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 10, 2023
Matthew 1: 1-8
“…the Lord will come to save the nations, and the Lord will make the glory of his voice heard in the joy of your heart.”
Today’s entrance antiphon expresses well the joy of this season and the anticipation of God-Love who came, comes, and will come among us…even in the midst of our failures to love.
A poem of Denise Levertov, which I discovered recently, has influenced the way I find myself approaching prayer, especially in this Advent season.
As swimmers dare to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
As hawks rest upon air and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
Into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all –surrounding grace.
The scriptures for this Second Sunday of Advent offer us many reasons to “fall into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace.” ”
Isaiah speaks for God: "Comfort, comfort to my people…[their] guilt is expiated.” Zion must go up to the mountain and cry out “Here is your God” who feeds us like a shepherd, and carries us in his arms, while Paul reminds us that “…[God] is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish. “
John the Baptist offers a baptism of repentance – God forgives – and urges us to prepare for the one who will “…baptize you with the Holy Spirit. We will hear from John the Baptist many times in the coming weeks. He always offers a message of hope that a greater One than he will come, and that we must “prepare the way of the Lord” who carries us in his arms. And Isaiah’s message continues to be one of anticipating all the wonderful realities we will experience when we prepare for the “One who is to come.”
These words counseling us to prepare, I believe call us today to examine how we love others, the essential way we can express our love for the God we know in Jesus. And, at least for me, it Is a call to “attain freefall and float into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,” while knowing that nothing we do can earn the love showered on us by the God whom Isaiah, Paul, and John are convinced is even now and always among us.
Loving God, help me, us, and all the peoples of the world to believe in the Creator Spirit’s deep embrace. May we be able to bring low the mountains and hills of violence and hatred and fill the valleys with love and peace as we prepare to celebrate our God who became one of us.
Matthew 1: 1-8
It is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way.
A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.
and so it was that John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
All Judaea and all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptized by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.
John wore a garment of camel-skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey.
In the course of his preaching he said, ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sister Edithann Kane met the Sisters of Notre Dame in Washington, DC when her father was stationed there. Edithann entered the community in 1962 and made her final vows on November 6, 1971. She currently lives at the St. Julie Billiart Residential Care Center in Ipswich, MA.