Advent Slowing Down



I read yesterday a small Advent meditation/prayer:

 

"Dear Jesus . . . It happens every year. I think that this will be the year

that I have a reflective Advent.

 

I look forward to Sunday and this new season, Jesus. But all around me

are the signs rushing me to Christmas and some kind of celebration

that equates spending with love.

 

I need your help. I want to slow my world down. This year, more than ever,

I need Advent, these weeks of reflection and longing for hope in the darkness.

 

Jesus, this year, help me to have that longing. Help me to feel it in my heart

and be aware of the hunger and thirst in my own soul. I know it is about you, Jesus.

You are not missing from my life, but I might be missing the awareness

of all of the places you are present there.

 

Be with me, my dear Friend. Guide me in these weeks to what you

want to show me this Advent. Help me to be vulnerable enough to ask you

to lead me to the place of my own weakness, the very place

where I will find you the most deeply embedded in my heart,

loving me without limits."

 

From Creighton University Collaborative Ministries:

 

 

I have always liked Christmas. Last year I shared about the Christmas of my childhood [See Entry]. It is those past Christmases of our childhood that embed in our hearts a lifelong love for Christmas.

 

I worry about Christmas sometimes. The business world depends upon Christmas for revenue. If we simplified Christmas too much it would wreck the economy; but are we responsible to maintain the addiction of business to Christmas spending? I have nothing against gift-giving and decorating and festivity, as long as it doesn’t create personal debt.

 

I worry also about the hectic pace that surrounds the weeks before Christmas. There’s a lot of pressure upon people and families to "get everything done" before Christmas that we think or have been told must be done. The hectic pace and all the Christmas Shopping Push threatens to drown out any sense of Advent with its more reflective mood.

 

The meditation that begins this entry speaks of my own longing to slow down. I could long for this slowing down at almost any time or season in my year! I suppose most people feel busy almost all the time, like I do.

 

One year I was rushing around doing shopping and errands before Christmas. I had given myself too many things to do in too short a time and as I changed lanes in the busy traffic in front of the mall, I ran into the car in front of me. It wasn’t serious but it meant waiting a long time for the traffic police to come and to get my ticket of shame. Not only had I slowed down my schedule, but also the schedule of the woman whose car I bumped.

 

That taught me a lesson: I needed to slow down. As I said, I love Christmas. I resolved that if while doing the things to get ready for Christmas, I wasn’t enjoying myself because of stress or hurry, I needed to slow down and retrieve the joy.

 

Advent is a great time for me to heed that message again, and to especially slow down for prayer and to become more aware of the places and people where the Lord is coming to me.

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Computers and Poems Slowing Me Down

So Slow I Fell Asleep

This sharing will be very brief. I've been having problems with my computer all day. It has slowed down to a snail's pace and everything is taking a long time to get done. Everything was fine a day ago and suddenly this. I fear my computer has a virus, but my supervirus program denies it is so.

Perhaps it is time for a new computer (just in time for Christmas!). It doesn't seem my computer is that old, but maybe computer years are like dog years. As a child I was told every year of a dog's life was equivalent to 7 human years. Maybe every year of a computer's life is equivalent to 25 human years. So my computer is now 100 years old in human years! Expect a slow-down?

Ironically, I've been wrestling with and advising the wisdom of Advent as a time to slow down and watch and pray. Has my computer been converted to this wisdom and is just helping me observe the Advent Season?

I thought I might at least give you something of substance in this post. I looked up a poem in my files (once they opened). It is a wonderful little poem. I think also how poems invite us to slow down and pay attention to their message. They do this by using unexpected words and phrasings. Sometimes we have to re-read a sentence to really comprehend it---if we comprehend at all. Here's such a poem, appropriate for the prepartion for Chrsitmas and its celebration of the First Coming of the Savior:

First Coming

God did not wait till the world was ready,
till nations were at peace.
God came when the Heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.

God did not wait for the perfect time.
God came when the need was deep and great.
God dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine.

God did not wait till hearts were pure.
In joy God came to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame,
God came, and God’s light would not go out.

God came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.

We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful praise,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
God came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!

- Madeleine L’Engle

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On Priests Retreat, On Slowing Down

This week I have been on the Diocesan Priests’ Retreat with our Bishop and most of the Priests of the Diocese.

What exactly do Priests do on retreat? It will be no surprise that we pray, for that is what one does on a retreat. We pray Morning and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. We have Mass together. We have a Reconciliation Service with time for individual Confessions afterward. In the beauty of our retreat center at Marywood in South Jacksonville on the St. John's River, one can be still and pray alone, as well.

St. John's River as seen from Marywood dock

 Every Priests Retreat has a Retreat Director. For the last 8 years I have been the Chair of the Priests’ Spirituality Committee and responsible for arranging the Retreat and selecting the Director. It was a 5 year appointment made by Bishop Galeone and when I hit the 6th  and 7th years, I asked Bishop Galeone to replace me but it never happed. Finally, after the 8th year, our new Bishop Felipe had mercy and appointed a new Chair. I’m still helping with the Liturgy on Retreat, my constant love.

Our Retreat Director this year, Fr. George Aschenbrenner, SJ, is the last Director I selected. One usually schedules Priests’ Retreat Directors at least 3 years in advance. Whoever our Director may be, he or she always gives us spiritual food for thought, meditation, and encouragement.

There is also a lot of comraderie on the Priests’ Retreat. This is the one sure time that most of the Priests of the Diocese are together. We are on the whole a happy group and enjoy conversation and jokes and relaxing together. Here is a photo of the Priests' Retreat in 2008:

Can you spot your Pastor? For some reason he has a coat hanger

So on Retreat we Priests pray and listen to spiritual conferences, and socialize. But I would say the essential thing about a retreat is to slow down for a while. We live in very busy times. Priests also are busy with many duties, especially so in larger parishes like ours at Holy Faith.

We Priests need to remember how important it is to listen to God and that means stopping for a while and paying attention. Listening occurs in silence and we may find silence difficult in our noisy times. Quiet time is built into our retreats, so as to listen.

Here is a poem I came across as I prepared to write this entry; it speaks to me of this need to slow down and hear God.The poet has two allusions to the Scriptures: one on the Hidden Treasure in the Field and the Pearl of Great Price (see Matthew 13:44-46 HERE); and Moses and the Burning Bush (See Exodus 3:1-22 HERE):

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the pearl

of great price, the one field that had

treasure in it. I realize now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

~ R. S. Thomas ~

The poet thinks back on a lovely scene of the sun illuminating a field. He seems to say that he hurried away when he needed to stop and turn aside and realize the treasure of God's revelation in that place of nature.

The poet mentions the example of Moses who turned aside to see the Burning Bush. It was in this amazing Bush that burned but was not consumed that Moses heard God speak. Moses took off his shoes and worshiped. But what if Moses had not stopped. What if he was rushing on to the next appointment and had no time to see this amazing thing and hear God speak? If he lived today, he’d probably be like most of us, so distracted that he wouldn’t even have noticed that burning bush by the way; it would have had to burn him to get his attention! And sometimes it’s only in crises that we are forced to slow down and consider what is the Great Treasure/Pearl of Great Price in our lives. Jesus says it is the Kingdom of God, which means the Rule of God’s love in our lives.

It’s difficult to slow down when life is busy. Daily Prayer helps. And Retreats...

(And just so you know that I’m not working while on Retreat, this entry was written the day before our Retreat began. I only had to push a button to publish it today.)

For a related post go  Here "Seeing God in the Ordinary" (7/5/2012)

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About Busyness and Prayer

The Gospel Reading for this past Wednesday’s daily Mass says that after Jesus had spent a great deal of time healing the sick, "At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place." (Luke 4:42)

From other Gospel passages we know that he went to deserted places and to mountain tops to pray. Jesus, in his humanity, needed some solitude and silence to renew his relationship with God his Father in prayer. If he needed to pray, how much more do we need this, also!

I regularly think about this need for silence and prayer, because I desire this so much in my life. It is often my own fault that I don’t pray as much as I’d like; that I find myself busy with many things like just about everyone else today.

St. Gregory

Monday, September 3, was the Feast Day of St. Gregory the Great (Read about Gregory HERE). Gregory lived in a time (the late 6^th century) when the Church in Rome was having to take over many of the civic functions of the State because the Roman Empire was collapsing in the West. Gregory rose through various public offices until he left it all and entered monastic life. Yet in 590 he was elected Pope and had to leave the quiet of the monastery.

The Office of Readings for September 3^rd quotes a homily of St. Gregory where he says:

"In the monastery I could curb my idle talk and usually be absorbed in my prayers. Since I assumed the burden of pastoral care, my mind can no longer be collected; it is concerned with so many matters...With my mind divided and torn to pieces by so many problems, how can I meditate or preach wholeheartedly without neglecting the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel?" (Read the entire quote from the Reading HERE)

I always derive comfort when I read these words by St. Gregory. I do not have even half of the responsibilities he had, but I can relate to the challenge he faced of finding time to be collected and to pray and mediate without being so preoccupied with problems and all the noise of our society today. We have constant information overload today and there are words and noise everywhere we go.

When I was in my first year of Seminary, I was studying at St. Meinrad’s Monastery in Southern Indiana. The monks of St. Meinrad prepare men for service in various Dioceses. Being in a monastery environment, we were of course exposed to much of the monastic life and worship which was quite inspiring.

St. Meinrad Monastery

I probably would have entered the monastery if I had remained at St. Meinrad’s, but the rest of my Seminary training was back in Florida at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach. I’m glad for the years and friendships I had at St. Vincent. But I still think about the monastery. I think about it because it represents a life that devotes a great deal of time to prayer (For more on the monastic vocation go HERE). The monastic environment is designed to provide regular times of silence for meditation. The other complementary prayer in the monastery is the Liturgy of Hours and the Mass (what is called the Opus Dei, Latin for work of God).

I am periodically challenged to honor this "monastic streak" in myself, not by entering a monastery but by honoring the call to a more prayerful life. I ask for prayer that I might pray more. Perhaps I’ll write more about this subject since I know I am not alone in swimming against the culture’s current to stay benumbed by distraction and busyness. As I read by chance this week a quote from Ghandi: "There has to be more to life than simply increasing its speed."

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