Happy New Year

Lectio Divina

The days are coming....

Jeremiah 33:14

Library

Continuing the hagiography of Saint Colette -- just a few chapters left to skim. Catching up on my Catholic periodicals. Returning to Mumford this week, I hope.

Log

This morning, Mass here at San Lorenzo for the first Sunday of Advent. The presider wished everyone a happy new year, and he was not disoriented in the least. The Church begins its liturgical year on the first Sunday of Advent, when we begin once again to tell the story of God with us, from the beginning and until eternity, in the coming of Jesus Christ. This time, not January 1, is the time of the new year, when we look so far ahead to the end of ends, that we come around to the ultimate beginning.

More and more I look with quiet gladness to this time of year, not in anticipation of Christmas, but to the end of time, the fulfillment of history, beyond Easter and the resurrection, beyond Pentecost and the age of the Church "in between the times," beyond what is to what will be. Your kin(g)dom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread! Grant us admittance to the reign of heaven. Show us the kin(g)dom of heaven in the words and works of God in Jesus, and let us be shown to be citizens of that place, that state, by our words and works. Let there be no cause for anxiety, no overwhelming fear, for "the days are coming." God has come; God is here; God is still coming. Stand up, look up, and and get busy being about the playful business of the children of God. Here comes right; here comes justice; we will find ourselves in the place of peace.

This afternoon, the aim is to work on the circular letter and take a walk now that the sun is breathing warmly upon the rain-kissed earth.

Weather

Rain keeps coming, and now that it is, I want it to come all the more.