Sunday of the Third Week of Advent 14-12-14
Prologue 3
The Dominican, Timothy Radcliffe quotes Pascal, I have discovered that the unhappiness of human beings comes from just one thing; not knowing how to remain quietly in a room. Radcliffe insists on the importance of silence so that we may be ready to be surprised by the gifts of knowledge or insight. ‘Only in silence can we be nudged by grace.’ he writes, A space of stillness, a time of darkness is a place of waiting in expectant trust…. C/f Timothy Radcliffe OP, Sing A New Song: The Christian Vocation, Dominican
John the Baptist in the Wilderness by Caravaggio –
Publications, Dublin 1999, page 184.
Gospel: John 1: 26
‘I baptise you with water.
Among you stands one whom you do not know,
the one who is coming after me;
I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’
Reflection: The God of the everyday
We can search for God and for Jesus in many ways and in many places. The people who came to John were looking for ‘the one who was to come’. They may have been looking for someone like John or
for a fervent religious leader.
We look for God in dramatic ways — like healing from a terminal illness, great feelings of awe and peace, or in places we connect with apparitions.
The God of the everyday is the one who is always among us
in the people we meet or
in the quiet spaces of prayer, or
in our courageous endurance of troubles in life.
Our awareness is a quiet, non-dramatic and gentle awareness that God is near.
He is among us and we may not recognise him.
Statue of ‘Homeless Jesus’
Prayer:
Be with us Lord, each day, each moment;
may we recognise you in our times of prayer
and in the people we are close to
and in the strangers we have yet to meet.
Please offer a prayer today for :
Those who have reminded us of Jesus by their
generosity, care for others,
love or smile or
hope in adversity, poverty, suffering, or rejection.
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Our thanks to all those who helped, were quoted or whose pictures we used in th making of this site.
Our thanks especially to Donal Neary SJ for the use/adaptation of the text of his booklet,
‘Praying in Advent’.
Columba Press
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