Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889
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We found a wonderful resource for Christmas gifts we thought you would find particularly meaningful. The Ave Maria Press has made possible a special giving program to help Catholic organizations suffering considerable losses in donations due to Covid. You can shop for your loved ones AND Ave Maria will donate 30% to a charity you hold dear. There is something for every age in the Ave Maria Press’s offerings. Just a few samples you might want to give to a certain someone at Christmas:
30% of your purchase amount is donated to the Benedictine Sisters of Florida
(You must use our code typed in all caps.)
The Sisters also receive donations from Amazon Smile. Any purchases you make, they will give a percentage of their profits to the Benedictine Sisters of Florida.
Let the Shopping Begin!
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Today, this year, Advent has already dawned, the sun is up in the east. It arrived in a world in the midst of a pandemic in a way that reminds me of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog.”
Here, in our country, it seems, more so than usual, that Advent is being eclipsed to begin celebrating Christmas…. TV ads, house and yard light displays, Christmas music (What happened to the plaintive Advent songs?). Others are experiencing anticipatory dread of a holiday separated from loved ones. Thousands of heavy hearts daily grieve the loss of family members, neighbors and friends. Circumstances have left many without work, no dependable source of income or the means of providing food and life’s necessities. A pale of depression and loneliness hangs over people aching for a human touch, a phone call … any sign that someone is aware of their pain.
Every Advent we have to delve into the Scriptures in order to feel the sense of the messages of hope, peace, love, and joy. Our nighttime darkness will continue to lengthen until December 21 and the winter solstice moving us ever closer towards the celebration of Jesus’ birth. The advent hymns we’ll sing – and the antiphons used at Morning and Evening Praise – keep impressing upon us the need to pray for “comfort for those who sit in darkness” and those whose “hearts yearn for the light of Christ.” We must announce to a “world that waits in silence” that “our souls in stillness wait.” We believe the words of the prophet Habakkuk: The message I give you waits for the time I have appointed. It speaks about what is going to happen. And all of it will come true. It might take a while. But wait for it. You can be sure it will come. It will happen when I want it to.
While Advent is certainly a time of waiting it is also a time of anticipation and celebration in its own rite. It is the between-time that Karl Barth speaks of: “Unfulfilled and fulfilled promises are related to each other, as are dawn and sunrise. Both are promise and in fact the same promise. If anywhere at all, then it is precisely in the light of the coming of Christ that faith has become Advent faith, the expectation of future revelation. But faith knows for whom and for what it is waiting. It is fulfilled faith because it lays hold on the fulfilled promise. This is the essence of Advent.”
We’ve all had experiences of waiting … that’s part of all our lives. The season of Advent reminds us that waiting is often the cost of love. In waiting for someone, our own everyday business becomes almost meaningless as we anticipate, worry, and prepare for a loved one’s return, or an estranged family member or the unknown visitor who becomes the friend we had just never before met and now recognize as Christ personified. In waiting, we realize our own powerlessness; we realize our deepest hopes, and needs and yearnings. People and events we didn’t know we missed until we encounter them.
More than ever, this year, in the midst of the pandemic, I suspect the spirit of Advent will pale in the face of the hurry to put up decorations and play some Christmas music. People can’t wait for Christmas to come with the promised vaccine.
May our waiting for the coming of the Holy One this Christmas help us understand and carry on the mystery of compassionate and generous waiting. Don’t expect a dramatic vision but do try to become more conscious of the Christ coming through our doors, in one another as each enters our community room or are seated to “break bread” at mealtime. In our corporate commitment we pledge to be the embodiment of the compassion of Christ. And it is obvious from our visitors’ comments that this is one of our signature ministries. Our guests, and we who live here, know that our companions care for us … the question at times may be: “do we care about each other?” One litmus test: “Until you know what hurts me, you cannot truly love me.”
In his 2020 Advent letter, Pope Francis reminds us: “Advent, a time of grace, tells us that it is not enough to believe in God: it is necessary to purify our faith every day.” We pray: “O Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with Advent hope so that we may learn to cope with the delays and disappointments we encounter with patience and wisdom. May a spirit of gratitude and humility guide us on our journey to your dwelling place, enabling us to endure, with joy, the costs of waiting for love, reconciliation, and peace.”
Ask yourself as you turn off the light each night…
+ To whom did I offer a word of hope, affirmation or comfort today?
+ How was I a ray of light to someone who felt the darkness of loneliness?
+ Tomorrow, how will I prepare for Christ to be born anew in my heart?
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So, it’s Advent again. Among the general populace, Advent remains an opportunity that is too often little appreciated, little understood and commonly ignored. Advent is about learning to wait. It is about not having to know exactly what is coming tomorrow. Advent teaches us the difference between expectation, anticipation and waiting; suspense, eagerness and “twiddling your thumbs to pass the time.”
Advent is about the power of emptiness and the spiritual meaning of smallness. We strive to live with the basics rather than hoard what, in God’s eyes anyway, after all is not ours. When we have little to begin with, we have even less to lose. When we have fewer possessions, fewer clothes in our closets and fewer books (even the holy ones) and papers that we MIGHT need someday, we spend fewer minutes caring for them. It means that we have less to protect or to fight over and even less to boast about. We can be more open to possibility.
Our conversations can turn to stories and concerns focused outward, on the other rather than the self.
There is a rare sprinkling of “I” and “my” and “mine.” Attention is directed away from the self to shine our light on others. We radiate the blessings of life, not the gloom of sadness, sickness, tiredness and woe. We become more fully human, full of compassion and full of consciousness. Our community Advent practices help hone the attitude of prayerfulness, almsgiving and compassion.
Take a stroll down memory lane and feel again the anticipation and impatience you felt for the night Santa Claus would come. That’s the feeling we still need to be filled with as we await the coming of Christmas – the commemoration of the night Jesus opened His eyes and beheld the tender love of his earthly mother and his foster father Joseph; heard the voices of the angels singing praises and felt the warmth of the breath of curious animals.
I invite you to live again, the moment you discovered the reality of the Santa myth. You’d probably had plenty of hints for a long time from older siblings or classmates. In fact you might have known from the beginning that there was no one who was “Santa.” But, you were slow to relinquish the fantasy of the jolly fellow enjoying the cookies you’d left for him and emptying his sack of toys to find the gift with your name on it. Even children who are aware that their families are “dirt poor” cling to the dream of a Santa figure.
As we mature, so do our hopes and dreams. The final line of the selection from Matthew’s Gospel reminds us first: we do not know what day the Lord will appear. Then, “You must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” That does not refer only to the hour of our death. Remember the story of the Abbot who visited his Rabbi friend who shared with him a valuable lesson: “the messiah is among the ranks of your community.” We are challenged to be Messiah to each other. To treat each other, those who walk through the door, with gentleness and courtesy – that one may be the Messiah among us. Now, in place of eager children looking forward to Santa bringing us gifts, we conger ways to be “Santa” to others.
So, we pray: “May the God of Israel increase our longing for Jesus our Savior and give each and all of us the strength to grow in love, that the dawn of Jesus’ coming may find us rejoicing in his presence and welcoming the light of Truth.”
The truth is that the Christmas season is unabashed about the purpose of the Christian life. “I am bringing you good news of great joy,” the angel says to the shepherds on the hillside outside of Bethlehem about the birth of a baby in a stable there (Luke 2:10). Good news of great joy, we learn at the beginning of the liturgical year, is what searching for the baby is all about. It’s how and where we’re searching that matters.
“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times,” the Greek playwright Aeschylus wrote. But that’s wrong. Happiness does not require choice some of the time. Happiness requires choice all the time. It requires learning to choose between what is real and what is fleeting, what is worthless and what is worthwhile. But that does not make the effort either impossible or unacceptable. It simply requires discrimination.
It is discrimination, the ability to choose between one good in life over another, that the liturgical year parades before our eyes over and over again, year after year, until we finally develop enough maturity of soul to tell what lasts from what pales, to discern what’s worth having from what isn’t, to know what happiness is rather than what satiety is.
Meaning, we discover, has nothing to do with what is outside of us. It has to do with what we have come to see within our souls. It has to do with the vision that is within us rather than with the things we are heaping up around us as indicators of our success, our power, our status. Joy is not about what happens to us, the manger indicates. It is the meaning we give to what we do that determines the nature, the quality of the lives we live.
—from The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister
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This past week we celebrated some feasts that are frequently connected in our minds to the customs of Christmas time: St. Nicholas shoes, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and next week we’ll honor our Lady of Guadalupe (roses in the snow) and St. Lucy, patron of the sight-limited and blind, with crowns of lit candles and cat cookies. And, this weekend the liturgy says: “take a breather – we’re halfway to Christmas.”
Two figures, John the Baptist and Mary the Mother of God, stand out in the Advent Gospels as we prepare for Christ’s birth. John’s purpose in preparing us for Christ is fourfold: to bring knowledge of salvation, to bring forgiveness of sins, to give light in the darkness, and to guide us in the way of peace.
First, John models for us simplicity. He lived a simple life, keeping his focus on Christ in everything he did. We, too, strive to keep our focus on the true purpose of Christmas – the celebration of the birth of our Lord – much more than gift-giving.
Second, John lived a life of fasting. We too can make little sacrifices for others during Advent, thereby keeping the focus off of consumerism and placing it on relationships – with Christ and with others.
Third, John forgave others. We too can make a commitment to forgive others this Advent. In forgiveness therapy there is a belief that anger is due to a lack of forgiveness and a lack of forgiveness is due to anger. The two feed off each other. Thus, if you are feeling angry, practice forgiveness. What a great time to offer the gift of forgiveness to a love one, a confrere, or a coworker.
Fourth, John lived a virtuous life. We too can focus on increasing the positive in our lives and letting go of the negative. Following John’s lead is a great way to our lives peaceful.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the other figure that prepares us for Christ’s birth. Mary’s face in many sculptures, icons and images exemplifies the peace she must have exuded in her life. Her peace came from putting Christ at the center of all she did. Like Benedict says (in his Rule): put nothing whatever ahead of Christ.” Mary’s “yes” was the ultimate gift she could give and she offered it peacefully.
We ask ourselves: what is my best? What can I give to God this advent season?
This story, told in this month’s Catholic Digest illustrates the lesson that God cannot not be undone is generosity. I quote: When I was a child, my parents would have my siblings and me create a list of Christmas gifts we wanted that year. Then, they would find children in need who were the same age and gender as we were. My parents then asked us to give our No. 1 item to that child and cross it off our list. It was a huge sacrifice for us – and a lesson in giving our best to God.
One year my brother wanted an action figure and was very upset that he was being asked to give that same action figure to another boy who had very few, if any, toys. He balked at giving this best and did it only reluctantly that year. Once it was gone, he knew it was off his list for the year, at least from my parents. However, our aunt, not knowing our family practice, or what my brother’s best gift was and that he had given it away, gave him that same action figure for Christmas. The joy on his face was radiant, as he exclaimed: “I’m giving God my best gift every year!”
What is your best give? Just like the Blessed Virgin Mary, what can you give to Christ this year, knowing that the reward for giving is beautiful?
In tomorrow’s Entrance Antiphon (from Paul to the Philippians) the Church exhorts us: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!” The antiphon reminds me of a hymn made popular by S. Miriam Therese Winter, with her peppy guitar rendition of “God Loves a Cheerful Giver.” You may remember it – if so, sing:
God loves a cheerful giver, give it all you’ve got,
He loves to hear you singing when you’re in an awkward spot,
When the odds are up against you,
It’s time to stop and sing – Praise God,
to praise Him is a joyous thing!
Do what the church says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.”
