Katie’s Blog

A blessed Christmas and healthy, happy New Year to everyone. It\’s nice to be on break from required readings.
(My brain had nearly turned to mush!)
In a personal effort to live out Christmas in my life these next few weeks, I offer the following poems for your reflection.
_________
Dialogue:
A Word, a Word
Thou, Lord, didst utter which Thy willing handmaid heard,
And infinite, small Life within my own life breathed and stirred.
A blessed space
My Lord in me and I in Him found resting place;
In such divine repose I waited, silent and full of grace.
Answer is nigh;
O God, I lift a Child up heart-and-heaven high
And say,  “This is my Flesh and Blood”; Thy Word is my reply.
_________
Sheepfolds:
The shepherds are stricken; the sheep have fled;
Their folds are broken, their watch-fires dead.
Not only the lost and wayward one;
The ninety-nie, they, too, are undone.
The laden ewes, the driven sheep,
Where can they lay their young to sleep?
This Lamb, new-born and weak and cold,
This Lamb of God, -will you be His fold?
_________
Stars:
We are the old stars that have watched the night skies with the prophets of old;
We are the magi from out of the East; we are bringers of gold.
Heaven has incense of praise from censers seraphic to bring;
Earth, the world-weary, bears bitter-sweet treasure of myrrh to the King.
Homage of incense and myrrh for a God and a Savior are meet;
We are your stars, little King, and we scatter the gold of ourselves at Your feet.
_________
SOURCE:
Wolff, CSC, M. Madeleva.  “The Four Last Things: Collected Poems.” 2nd ed. Notre Dame, IN: Saint Mary’s Press, 1986.

I can’t put my finger on it exactly… but Advent may just be my favorite liturgical season. Maybe it’s because it’s so hope-filled. Maybe it’s because we celebrate the coming(s) of Christ in a truly counter-cultural way.
And in this maddening and slightly chaotic exam season, I wish to share with you some of my favorite Advent prayers that ground me and reconnect me with God:
A Prayer for Lighting Advent Candles:
In the darkness we light a flame of hope. May it dance not only upon our Advent wreath but within each of our hearts as well. Hope is the flower that blooms from the ground of faith. And so, with joy, we keep the tradition of ages past as we encircle our Advent wreath with love and prayerful expectation. May this Advent season bring us a new birth of hope in the ancient promises of God. Amen.
(2006 Advent Calendar, compiled by Julia Schloss and Mark Neilsen for Creative Communications for the Parish, Inc. Fenton, MO)
A Christmas Prayer:
Source of divine Light, Emmanuel, God-with-us,
your radiant love illuminated our waiting world
with the surprise of your Bethlehem birth.
Each year since then we celebrate this astonishing event,
rejoicing in your coming anew, not as a newborn Babe,
but as the presence of divinity contained within each of us.
To our great astonishment, we have become your dwelling place.
We are now your Bethlehem.
Now you are a Treasure birthed in the secret place of our soul.
Now you are a Light gleaming through our gestures of generosity.
Now you are Hope radiating inside the core of our courage.
Now you are Joy shining into the dark caves of our gloom.
Now you are Peace glowing quietly in the crevice of our anxiety.
Now you are Love brilliantly reflected within our kindness.
O Christ, Light of all lights, Star of all stars,
dweller within these human homes of ours,
open our wandering minds and hesitant hearts
so your endless goodness radiates more completely within us.
We welcome you again and again, with gratitude and trust,
not only in this Christmas season of rembrance and celebration
but all through the new year that awaits us.
~ Joyce Rupp, OSM
(from: “Welcome the Light” written for Creative Communications for the Parish.)