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ADVENT 2023
WEEK TWO
B E R EA DY
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SCAN FOR PLAYLIST
OUR CARING PRESENCE
Catholic health care believes our caring presence with one another
WEEK TWO | BE READY
and those we serve is more than can be seen on the surface. It
This second week we focus on a presence that is ready to receive.
extends beyond the words we say and the tasks we do. The presence of our human caring reveals a deeper Divine caring. Our presence
Wherever we are, there is always
is, as the Gospel says, “A light
something happening that could
[that] shines in the darkness.” In
benefit us. But we must be ready. We
this Advent season we ponder the
will learn about this readiness from the
shining of this light.
Gospel message of John the Baptist, in two poems and our twice-read prayer that prepares us to receive.
“If God is the center of your life, no words are necessary. Your mere presence will touch hearts.” St. Vincent de Paul
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REFLECTION
Forgiveness Opens In the Gospel for the Second Sunday of Advent (Mk. 1:1-8), people flock to John the Baptist for the forgiveness of sins.
he is the precursor. “The one more powerful than I is coming after me. ... I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
There is a drive in them (and us) to get beyond the experiences and habits of self-enclosure which shut off from other people and from receiving from the Source of Life. Sin ties us in knots. We are unable to make the connections that will bring us life. The crowds come to John the Baptist in the hope that forgiveness will make them free.
Forgiveness empowers them: Be Ready. Once sin loosens it hold, we can be free to open to something else. But we do not control how it arrives or the form in which it arrives. It is Spirit and it has its own ways. We never see Spirit coming, but once it arrives we suspect its presence by the emergence in us of its gifts and fruits. It does something in us that makes us alive. The passion, pleasure and purpose that has escaped us in our sinful isolation arrive in full measure.
But once they arrive at the Jordan River to undergo the baptismal work of John, he tells them exactly what this freedom prepares them for. After all,
OUR PRESENCE IS READY FOR TH E GI FTS AN D FRUITS OF TH E SPI RIT. A PRACTICE H ELPS.
Open consciousness by holding one thought: There is something coming. Although I do not know what it is, when it comes it will be what I want. Try It. 3
Only have a minute? Start here. Choose one piece of content from all that has been gathered here:
AN ENGAGEMENT
A POEM
A REFLECTION
Coloring Page, pg. 6-7
“Praying” (Mary Oliver), pg. 9
Star Birth in the Extreme, pg. 10
Consider these reflection questions:
Do you intentionally make space in your heart for the work of the Spirit? How?
How could you simplify your prayers so they become a “doorway” rather than a “contest”?
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FULL REFLECTION
Q&A WITH THOMAS OTTEN ASSISTANT VP, BEHAVIORAL H EALTH AVERA BEHAVIORAL H EALTH CENTER
“You somtimes just sit back and relish in that moment... It’s just a matter of listening to the conversations that are taking place and the joy that is created [by] being in each other’s presence.”
How do you find presence in those around you?
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Engaging hands, head,
and heart
How often has it been true for you that your best ideas, your most profound moments of integration, occur when you are in the midst of another, wholly different task? Here, we invite you to keep your hands busy with coloring the cover image while you open your head and your heart to what presence means in your own life. How do you experience it? How does your experience of presence inform your work?
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Not your first Christmas, it it? Dust off the stored-away tree. Paint on that holiday smile. Ready the cheek kiss. Slide your glass forward for another. Borrow what excitement you can, if you can. Wait! Believers will have none of this weariness. They predict surprises. Invitations hide in ordinary guise, ready to awaken you into the now with the sharp cry of a Bethlehem birth. Why else would shepherds run with angelic news and sleepless Magi follow a night star? John Shea
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Praying It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.
Mary Oliver Thirst: Poems
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VISIO DIVINA
STAR BIRTH IN THE EXTREME (NASA, ESA, N. SMITH [UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY], AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM [STSCI/AURA])
Gaze
Reflect
Respond
Rest
Consider the image before you. Look slowly and thoroughly, taking a first glance, noting the colors, movement, textures, people, places and things. Make space for the inner eye of the heart to open and interact with the image.
Take a second, deeper look. Rest in the presence of the image; allow the image to reach beyond the intellect and into an unconscious level. What truth does it hold for you? Engage your imagination. Where are you in the artwork? What do you see from that perspective?
Respond to the image with prayer. Does the image remind you of an experience, person or issue for which you’d like to offer thanksgiving or intercession? Does it open a new awareness or spark a conviction? Offer that prayer to God.
Find your quiet center. Breathe deeply. Release tension from your body. Rest in quiet companionship with the image and with God. Dwell in the God who comes to us disguised as all things.
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Lord, we know we have eyes that see not and ears that hear not. Today, something we may see or hear will capture our presence and cause us to pause. Keep our eyes and ears open so we may follow the Spirit that calls us into the grace of Advent where the Light shines in the darkness. Amen. (Let it be!)
About the Author John Shea is a consultant to faith-based organizations, dioceses and parishes, providing theological, mission and formation services. He has published more than 25 books of theology and spirituality, three works of fiction and three books of poetry.
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