Tuesday 29th November

Listen with the ear of a child 

“Advent is not a time to declare, but to listen, to listen to whatever God may want to tell us through the singing of the stars, the quickening of a baby, the gallantry of a dying man,” wrote Christian writer Madeleine L’Engle, born this day in 1918. L’Engle is especially known for her children’s books, including A Wrinkle in Time, which won the 1963 Newberry Medal. This Advent, consider what it might be like to imitate the Christ Child instead of the adult Jesus. As A Wrinkle in Time tells us: “To love is to be vulnerable; and it is only in vulnerability and risk—not safety and security—that we overcome darkness.”

ADVENT WEEKDAY

Today's readings: Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 10:21-24 (176).

Wednesday 30th November

Be first to follow the Lord 

It’s no coincidence that Saint Andrew the Apostle is linked to Advent (which traditionally begins on the Sunday closest to his feast day). In Eastern Christianity he is known as protokletos, “first called,” because it was Andrew, who had been a disciple of John the Baptist, who persuaded his brother Simon (whom we know as Peter) to follow Jesus with his words, "We have found the Messiah!” Andrew also has a devotion linked to Advent, known as the Saint Andrew Novena. Try it out and see if it supports and deepens your living out your own call.

FEAST OF ANDREW, APOSTLE

Today's readings: Romans 10:9-18; Matthew 4:18-22 

Thursday 1st December

Build on higher ground

Anyone who has followed the news over the past year has seen more images than ever of people coping with floods. Families waiting on rooftops, people stuffed in boats, neighbors wading through murky water. Jesus constantly used images to make his point, including the image of discipleship as a solid house that stands firm during storms and floods. “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies,” Saint Teresa of Calcutta once said. Are you building a strong, flood-proof house in the small things you do each day?

ADVENT WEEKDAY

Today's readings: Isaiah 26:1-6; Matthew 7:21, 24-27 

Friday 2nd December

Walk with each other

Today, the church remembers martyrs Jean Donovan, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, and Ita Ford, brutally murdered for standing with the poor in war-torn El Salvador in 1980. Their witness still speaks profoundly to us today as we encounter our own wars, violence, and suffering, especially among the most vulnerable. And still, we struggle to know what to do. Let us take courage as we ponder the questions posed by Ita Ford in 1977: "Am I willing to suffer with the people here, the suffering of the powerless? Can I say to my neighbors, ‘I have no solution to this situation. I don't know the answers, but I will walk with you, search with you, be with you?'"

Saturday 3rd December

Missionizing begins at home

Many of the practices of the great “missionizing projects” of centuries past are seen as problematic in our age, with its greater sensibility of the rights of indigenous peoples to worship freely as they wish. So, while the legacy of one of the patrons of foreign missions, Saint Francis Zavier, is a mixed one, it is significant to note that he always provided for ongoing pastoral care of the communities he missionized and also advocated for an educated native clergy (rather than foreign-born leadership). None of us acts with perfect justice, but each of us finds ourself living in a unique historical moment, called upon to help church and society live up to the best and most noble qualities of our tradition.

MEMORIAL OF FRANCIS XAVIER, JESUIT PRIEST

Today's readings: Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26; Matthew 9:35—10:1, 5a, 6-8 (180).