively made her position known in the most public fashion. During the Diocletian persecutions, when she was around 12 to 14 years old, she went to the tribunal and proclaimed her faith to their faces. For her insolence, the young girl was tortured and martyred by the civil authorities. They threw her naked corpse into the street to be left to the gawkers and dogs. But snow fell to cover her offering a modicum of dignity. When her ashes were dumped in a field, snow fell on them to create a burial pall.
Saint Eulalia offers a vision of potentiality seemingly waylaid. But only if one believes that the rulers of this world are the final authority. If one believes this then the snow is insult to injury. It is a cold wet end to the undignified death of a young upstart. One may muse that such fortitude could have been better marshaled to effect concrete change for the good in the empire. But this view is misguided because it assumes the validity of the present oppression, including their understanding of what “power” is. The justice and strength of God works otherwise. When Hannah finds out she is with child she sings of the justice of God,
Speak boastfully no longer,
Do not let arrogance issue from your mouths.
For an all-knowing God is the LORD,
a God who weighs actions.
“The bows of the mighty are broken,
while the tottering gird on strength.
The well-fed hire themselves out for bread,
while the hungry no longer have to toil.
The barren wife bears seven sons,
while the mother of many languishes.
“The LORD puts to death and gives life,
casts down to Sheol and brings up again.
The LORD makes poor and makes rich,
humbles, and also exalts.
He raises the needy from the dust;
from the ash heap lifts up the poor,
To seat them with nobles
and make a glorious throne their heritage.
With this understanding, the snow becomes God’s loving approval and protection. Saint Eulalia signifies potentiality that burns bright and fast, quickly achieving its goal, the glory of God aimed toward the shame and embarrassment of the oppressor. Then that catalyst dissolves and allows God to operate, laying dormant in the Earth like a seed waiting to come to new life at the resurrection.
Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel is the precursor to the Magnificat, sung by Mary at the beginning of her great manifestation as the Theotokos. This and the connecting confidence in each song with the confidence of Saint Eulalia leads us to our second vision of potentiality today, the Feast of the Holy House of Loreto. This small house was encased inside a Basilica after it was flown to Italy by angels. The feast celebrates it as the house from Nazareth in which Mary had been born and brought up, received the Annunciation, conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and had lived during the childhood of Christ.
The building gives us an image of potentiality dormant, waiting, and protected by God. This potentiality is waiting to be actualized. The protection is symbolized in the “home”, the family, motherhood, and ultimately the peaceful acceptance of God’s providence. With these one only needs the wisdom and fortitude to act when the time is right. Mary acts around the same age as Saint Eulalia, At this point, what is dormant becomes a sustained cooperation. She sings her song in reference to her own action only as a causal piece of God’s great and mysterious plan. After she effects her fiat, the plan continues on, her life, her son’s life, and salvation history all acting in synchronicity.
During this season of Advent, potentiality is a watchword. All of our thoughts and rituals are seeking to connect with the potentiality of the incarnation over two millennia ago and the potentiality of the Eschaton. In between these two each of us has a telos, a purpose, and part to play in how the two relate together. Are we firecrackers like Saint Eulalia, or confident slow plodders like the Mother of God. Do we skew to sacrificial death, or are we nurturers of life as living sacrifices? Are we exposed and public, only to be covered in the rest of the grave, or are we hidden sleepers of cooperation with salvation? To discern our path we can turn to both of these saints today and seek their intercession for the wisdom of discernment and the fortitude of properly timed action.
Our Lady of Loreto and Saint Eulalia Pray for us
December 11
Today the Church celebrates Saint Aithalas of Arbela. He is not the most popular saint on the calendar and his hagiography is sparse and convoluted. By some accounts, he was a pagan priest in fourth century Persia. The only detail of his life is that he was healed from a serious disease by the prayers of Christians. This led to his conversion to Christianity. His faith and fortitude were such that he was martyred in the persecutions of Shapur II.
One of the traditional focuses’ of Advent is prayer. Saint Aithalas is a sign for us that points to the power of prayer a method of evangelization. Often we are told to pray for those who persecute us, or we are reminded to pray for the conversion of others. But to pray for someone’s conversion opens one to the temptation of spiritual hubris. In this case, one may see oneself in the better “position” objectively. Certainly being in the church is a better position. But how one uses their conditions may not be more virtuous than someone outside the Church. Conversely, being outside the church may not offer ideal conditions as a whole, but God also relates to each of us individually as judges how we use the conditions we are dealt, the knowledge and understanding we acquire, and how we cooperate with the grace we are given. Because of this, individuals in other religions may be more personally justified than people who identify as Christian or Catholic.
To secretly pray for someone is admirable in that one is not letting one’s “right hand know what one’s left hand is doing”. But to pray for someone and let them know can also be a great spiritual assistance. In Saint Aithalas’ case those praying are praying for someone who is not just in another religion, but involved and zealous enough to be a priest. Obviously, Saint Aithalas knew he was being prayed for or there would have been no conversion. Our meditation concerns speculation on the manner that he was informed.
For him to convert it could not have been conveyed to him in a manner that was arrogant, patronizing, or in any way “tribalistic”. There is a standard hagiographical template, where a religious figure from paganism is confronted by a bishop or holy saint, and the saint heals them, and they are won over by the power of the Christian deity. One can even think back to Elisha and Naaman the Leper. This template focuses on “power and intercessory skill” in order to awe someone into conversion. This is a fair narrative. As we noted the Christian religion sets the best conditions for salvation, especially through the ordinary form of Baptism (water).
But since the hagiography is vague, we can imagine another form of sharing in prayer. As I engage with people in other religions we become friends and often pray for each other. Praying for each other is what friends do. It is hard to imagine that a loving God would reject prayers of petition sincerely made for good ends. “Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.” I can imagine such a friendship between this priest and the local Christians where the miraculous prayer was only one factor in a wider evangelization strategy of loving friendship and virtuous living.
As we practice intercession during this Advent, we can take extra time to discern whether it is wise to let our right hand know what our left hand is doing. If it is wise to inform others, we must take the time to do so in such a way that helps them on their journey feel comforted, feel loved and feel the true presence of God in their lives. If they receive the typical passive (possible passive aggressive) “I’ll pray for you” this may do more harm than good. We can seek Saint Aithalas’ intercession in discerning how to approach who we pray for in order to make our loving community truly places that share the love of God.
Saint Aithalas of Arbela Pray for us
December 12
Today Saint Vicelin of Oldenburg offers us a lesson on keeping inner peace through honest discernment. Saint Vicelin was a missionary in Germany and to the Slavs. He founded multiple monasteries but in 1147 most of what he had built and done was wiped out in a series of raids by pirates. He and several of his priests retreated back to the more stable regions of the Empire. He became bishop of Oldenburg, Germany. He was known for the spirituality of his flock and for his good works for the poor.
Saint Vicelin’s experience is one of reading the signs in one’s life and discerning a course to the best of one’s ability. Some of us are called to be heroic missionaries and some of us are called to simple acts of charity and being a helpful guide in our small communities. Saint Vicelin struck out with bold plans and was successful to a point, but his life path seemed better suited to small works in an organized environment rather than bold works amidst chaos.
The first lesson for finding peace is reflective vocational discernment. We must engage in prayerful reflection of our skills and talents and apply them appropriately as we can to the world as it is. This leads to the second lesson of Saint Vicelin, which is to recognize the environment as it is. Saint Vicelin does not despair or feel like he is being punished, he simply finds an environment, as he is able, where his skills bring fruit. It is tempting to say, “he gave up” and should have pressed on. But the lord says, “By their fruits you will know them”. To act according to where one is called will eventually yield good fruit for everyone involved. Had he pushed on, maybe he would have been killed and all his good work otherwise would never have occurred. Or maybe he would have finally been successful in establishing monasteries, but the result would have been falling into hubris and a poor state for his soul. There is no knowing the “could have been”, only that as he was, he was successful both in his community and regarding his soul. When one’s vocation is found, personal peace follows and the fruits of one’s labors eventually come to fruition.
Saint Vicelin reminds us to seek peace in the ways God designs for us, not the ways that we design “God’s design”. As we seek discernment and seek our palace in the journey toward the eschaton, we can seek his intercession and ask him to grant us the virtues of wisdom and prudence and the grace of peace.
Saint Vicelin of Oldenburg Pray for us
December 13
Today the Church calendar marks the gift of sight by celebrating two great saints, Saint Lucy of Syracuse and the lesser known Saint Odilia of Alsace. Saint Lucy’s hagiography follows that of a typical virgin martyr. She consecrates her virginity to God but is arranged in marriage. When her vow is found out, she is turned over to authorities, tortured, and executed. Her specific torture is having her eyes gouged out. Legend says that her sight was restored before her death, giving her patronage over every disease of the eyes.
Saint Odilia of Alsace also has her sight restored, but she was born blind. She was deemed worthless by her family and they cast her out. She was eventually taken in by a convent. There her sight was miraculously restored. Upon getting the news of her healing, her scheming brother immediately sought her return so he could use her hand in marriage to better his socio-political position. After a series of miraculous escapes, she eventually becomes the abbess of her monastery.
This day of sight offers a reflection on a particular kind of participation with grace. In the darkest time of year, it is natural to reflect on light and bringers of light. As the Advent wreath grows brighter we look forward to the return of light to the celestial sphere. But it also reminds us that we must accept that light. Our bodies are intended to receive this light much like our natures are intended to cooperate with grace that flows universally from God and bathes all of existence. Light allows for sight. Sight is the perception of things as they are. Grace allows for justification. Justification is the ability to relate to things as they are.
The pain of Original Sin is that we are spiritually blinded. We do not perceive the light or grace around us as we should. Saint Odilia and Saint Lucy tackle each end of the nature/nurture debate regarding Original Sin and our blindness to seeing the cosmos as they are. Odilia is born blind, Lucy is made blind. But God does not leave our nature bereft. The Son took on our nature and sanctified it, offering redemption and healing the damage done. We have only to accept, see, and conform in order to begin, even now, enjoying the fruits of his sacrifice.
Advent helps us look back to the event that offers us sight and forward to the Eschaton where we will see perfectly, experience true peace and joy, and act according to our true nature. Saint Odilia and Saint Lucy are here in this dark time to offer a foretaste of that peace and joy. Seeking their intercession we can begin to see that our journey through the darkness has a terminal point; that we will see the light of Christ.
Saint Lucy and Saint Odilia Pray for us
December 14
Today the Church celebrates Saint Venantius Fortunatus, who sings the joy of Christ during the Advent season. While he was a young student he became nearly blind but recovered his sight by anointing his eyes with oil from a lamp that burned before the altar of Saint Martin of Tours. In gratitude to Saint Martin, he made a pilgrimage to Tours. During his travels he often paid for his supper by reciting poetry, singing, or making up rhymes on the spot. After living the life of a wanderer he ultimately became a bishop. At that point, he became a model of temperance and stability, and was known for his love of food, friends, and joy.
Saint Venantius wrote hymns, essays, funeral elegies, homilies, and metrical lives of the saints including Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Saint Germanus of Paris, Saint Albinus of Angers, Saint Paternus of Avranches, Saint Marcellus of Paris, and Saint Radegunde. His poetry and songs often concerned daily life and work and people and politics. He is considered the last of the Gallic Latin poets, and one of the first Christian poets to write works devoted to Mary.
Much like yesterday’s reflection Saint Venantius is miraculously granted sight, this time from healing oil connected to the light of a celestial companion, Saint Martin of Tours. He is a shining example of one who uses their talents to bring joy to others and illumenate the glory of God. The image of Saint Venantius in constant motion and emanating constant song and meter is a prime example of the middle coming of the Word of God that we experience during Advent. The first coming is at the incarnation. The second coming is at the Judgment before the Eschaton. But, the middle coming is when we cooperate with his grace and allow our talents to shine forth the gospel in the darkness as a beacon of joy. It is not a stagnant coming or a fixed way of presenting or being. It is suited to the one who is the light. But neither is it a solitary existence. The light was given to Saint Venantius by Martin de Tours, who allowed him to see and sparked his travels. As he creatures, Saint Venantius, constantly remembers those members of the church who have successfully accepted the same coming of Christ into their hearts. At the same time, he made a point to spread joy to those around him and use his talents to truly actualize the body of Christ in his community.
As we look to a week of Joy in a dark time of waiting, we can remember Saint Venantius and seek his intercession to help us find our way of accepting the middle coming of Christ into our own life.
Saint Venantius Fortunatus Pray for us
December 15
Today the Church Celebrates the Dragon Tamer Saint Maximinus of Micy. He was co-founder and first abbot of the Abbey of Micy. At one point he prayed a dragon into submission and then spent his later years as a hermit in the dragon's former cave.
Dragons in old “legends” of Saints often represent either sin or the cruel bloodlust of paganism. There are many legends of saints both slaying and taming dragons. The difference is whether one seeks to extricate or convert what may be a negative personal characteristic or cultural influence. If it must be slain, then it was obviously negative. But often God takes what appears to be negative and turns it to goodness. Personal moral examples abound in the scriptures, from jacobs trickery to Moses’ hotheadedness. Cultural influences that are regarded as evil or scandalous being redeemed is the universal effect of the incarnation. Once Christ comes, all nations find blessing in him. The “Roman” Catholic church is none other than a tamed dragon at the service of Christ.
Saint Maximinus seems to be a converter in that by the end of the brief account the dragon is “submissive”. The submission of the dragon is the smaller part of the conversion. More interesting is that Saint Maximinus ends up living in the dragon’s cave. If we take this story to be one of cultural conversion, the dragon is narratively neutralized and the environment of the dragon becomes an environment of holiness and contemplation.
It is fashionable to lament the loss of Christian Christmas to a hollow secular tradition that is consumer focused. The true drive of secular Christmas is economic, but the veneer of sentimentality is retained by a constant refrain in stories touting relationships with our friends and family as the true meaning. This is a clever bait and switch because those loving relationships are how many of us experience Christ in our lives. It is not so much that the message is bad, just lacking the foundation of the incarnation and therefore unable to stand before the avaricious materialism of the false god Economy, who is cruel and brutal.
The not so small irony is that all of this happens before Christmas actually occurs. It is typical of our impatient society that the “Christmas season” happens during Advent so intensely that by the time of the actual twelves days of Christmas the holiday is burned out. This season is not a dragon to be slain but to be tamed. The perfect weapon to facilitate its submission is an investment in the patience and particular joy of Advent. In this investment, we do not kill the beast, but tame it and make its home our own. By eschewing the consumeristic mania in our micro-communities and focusing on the secular urge for the bonds of friends and family we can accentuate the wreath as a beacon of fulfilling what is lacking, even in those strong bonds. Instead of seeking to sedate that lurking feeling of the incomplete with tokens of love that are inadequate, we can supplement those gifts with the gift of Christ’s love as we experience it afresh, contemplating the incarnation, or in hope for its joy in the Eschaton. With these skills and prayers, along with the intercession of Saint Maximinus of Micy we can tame the dragon and make its cave our home.
Saint Maximinus of Micy Pray for us
December 16
Today the Church celebrates Haggai the Prophet. He was chiefly concerned with the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem. When the work is begun the prophet links the well-being of the community to the work of Temple restoration. Haggai also hints at the possibility that restoration of Davidic rule is not ended, but rather is shifted to the eschatological future.
The Eschatological prospects of Haggai are sparsely scattered in the second chapter where he notes the Lord will “shake the nations”, implying a deus ex machina solution to all of Israel’s problems. This prophecy encapsulates both ends of the advent celebration, the incarnation as the beginning and the eschaton as the end. But Haggai spends most of his time discussing the restoration of the Temple and its connection to the environment. The Temple is the palace where God “objectively” dwells in Israel. The ritual system enacted there was the focus of how the community regarded and showed love and respect to God himself. With the beginning of its restoration, the world came back into order for the Israelites. That is to say, the drought and famine ended. Thus even though the promise of a future perfection is asserted, most of the focus is on the work that humans can do here and now. That work concerns finding ways to connect to God and reorient all of creation by that connection.
As we enter the latter part of the season we are also called to focus on reconstructing the temple. We believe that the restoration of the Davidic line came in the form of the incarnation. We do look to the great restoration of the Eschaton. But we first have a temple to rebuild. In the Christian religion, the temple is not made of quarried stones, but of living stones. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. As a community bound in that Spirit we form the mystical body of Christ, the place where God “objectively” dwells on Earth.
The work of Advent is a moral and spiritual edification, which implied both interior and physical aspects The two aspects are interconnected and demonstrated in the three practices of Advent, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. In the practices, one sees a trajectory from the interior, to the corporeal, to the environment. Haggai’s concern is the same trajectory, but our focus is the fulfillment of the temple as the people of God in Christ. This season calls us to a special way of thanksgiving for his coming by rebuilding the temple on all levels, interior, corporeal and environmental, and effecting the world in light of preparation for the Eschaton.
Haggai the Prophet Pray for us
December 17
Today two saints express the joy of offering liberation and the joy of being liberated. Saint John of Matha and Saint Modestus of Jerusalem approach the issue from both ends of the Christain experience, liberator and liberated. In essence, this dynamic presents the gospel as an experience of the paschal mystery.
At the first Mass Saint John celebrated, he received a vision of an angel clothed in white with a red and blue cross on his breast. The angel placed his hands on the heads of two slaves who knelt beside him. Saint John went on to found the Hospitaller Order of the Most Holy Trinity and of Captives. Their ministry is the liberation of captives and slaves. They use their lives to signify the liberation from sin Christ brings to us through the paschal mystery.
Saint Modestus of Jerusalem was orphaned at five months of age. He was sold into slavery in Egypt as an adult. He converted his pagan "owner" to Christianity and was promptly freed. He then withdrew from society to live as a hermit on Mount Sinai.
Together these two show how all of us are called to liberate our fellow humans and be liberated from whatever it was that we thought our life was going to be. Advent calls to mind the initial proclamation of freedom in the gospel and looks to a time when all are free. When Christ quotes Isaiah in reference to himself, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners” he is also charging us with this same task, as his mystical body between that point and the Eschaton.
These saints invest us in yet another task during this time in between, to be catalysts for liberation and receptors of liberators. Slavery darkens our sense of God’s glory in the world. Because of it we begin to see the world as one great power struggle even including God himself as one tyrant among many. But to be liberated brings the joyful light of God’s true glory to us and allows us to call God father. From there we should move to bring that light to others as much as we can, we become liberators. Inasmuch as we can we should recognize people enslaved by their own devices, or enslaved by the powers of this world and become liberators. All the while we must realize that we are still struggling with our own enslavement. We must introspectively learn to recognize our own slavery and accept help as it comes. We can call on these two saints to help us understand the dual nature of our relationship to slavery in the world and to aid us in our navigation of liberation.
Saint John of Matha and Saint Modestus of Jerusalem Pray for us
December 18
Today the church remembers Saint Gatianus of Tours. Gatianus brought Christianity to Tours in France and served as its first bishop. However, his good work faded after his death. When Saint Martin arrived in Tours, he found that there were no Christians, but local lore spoke much about Gatianus, the man who brought the Gospel that the people no longer understood. Martin found Gatianus' burial site, and always venerated his predecessor. Pious legend also says that Gatianus was one of the shepherds to whom the angels appeared at Jesus' birth.
Saint Gatianus calls to mind how easy it is to forget our forebears in two ways. Given the chronology, it is not likely he was one of the shepherds at the manger. We have no way of knowing who these men were. In their lowly status, they were simply not of enough account to recall the names. Also, Saint Gatianus as the first bishop of Tours was energetic and dynamic, but his work faded and lay dormant.
There are so many canonized saints whose lives we know nothing about. The New Testament Epistles are filled with greetings to lists of people who we have no other record of than their names. They were obviously important even foundational people to early Christianity. But their deeds and prominence have been forgotten by those of us in the pilgrim Church. This dissolution causes anxiety, especially during the dark times of the year. But Saint Gatianus offers a type of comfort.
Advent falls at a time of fallow land and desolation. But Saint Gatianus reminds us that Paul plants, Apollos waters, and God gives the growth. We all have our part to play in salvation history, but like the shepherds, most of us are forgotten. We simply adore Christ in our lives to the best of our ability and we are the nameless mass, “The Church” of any age. Some of us may perform foundational deeds like Saint Gatianus, but that work and our part in it is not remembered. Very few of us reach the status of Martin de Tours, the ability to have a lasting effect and be remembered for it. The story of Saint Gatianus, both history, and legend, reminds us that Martin does not act alone. He is connected to those shepherds through adoration of Christ, in whom we all have our being. He stands on the shoulders of Christ’s salvific act, but also on the shoulders of Saint Gatianus’ groundwork, laying dormant and unobservable, like land waiting for Spring to explode with life. Advent is a healthy time to exercise detachment from our over inflated sense of legacy. Saint Gatianus can help us remember that we are all lowly as nameless shepherds and any effect we have toward development to the Eschaton is contingent on those who came before us, particularly a lowly baby born in a stable.
Saint Gatianus of Tours Pray for us
December 19
Today the church celebrates Blessed William of Fenoli who offers a niche variety of help in the practices of Advent. He was a Carthusian lay-brother he was wholly un-learned in theology, philosophy or the ways of the world aside from his assigned duties, but in spiritual life and good works, he was considered a saint in life.
His simple and uneducated way of life is a light in the darkness of this age. There have been two great informational leaps in Christain culture over the past half millennia. The first was the invention of the printing press, which increased literacy and gave the general populace access to sacred scripture in a way that was inconceivable previously. The second is the development of the internet, which opened a floodgate of sources that are not only accessible but searchable. Both have helped Christianity flourish, but both have their drawbacks. The printing press catalyzed the Protestant Reformation and developed in Christianity to a variety that is primarily text based; sola scriptura, as opposed so sacramental. The second seems to be having the same effect, but the textual focus is traditional documents. The adherents of this new schism are more interested in rubric and source texts than learning from the magisterium and the communion with the mystical body of Christ as the pilgrim Church on Earth.
Here we have Blessed William of Fenoli who helps us pull away from these two text based excesses in a time of abstinence. It may seem odd that abstinence could take the form of refraining from reading and self education. But, just as anything can be turned to good (because the fundamental nature of reality is good) anything can also be turned into an idol because the effect of original sin is dynamically adaptable. We can come to worship the Bible over the Body of Christ. We can come to worship the texts of tradition over a living encounter with Christ in the Church. Blessed William of Fenoli was not a learned man. His sanctity comes from his experience of life as he lived it encountering his community, praying, and service to the poor.
The fasts of the penitential seasons are meant to help us recalibrate our spiritual lives, and thus should not be chosen at random. If one finds that texts are drawing one away from practice and experience, then their cerebral aspects may be concupiscently disordered. A beneficial task may be to abstain from “spiritual reading”. The key here is that cognitive stimulation is a beautiful spiritual experience that connects some people to God in special ways. But cognitive development is not prayer. And if one’s obsession with learning, debating, reading, consuming information is stymying their relation to God, it has become a harm to them. If one is unsure, because the pleasure of cognitive spiritual edification may feel similar to the fleeting pleasure of the sin of pride and idolatry of the mind and information, then Advent provides a test. Can one fast from reading, pray personally to God with ease, and know the joy of offering alms of one's time and treasure in the flesh to one’s neighbor? If not, then Blessed William of Fenoli may be the intercessor who is here to help you recalibrate.
Blessed William of Fenoli Pray for us.
December 20
Today we can see the theme of latency and renewal in the life of Saint Dominic of Silos. His life is one of a reformer. Saint Dominic was born to a peasant family, he worked as a shepherd in his youth. He became a Benedictine monk and from there quickly became known for his strong leadership skills. He is noted for bringing reform to the San Sebastian monastery at Silos. The house had fallen on hard times, had only six monks, and was in terrible shape physically, financially, and spiritually. Dominic was appointed abbot and he turned around the house's spiritual life, straightened out its finances, rebuilt its structure. The house was soon a spiritual center noted for book design, printed art, its gold and silver work, and charity to the local poor.
But Saint Dominic’s legacy does not end with his achievements in this life. Many miracles were attributed to his prayers after his death, especially with regard to pregnancy. Because of his abilities to intercede in regarding pregnancy Dominic's abbatial staff was used to bless Spanish queens and was kept by their beds when they were in labor.
As Advent draws close to an end Saint Dominic of Silos stands as a gate of renewal. The fallow land and cold atmosphere teeter on the cusp of tipping toward spring, rejuvenation, and new life. In this darkness, Saint Dominic of Silos offers several modes of latent renewal. First is his reformatory renewal, which he implements on several levels, structure, spirituality, and aesthetically. This reform is the beauty of the life of Saint Dominic of Silos. The inspiration of spring offers a time of cleansing and renewal as well. But much like pregnancy, terrestrial life was only a gestation for Saint Dominic of Silos’ true role as a celestial human who lends his ears and prayers to our cause if we seek him.
In the heavenly realm, Saint Dominic of Silos becomes associated with pregnancy and birth. This was in no way his forte’ as he lived on Earth, but his patronage is born out of his miraculous effects after his death. His realm transitions from institutional to intimately personal, and then, with his special tie to the Spanish monarchy and it’s regeneration, the renewal of macro institutions through personal relationships.
This intricate cycle of contrasts is the cycle of renewal and a focus of the Advent season. It is brought to bear by a host of dormant forces that simmer underneath until the time is right and life springs into the forefront of consciousness and experience. As we pray before the wreath we may want to discern where this dormancy lies and at what level does our life need renewal? What new life lays dormant even as we go about our day to day concerns? Do we need personal new life, an intimate renewal of our small world of personal relationships? Do we need to reform our micro-institution, the community we live in, rejuvenating its order aesthetic or purpose? Does our entire society need to ”turn the wheel” and begin the process of starting afresh? Saint Dominic of Silos stands ready to offer intercession, relationship, and miracles as we ponder how Advent can help us renew our life.
Saint Dominic of Silos Pray for us
December 21
Today we have a lesson concerning the patience of God, and our impatience, given by the life of Saint Athanasius II of Antioch. Athanasius was the Patriarch of Antioch, Syria in 599. He was a strong leader who fought Simon in his diocese with the support of Pope Gregory the Great. He was murdered by a mob during an uprising of Syrian Jews against Emperor Phocas who was trying to force conversions, he is considered a martyr. But his death was not the result of his good work or witness of the gospel, rather the unjust actions of an inept monarch.
Emperor Phocas is remembered as a villain on all accounts. As an Advent meditation, his attempt at uniform forced conversion is a cautionary tale against evangelical impatience. God’s patience is revealed in the fact of salvation history, where he prepares humanity for the Incarnation. The existence of Advent at all is a recognition of the middle time between the Incarnation and the Eschaton. That space is a time of waiting until the conditions are right. God’s patience is further revealed in the great commission, “go make disciples of all nations”.
There are two implications in that great commission. The first is well known, to make disciples of all nations takes time.
The Messiah did not just come for Israel. It was not just Rome, or simply Europe, Africa, and Asia as the Disciples may have expected. The mission is ever expansive, taking on unknown continents, maybe unknown worlds. The middle time between the Incarnation and the Eschaton seems to be an exercise in patience for humans and a window into God’s patient mercy. The second implication is less known, that Jews did not expect that all Gentiles would become Jewish in the messianic age. They expected that they would see the Messiah’s effects and be so driven by Divine glory that each nation would enter into a covenant with God (as the nation of Israel had) according to their own custom. The expectation of the great commission was a variety of engagements with God, according to each nation’s culture.
Antioch represents the first and earliest Christan Patriarchy for Gentiles (the actual first being the Patriarch of Jerusalem, a Jewish see) existing even before the Roman Pontiff. With Rome and the other original five patriarchs, a synchronicity is formed of “Christan nations” or cultures united by the Roman Patriarch. This is a foretaste of the possible multicultural manifestation of Christianity, with a united sacral structure, but a multitude of rites and manifestations.
The program of forced conversion implemented by Emperor Phocas does not respect the dignity of the Jewish people in Antioch in two ways. First, he is not respecting their process of conversion. One cannot force acceptance of truth in a religious sense. It is incumbent on the evangelizer to be persuasive. It will be hard to do that if the truth is not presented in a palatable way, which leads to the second lack of respect. Emperor Phocas was seeking political gain by his forced conversions and was seeking to impose a Chrsitainty made according to his liking, not one that respects all nations. One can be Jewish and Christian simultaneously. In effect, Emperor Phocas was seeking to force conversion to a false rigid idea of Christianity.
It was Athanasius II who paid the price for Emperor Phocas’ rash and sinful action. His death is a testament to the destruction of impatience. During this Advent season, we can be thankful God is patient. God gives us time to develop, grow, and understand. God does not Lord his authority like the gentiles, and neither should we. If we use Truth as a bludgeon, we are in the wrong and have made a mockery of that very truth. We must also respect people in who they are and how they specifically relate to God. God gives us the Middle time between the Incarnation and the Eschaton for humanity, nations and individuals to grow in this regard. Each has its own velocity. Saint Athanasius II can help us with that velocity as we spread the gospel.
Saint Athanasius II of Antioch Pray for us
December 22
Today the Feast of Saint Flavian of Acquapendente offers a chance to reflect on the holy family. The family will not be Mary Jesus and Joseph, but the holy family of the time between the Incarnation and the Eschaton. Saint Flavian was married to Saint Dafrosa. Their children were Saints Bibiana and Demetria. The entire family is recognized as now enjoying the beatific vision in the celestial realm. While uncommon, this is not unheard of. Usually, this becomes the case because the entire family is killed in a persecution. Diocletian was particularly skilled at capturing and martyring entire families. Saint Flavian was a Roman prefect. Julian the Apostate had him branded on the forehead as a slave for remaining loyal to his faith and Flavian and his entire family were subsequently martyred.
The Holy Family (Joseph, Mary, and Jesus) is a popular devotional image during the season of Advent. With the holy family of Acquapendente, we have a family who we can look to in a similar fashion as a reminder that we are saved in community and the fundamental community of human existence is the family. Each of these families has hard times, Joseph and Mary have the difficulties of poverty and persecution. Flavian was a Prefect and therefore had every advantage. But trusting the advantages of “this world” will not benefit one in the long run and once one accepts and lives the Gospel, “the world” is sure to turn against them.
“The World'' is a secondary community. Society is a community that one forms their family to navigate. The purpose of the navigation is to sculpt the family as an instrument of evangelization, and infiltration of the gospel. The world itself does not approve of this type of family, which is regarded as cancerous. Society does all it can to either conform such a family or destroy it. Christ was crucified, The family of Acquapendente, like must canonized family units, was martyred en masse. One of the few exceptions to this is the Zelie family, whose strategy was patient withdrawal and small change. Advent symbolizes waiting through development; development of salvation history, development of the pilgrim church, and development of the family structures as they seek to adapt society to the gospel rather than simply be adapted.
Any Christan family that is true to itself will appear … odd to the greater society. But that oddity will not be uniform across all Christan families. Some sacrifice dramatically, Some go the little way, some are preformative, some a demure, some move society from within, some hold a mirror to society by their variance. In this season as we look to the Holy Family, traveling by donkey, it could seem far off and foreign. But there are elements there that resonate with us. There is also our own unique journey as a family that brings the gospel to the world in its family resemblance but unique way. We can seek the intercession of Saints Flavian and Dafrosa as leaders of a community that was able to stay true to their faith.
Saints Flavian and Dafrosa; Holy Dyad Pray for us
December 23
Today the Church offers everyone a large dose of humility by celebrating the feast of Saints Servulus of Rome and Thorlac Thorhallsson. Saint Servulus was afflicted from birth with a severe palsy that prevented him from ever standing or even sitting unaided. His family carried him to the door of the church every day so he could beg for alms. He kept enough for the most meager existence, giving the rest to beggars he considered poorer than himself and buying Scriptural works that he would beg people to read to him. Saint Thorlac was a bishop in Iceland who founded an abbey and fought simony. It is also suspected that he was autistic, and is, therefore, one of the modern patrons of persons with autism.
It is tempting to see Saints Servulus as a “token” saints, to take the attitude, “isn’t it nice that the cripple made it to heaven?”. But the reality is that Saint Servulus is a summative example of what a saint should be. Though his physical body is frail, his spirit embodies the beatitudes. In the penitential season of Advent, he comes as a sign to us of what Christ said, “do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Saint Servulus helps us look to the proper order of justification. It is less important to have one’s physical bearings or abilities. Saint Servulus was in every way physically like a little child, being carried, helped to sit up, even begging others to read to him. But his heart was pure in that he trusted true power (having none of his own) and gave away everything he did not absolutely need in life. His disposition, being “like a little child”, is one of the most shining examples of a Saint.
Saint Thorlac, as a bishop born of nobility, reeks of privilege. But his humility was in his disposition. If he had what we call autism this would in no way be an inhibition to strong spirituality. What makes a great saint is the acceptance of grace and exercise of will to the capacity that a person can. To have hardship with social interaction, variance at abilities, or hyper focus appears to us to be “disordered”. But when one looks to God’s plan, these aspects can be great assets when employed properly in what turns out to be a disordered society.
The great lesson of both Servulus and Thorlac is a lesson in humility for us. Their lives show us what we consider “hardship” or “deficiency”. The average Christian is tempted to pity them. But this pity is misplaced because they have excelled where the average Christain has not. We are all in the same position regarding deficiency, some of us are simply better at adapting our deficiency to a deficient society, therefore we appear “normal”. But the great danger to the Christian is that we are “normal” according to the metrics of “this world”. We have been warned about this, “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Being able to navigate social structures with ease is not a metric of justification. Neither is being physically “well constructed”. In fact, John 9 shows us that physical limitations can be conduits for the glory of God. The lesson of these two saints is that they are saints and, as of yet, we are not. Advent reminds us that we are not in a perfect time or a perfect environment. We are still waiting for fulfillment. If we have adapted so well to a society so shot through with the effect of original sin, maybe we are the truly infirmed ones. Everyone suffers these effects, all are infirmed, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. Those we deem “deficient” are worthy of no more or less praise than those we deem “normal” or even “successful” by our standards. The conditions are not what makes the saint, it is how the person manages them because God loves persons and persons who love God are saints regardless of their environmental, physical, or even mental conditions.
Saints Servulus of Rome and Thorlac Thorhallsson Pray for us
December 24
Today the Church notably celebrates the Holy Dyad Adam the Patriarch and Eve the Matriarch. They are the names ascribed to the First Parents; the progenitors of the human race. In their existence in the Garden, they abided in creation as the sentient receptors of perfectly flowing divine grace and love, reflecting that love back and between creating a perfect harmony and bringing the divine presence to creation in a unique way. With the Fall they began the process of the cosmological paradox.
The cosmological paradox is the simplicity and multiplicity of humanity regarding the flow of salvation history taken as a whole across the span of time. The First Parents, splintered into multiple billions of self regarding sentient beings that must first self-regard (alienation) then turn from that splintered selfishness back to a relationship of oneness. It is a painful process of growth in will, and afford humanity a unique sense of love that was inaccessible in Eden. The climactic event in the process is the Incarnation and the experience of the Paschal Mystery. The end result is the Eschaton, where humanity is truly the multitude of individuals in and “Humanity”, a unit which is the Body of Christ. They form a cloud of witnesses, one thing that consists of inestimable dewdrops. The First Parents catalyzed the process of diversifying love as explained in the Exsultet, “O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!”
It is easy to hold animosity for our forbears for leaving the world in such a state. But one great meditation regarding this is to reconsider the story of Adam and Eve. There is no sense of time in Eden, its duration, or even its flow. But one can imagine that if things developed “quickly” as the story itself does, then The First Parents were “new people” what we generally call “children”. Though we often picture them as fully developed physically, they certainly present in a mentally juvenile way, like little children who abide in the garden of God. Perhaps picturing their bodies as child bodies would help with the meditation. It makes their casting blame, alienation, and regret perfectly relatable. It makes God’s position much more understandable, especially for parents. It also makes the cosmological paradox and the theodicy involved a little more accessible as a “punishment”. With that understanding, that enigmatic passage from the Exsultet becomes much more accessible.
On this last day of Advent, we most certainly look back to all the holy ancestors of Christ who forged the path of salvation history, we look to the need for redemption, we look to the future coming of Christ and the reunification of humanity in the Eschaton. The celebration of Adam and Eve helps us understand how all encompassing the invitation to justification is. It invites us to offer the same forgiveness. Again, it is easy to hold animosity for our forbears for leaving the world in such a state. But they are not “fixed in time” making grand decisions with calculated malice. They were once children, they grew and developed, just as humanity is doing now across the cosmological paradox. If Christ can descend to hell and suffer the torment of damnation in order to save his ancestors on this day, in eager anticipation of the celebration of his willingness to do this, we can look back and offer forgiveness. We can remember that it is now our time and that we are making the same mistakes, sophomorically using our will and knowledge in a self interested manner and setting the stage for havoc we never intended.
It is the birth of Christ that turns the tide and breaks this cycle. The rupture is not simply a forward linear progression, Christ heals all time and by the time of the rectification, the cycle will be so dissolved as to never have existed. Today morn the suffering that catalyzes a new kind of love. We take this opportunity to extend that love. Tomorrow we celebrate the catalyst of the victory of the Love and the saving action of our God.
Father Adam and Mother Eve Pray for us
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