Advent Prayer—Week 2, December 7, 2020
This reflection was shared during our Praying With The Sisters prayer which was live-streamed on Facebook. A Nun’s Life was joined by guest Sister Denise Glazik, OP. She is a member of the Springfield Dominican Sisters and currently serves as the Vocation Director for her community.
(The video recording of our prayer can be found below the blog.)
Have you seen remarkable things today? Because the power of God was as present today as it was then. We’re in the 2nd week of Advent and a lot is happening in this scripture passage from Luke: teaching, gathering, chaos, and responding, lowering down, and standing up. Lots of action for responding.
Luke’s gospel, before this particular passage and several after, emphasizes how people respond in faith. And by doing so they are blessed by anything they can imagine. They say, they ask, who is this? The one present among us is God in the flesh who wants to change lives and to heal us if we allow it. One of the things that stood out to me in this scripture is that the power of God is present; the second is that they made an opening.
I think during this Advent time, during this COVID time, it allows us to make an opening for our God to heal us. And if we but listen to what God has to say, can we open our hearts and hear God saying, “your sins are forgiven you”, or “take up your mat.”
What might be holding us? What might be paralyzing us these days? Is it COVID, or maybe the death of a loved one? What is paralyzing us this day? And will we allow friends, neighbors, or perhaps even strangers to help create an opening so that we can hear God say, “your sins are forgiven you.” or “get up and walk and be healed”.
If we take the time, we’ll realize we have seen remarkable things today. But we can only do that if we are attentive and I think this Advent season calls us to that attentiveness, calls us to that openness. Will we stand up? Will we get up? Will we respond so that we see remarkable things this day because we can be confident Jesus comes to heal us—Emmanuel, God with us!
Let us open our eyes, open our hearts, and let our faith be opened so that we may say, “we have seen remarkable things this day”; so that at Christmas, as we’ve prepared during this Advent time, we can say we have seen remarkable things through the power of God.
