How should we pray in Advent? One suggestion: Look at the psalm responses to the scriptural readings during the season.. Here’s one from the Mass for the 1st Sunday:
“ To you, O Lord, I lift my soul. Make your ways known to me, O Lord; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and for you I wait all the day. “
Advent’s a teaching time, and God is our teacher and guide.
The Advent prayers are prayers to make our own. Here’s part of the 1st Preface for Advent:
“We give you thanks, Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord, For he assumed at his first coming the lowliness of human flesh and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago, and opened for us the way to eternal salvation that, when he comes again in glory and majesty and all is at last made manifest, we who watch for that day may inherit the great promise In which we now dare to hope.”
God’s daring plan calls for daring hope from us.
Here’s part of the 2nd Preface for Advent
“We give you thanks, Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord,For all the oracles of the prophets foretold him, the Virgin Mother longed for himwith love beyond all telling. John the Baptist sang of his coming and proclaimed his presence when he came. It is by his gift that already we rejoice at the mystery of his Nativity so that he may find us watchful in prayer and exultant in his praise.”
We share with the prophets, Mary, and John the Baptist, who rejoiced in the gift they were given, Jesus Christ.
Collect, Monday, First Week of Advent
Keep us alert, we pray, O Lord our God, as we await the advent of Christ your Son, so that, when he comes and knocks, he may find us watchful in prayer and exultant in his praise. Who lives and reigns…
Prayer after Communion
Replenished by the food of spiritual nourishment we humbly beseech you, O Lord, that, through our partaking in this mystery you may teach us to judge wisely the things of earth and to hold firm to the things of heaven.
Prayer after Communion
May these mysteries in which we have participated, profit us, we pray for even now, as we walk amid passing things you teach us by them to love the things of heavenand to hold fast to what endures. Through Christ our Lord.
The Liturgy of the Hours, the prayer of the church, offers a rich feast of psalms, canticles and readings from scripture for morning and evening prayer. Prayers of the three young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, from the Book of Daniel 3, 14f are frequently found in the church’s morning prayers.
The three young men were bound and thrown into a fiery furnace by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar because they won’t worship a golden idol he set up. But the fire doesn’t destroy them, “Unfettered and unhurt” they walk freely in the fire, protected by an angel. They’re unharmed, saved by their faith in God.
The young men in the furnace belonged to a Jewish community in exile, with no priest, prophet or leader, no temple to offer sacrifice, but they willingly shouldered the world they lived in, which had become a fiery furnace.
They have sins and mistakes of their own, but the young men believe in God who promised offspring like the stars in the sky and the sands of the sea. “We follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and seek your face. Do not put us to shame.”
A good prayer for days and a world that become a fiery furnace. With hope in God’s promises, trusting and uncomplaining, we can walk freely in the fire too, “unfettered and unhurt.” Azariah’s (Abednego) prayer for mercy. is found on Tuesday morning Week IV.
The second prayer from the Book of Daniel is long prayer that’s the canticle for Sunday morning in the 1st and 3rd weeks of the Liturgy of the Hours (Daniel 3, 51-90). A shorter form of the canticle is found in Sunday morning prayer for the 2nd and 4th weeks. (Daniel 3,54-57)
It’s a prayer of thanksgiving. When King Nebuchadnezzar saw the three young men walking unharmed in the fiery furnace he ordered the furnace heated seven times stronger than before. “But the angel of the Lord went down into the furnace with Azariah and his companions, drove the fiery flames out of the furnace, and made the inside of the furnace as though a dew-laden breeze were blowing through it. The fire in no way touched them or caused them pain or harm. Then these three in the furnace sang with one voice, glorifying and blessing God:
“Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.
Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord,
You heavens, bless the Lord,
All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord.
Sun and moon, bless the Lord;
Stars of heaven, bless the Lord;
Every shower and dew, bless the Lord;
All you winds, bless the Lord;
Fire and heat, bless the Lord;
Cold and chill, bless the Lord;
Dew and rain, bless the Lord;
Frost and chill, bless the Lord;
Ice and snow, bless the Lord;
Nights and days, bless the Lord;
Light and darkness, bless the Lord;
Lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord;
Let the earth bless the Lord,
Mountains and hills, bless the Lord;
Everything growing on earth, bless the Lord;
O Israel, bless the Lord;
Priests of the Lord, bless the Lord;
Servants of the Lord, bless the Lord;
Spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord;
Holy men of humble of heart, bless the Lord;
Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.
For he has delivered us from Sheol,
and saved us from the power of death;
He has freed us from the raging flame
and delivered us from the fire.” (Daniel 3, 51-90))
This is a resurrection prayer, a prayer of thanksgiving. We pray the canticle from Daniel on Sunday because it is the Lord’s day, the day of his resurrection. We’re not the only ones promised resurrection. All creation has that promise, and so we call all creation to bless the Lord.
The three young men and their prayer in the fiery furnace was a story early Christians greatly admired. They frequently placed the representation of the three young men in the catacombs as a reminder that God hears us in the fiery furnace, whether it’s the fiery furnace of life or of death. God not only promise us life. God promise all creation resurrection and life.
“When my mother would bring me as a little girl to the Buddhist temple in Korea, she would tell me to bring along some bread for the holy man there; he would be hungry,” my good friend Duk Soon Fwang told me not long ago.
“When I became a Catholic, I found the story of the little boy who brought bread and fish to Jesus my favorite story. I have always wanted to paint that story. The little boy has no name. I wonder if his mother told him the same thing my mother told me. He could be me.”
During a recent visit, Duk Soon was working on the painting and she told me she wanted to show Jesus with his hand blessing the little boy but wasn’t sure. Maybe she could do what the painters of icons do, I suggested. Jesus’ hand, with the two index fingers joined together showed he is God and man, and his three other fingers indicating the Trinity.
The little boy is blessed by Jesus, human and divine, and by the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God blesses the small gifts we bring.
Thanksgiving. Don’t forget to give thanks for the small gifts. God blesses them. Remember the little boy.
Thursday is ThanksgivingDay in the USA, a day we spend at home with family and friends. The readings for most of this week, from the Book of Daniel and the Gospel of Luke, describe a world turned upside down. Hardly readings for enjoying a family feast in the security of your home.
Three martyrs also are remembered this week.
But faith embraces a world upset and a world secure.
Two November feasts take us into the future to heaven itself where God’s mysteries are made known.
All Saints
The Feast of All Saints reveals humanity’s destiny. God calls all humanity to be numbered in that “ great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue,” which the apostle John sees in a vision of heaven. {Revelations 7, 9-13)
We are called to be children of God. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.Yet so we are…Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” (1 John 3: 1)
The Book of Revelation describes the revelation heaven shall be in symbolic terms. It’s “the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Gathered before the throne of God at that feast, as God’s children and bride, the saints sing. Here’s how it’s revealed in the Book of Revelation:
“O Lord our God, you are worthy
to receive glory and honor and power.
For you have created all things;
by your will they came to be and were made.”
God will reveal to us, his children and bride, the glories of creation, “all things that came to be and were made.” What we only see partially now, we will see fully then. We will know then more completely what science has begun to know now. We will see then with new better eyes what mystics and poets see now in a small way.
There’s also a revelation of Jesus Christ, “the Lamb that was slain.”
Jesus Christ reveals himself as “the Lamb that was slain.” God reveals his love. We see God who emptied himself and took the form of a slave, who took on human likeness and human weakness, who took on death, even death on a cross.
The love of God that was hidden, unknown, unappreciated, not understood, is revealed. We will see the love of God that was disguised as it worked through human complexity, human sinfulness, the tragic circumstances of life and the world we live in. We will see the power of Christ’s blood, his wounds, his tears, his prayers, his patience, his mercy that fashioned a kingdom, a people from every race and nation, and we will sing.
“Alleluia, the Lord our all-powerful God is King; let us rejoice and give him praise, Alleluia”
All Souls
On All Souls Day we hear humanity, weak and sinful, saint and sinner, seeking the mercy of God. We lose hope so easily in God’s call and in our own ability to respond to our God, and so we ask God to be merciful to us and those who have gone before us in death. Our prayers on All Souls Day begin with the promise of God St. Paul recalls in his letter to the Corinthians: “Just as Jesus died and has risen again, so through Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep, and as in Adam all die so also in Christ all will be brought to life.”
All humanity seeks the merciful face of God on All Soul’s Day, not just those who hope in the resurrection of Christ.
“Remember our brothers and sisters, who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection, and all who have died in your mercy. Welcome them into the light of your face.
And have mercy on us all, we pray, that with the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the blessed Apostles and all the saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may be coheirs to eternal life and may praise and glory you, through your Son, Jesus Christ.”
( 2nd Eucharistic Prayer)
Death and our strong ties to this world saddens us and weakens our faith. Praying for the dead not only benefits those who have gone before us but also deepens our faith in the power of Christ’s resurrection and the fullness of his mercy.
Listen kindly to our prayers, O Lord,
and, as our faith in your Son,
raised from the dead is deepened,
so may our hope of resurrection for your departed servants
also find new strength.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen
The feasts of November point us to the life we’re promised. At the same time, they strengthen us to wait “in joyful hope.” God is with us.
O God, you are my God, for you I long;
for you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you
like a dry, weary land without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.
For your love is better than life,
my lips will speak your praise.
So I will bless you all my life,
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul shall be filled as with a banquet,
my mouth shall praise you with joy. Psalm 62
Here’s Handels magnificent ending to his Oratorio, The Messiah:
[Saint Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church]
1 Mc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63/Lk 18:35-43
16 Tue Weekday
[Saint Margaret of Scotland; Saint Gertrude, Virgin] 2 Mc 6:18-31/Lk 19:1-10
17 Wed Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious Memorial 2 Mc 7:1, 20-31/Lk 19:11-28 (
18 Thu Weekday [The Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles;
USA: Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, Virgin] 1 Mc 2:15-29/Lk 19:41-44
19 Fri Weekday 1 Mc 4:36-37, 52-59/Lk 19:45-48
20 Sat Weekday [BVM] 1 Mc 6:1-13/Lk 20:27-40
21 SUN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE Solemnity
Dn 7:13-14/Rv 1:5-8/Jn 18:33b-37
The readings from Luke’s gospel this week begin with Jesus’ ascent to Jerusalem from Jericho where he meets the blind beggar and Zacchaeus, the publican. The ascent and the meeting are part of a messianic event. The gospels for the remainder of the week describe him entering the city, weeping over it and cleansing the temple. The Messiah has come.
The readings from Maccabees remind us that our Jewish brothers and sisters are celebrating Hanukkah.
This liturgical year is ending. The Feast of Christ the King announces it.
Today I preached the homily for a good friend of mine who has been failing for some years and died Wednesday, November 3.
Father Timothy Fitzgerald came to our community here in Jamaica right before Christmas last year, and we were happy to have him. He’s an outstanding member of our province.
Over the years he held important positions in our province and our community. He was secretary to our superior general in Rome, novice master, rector, spiritual director, preacher of missions and retreats. He was a wise, holy man, widely read and widely respected. He could tell you what theologians, new and old, were saying. He could tell you about movies he saw when he was a kid. In one sense, he was a living Wikipedia.
But he was also an accomplished listener; he listened to you. That combination made him a wonderful spiritual director, and a wonderful friend.
Whenever I saw him I would say. “What are you reading, Tim? What do you want to tell me about?” And he would. He was always into something interesting.
If I ask that question now I think he would point to the readings he chose for this Mass. They represent his goals in life, what he wanted to be.
The spirit of the Lord GOD, is upon me, Isaiah says, to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives, release to prisoners, to comfort all who mourn so that they could build God’s Kingdom. That was what Tim was, a bringer of good news. The spirit of God was upon him. He was a builder of God’s kingdom. (Isaiah 61)
The second reading he chose is from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians:
“I consider everything as loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things that I may gain Christ. Through faith in Christ I know him and the power of his resurrection and [the] sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, Our citizenship is in heaven. Jesus Christ will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body.”
That’s what Tim believed and that’s what he lived, even to the end.
The other day in our library I saw Fr. John Fidelis reading something. He’s a lot like Tim and a good friend of his. ”What are you reading, John.” “Something Tim wrote, it’s really good. It’s from the Pittsburgh Catholic a few years ago.”
He was right. I would like to read some of that article to you. You can hear Tim himself speaking.
“We know it had to happen some day. Suddenly or gradually we can no longer do what we seemed to be doing forever. Limitations set in, muscles and bones ache, serious heath issues appear. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. As we change or lose control, we suffer.
In my life as a priest I’ve preached about facing limitations and suffering. Like a doctor who prescribes the right medicine, but is not sick himself, I blithely (yet truly) counseled others to see suffering not only as a mature human experience, but more profoundly as following our crucified Lord.
Now I find myself no longer able to do the ordinary joys of my ministry: offering Mass publicly, preaching, sharing spiritual direction. People assure that I’m not a burden, but that’s how I feel. So I must return to the advice I so freely gave to others and listen myself. Here are some time-honored ideas of faith, the accumulated wisdom from Christ that sustain me.
We owe nothing to God but our thanks. God is not the cause of our suffering, he is the reason to suffer patiently. Suffering is not the result of a capricious or unjust God, for God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to be our Savior. ( John 3:16) How ungrateful would we be, if for one moment we blame God or resent him. God is all gift. (Romans 5:12-21)
We are not excess baggage. As Christians we firmly believe we are God’s chilldren. Our dignity and worth do not depend on what we do, but who we are. Not productivity, achievements, intelligence, age, health, loss of memory, even sinfulness, change that. We are God’s children in Christ. ( Romans 8:31-39)
Suffering in union with Christ brings growth. Each crucial moment in life is a death to a previous security. With Christ we ascend to light not darkness. In Christian life the pattern of growth is in harmony with the death-life cycle of Jesus’ passion and resurrection. Jesus did not bring the cross. He found it already in our human limitations which he took on completely, only without sin. Jesus’ mind and heart shapes our minds and hearts. We absorb his mind, his absolute trust of the Father. We accept limitations and sufferings not as an end in themselves (which would be insane) but as a way of following Christ for the good of the church and the world.
We belong to a communion of saints. There’s a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on to follow our leader Jesus. ( Her. 12;1-4) They’re not only canonized saints, but also the holy ones on earth who surround us with compassion, patience, presence and prayers. In turn, we pray for others. Our faith is strong enough to believe that effectiveness in prayer is not confined to the strong and healthy. After all, a tubercular St. Therese is as much a patron of the missions as the globe-trotting Francis Xavier. Our faith is so breathtakingly wide that a handicapped person who never leaves home joins hands with a St. Patrick or a St. Francis of Assisi to spread the kingdom of God.
These are some of the ways our Catholic tradition strengthens people who suffer physically or are otherwise limited. This beautiful wisdom is hard to keep in mind when pain intervenes or memory fades. We always turn to our crucified Lord who when he was so weak, helpless, seemingly forsaken, was actually saving the world. May the Passion of Christ be always in our hearts.” (Pittsburgh Catholic, June 2013)
That’s Tim speaking for himself, on June, 2013. I think we can say that what he said then was how he lived as he went from one stage of life till the moment of his death last Wednesday, 2021.
As we said the prayers for the dying last Wednesday with him – most of our community were there – I think we all realized we were commending to God a marvelously consistent man of deep faith.
As we commend him to God today here at Mass, a sacrament he deeply loved and participated in till his death, with his family and the community he also deeply loved, we hear what the angels said to the women at the tomb of Jesus: “He is not here, he has been raised.” He’s among the living, in a communion of saints, now cheering us on, waiting for the final resurrection of the dead, and life everlasting. Amen.
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