Glimpses of God's Goodness are published for all Sundays and Feast Days at www.sndden.org, the international website of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.
December 22, 2024
Luke 1: 39-45
To move, to set out, to get on the road, to walk… There are many verbs we can use, but there’s something peculiar about walking: it’s the adjective hurriedly. It’s urgent! It has to be soon! It’s for yesterday! It’s a time of urgency for Mary and for us. Where are we called with urgency? Is it in a community? In a family? In a school? Is it in a acampamento? In a river? There are many places of urgency…
In this specific occasion, two women meet, carrying the marks and newness of time on their bodies: one young, the other older. One had been waiting so long for a baby; the other was totally surprised to find herself in this space. Life is filled with surprises, the unexpected has a place in these two biblical women, just as the unexpected knocks on the door of people’s lives almost every day
The unexpected is found in unscheduled, unplanned situations, from losing a job to arriving in a new city in search of survival.
It’s interesting that Zechariah is only mentioned, but the two women are the owners of the story, of the facts, and they are the ones who experience the joy of the encounter and the surprises. they are the protagonists!
Alerting us to the encounters of our lives, with whom we share our presence. Are they meetings of joy? Are they encounters of life? Are they encounters that inspire us?
We’re already close to Christmas, when families get together to celebrate, to rejoice together and to share the food of the Christmas meal. Here in Brazil, this is usually the time for Christmas novenas at neighbors’ houses and there are also many mobilizations to make Christmas without hunger, where people collaborate with a kilo of food and thus make basic food baskets for poorer families.
The poor are the ones who help the poor the most. In poverty there is always sharing, and it ends up being a contrast to wealth, where there is only accumulation.
May we always be able to share what we have and what we are during this Advent season. Amen, Axé, Awere, Alleluia! May we always be able to share what we have and what we are during this Advent season. Amen, Axé, Awere, Alleluia!
Luke 1: 39-45
Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
Sister Lucyane Diniz is a sister of Notre Dame de Namur and lives on Marajó Island, in Breves, one of the lowest Human Development Indexes in Brazil. She currently coordinates the Tapiri Sorriso Center of Santa Júlia, in the Jardim Tropical neighborhood.