Tuesday 5 December
Tuesday of the 1st week of Advent First reading - Isaiah 11:1-10 The Prophet is speaking of the Messianic time. Very specific feature of this is the lack of cruelty and enmity which seem normal according to our standards. The Prophet explains it, “The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion feed together, with a little boy to lead them”. Everything seems strange and even impossible. It goes even deeper. “The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together”. And it does not stop there. Even we see each one behaves completely different; the lion eats straw like the ox and the child puts his hand in the cobra’s hole and it does not bite. The Prophet explains the reason: “They do no hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters swell the sea”. No one hurts the other in the holy mountain, in the presence of the Lord because the hearts are filled with the knowledge of the Lord. The heart is filled in a very special way. It is like the waters that swell the sea! It is abundance and active. The knowledge which the presence of the Lord brings to our heart. The Lord becomes a presence in our heart. He fills our being! Let’s reflect: How much is my heart filled with the presence of the Lord?
Monday 4 December
Monday of the 1st week of Advent Saint John Damascene, Priest, Doctor First reading - Isaiah 2:1-5 This mediation is very important it teaches the way to bring peace into the world stopping all wars and conflicts. The key is the last sentence. “Let us walk in the light of the Lord”. When we start walking in the light of the Lord everything changes. We will hammer our swords into ploughshares and our spears into sickles. We will not lift sword against each other, and we will not train ourselves in fighting. We will turn every occasion to hate the other into an occasion to love and do good, every occasion to speak bad into an opportunity to speak good. Because we walk in the light of the Lord and not in the light of our selfishness. To walk in the light of the Lord, we must learn to accept the authority of the Lord over us. This we must learn from the mountain of the Lord, in the Temple of God. That means, we learn it from prayer and from the Word of God. Let’s reflect: Am I walking in the light of the Lord or in the light of my selfishness?
Sunday 3 December
1st Sunday of Advent First reading - Isaiah 63:16-17,64:1,3-8 “And yet, Lord, you are our Father; we the clay, you the potter, we are all the work of your hand”. This is a very good description of whom we are. The Lord is our Father. He molds us. We are work of His hands. But we have our freedom and our free choice. With our freedom we can resist the work of His hands. The potter works with the clay because the clay let the potter to work with it. The clay adapts itself to the hands of the potter without resisting. Because the clay soft with water. When we don’t let ourselves to be molded by the Lord our Father, we move away from being the work of His hands. We must cooperate to grace so that we are soft and docile to the hands of our Lord. When we don’t cooperate with the grace we are hard and not docile. Let’s reflect: Am I docile to the hands of the Lord who is molding me?