Welcome to our Into the Light Reflection site for Advent!
As we each prepare ourselves for the season of Lent, let us remember the reflection of David Steindl Rast, OSB: It’s not joy that makes us grateful, it’s gratitude that makes us joyful.
Our readings for this Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent are here.
Over the next four weeks, I’ll share the gospel and poetic reflections of Fr Dennis Dillon, SJ from his homilies during Advent at St. Mary Student Parish. Anything that doesn’t quite make sense should be attributed to my notetaking frailties, and not his homily! The answer is always God’s Love.
From Fr Dennis’ Noon Mass homily on November 29, 2015 –
The gospel is kind of frightening, however its message is meant to encourage us. Don’t let the anxieties of daily life distract us, instead celebrate what’s coming – that is, celebrate hope.
In the poem, “Want” by Carrie Fountain, about half way through the poem, she writes:
learning how to hold hopelessness and hope together
That sense of hopelessness is captured when we feel that maybe these travails are all we get, and the sense of hope when we latch on to that sense of “Go on, break it open, let it go!” The remainder of the poem captures this complex space into which we are called:
to see on the unharmed
surface of one
the great scar
of the other
Yes, we have to face our realities that generate hopelessness, like the gospel, terrorists, refugee crises. Yet the poem and readings remind us to have both — hope and hopelessness. There’s still hope even at the end, even in personal death.
Louse Glück in “The Night Migrations” accounts of the season changing with red berries, bird migrations, and that even in this inarticulate way, there is still hope. The dead won’t be able to see the downward cycle or Christmas or spring. But what does a soul do, once a person is dead? She offers the solace that maybe even “not being” is enough.
The remembering of God’s action in our lives and world is a blessing and hope in itself, creating faith, hope, and trust in God.
From Celeste’s creativity!
The Surest Sign 