Did you not hear?
We’re halfway through Advent. In the liturgical readings, the prophet Isaiah seems to shout from the rooftops:
Do you not know
or have you not heard?
The LORD is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.
Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles’ wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint.
The prophet’s words, “Did you not know or have you not heard?” invoke the hauntingly mystical poetry of Jessica Powers. Specifically, “Child, have none told you? God is in your soul! That line, that stunning, arresting line is from a poem by Jessica Powers.
Remember the Hallmark cards of decades ago? I loved those cards with Powers’ poems as message. But, far from God, I read her verses superficially: They were lovely and tender but just nice sentiments.
That is how I remembered Jessica Powers until the homilist at The Monastery of the Risen Christ preached about her on the thirtieth anniversary of her death. I was transfixed and enlightened by Camaldolese Benedictine monk, Father Stephen Coffey’s tribute. Powers lived most of her life as a Carmelite nun, “Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit”, dying at the age of eighty-three, after she’d written over three hundred poems. Most of them deeply spiritual, evoking holiness from the ordinary, like this one:
Look at the Chickadee
I take my lesson from the chickadee
who in the storm
receives a special fire to keep him warm,
who in the dearth of a December day
can make the seed of a dead weed his stay,
so simple and so small,
and yet the hardiest hunter of them all.The world is winter now and I who go
loving no venture half so much as snow,
in this white blinding desert have been sent
a most concise and charming argument.
To those who seek to flout austerity,
who have a doubt of God’s solicitude
for even the most trivial of His brood,
to those whose minds are chilled with misery
I have this brief audacious word to say:
look at the chickadee,
that small perennial singer of the earth,
who makes the week of a December day
the pivot of his mirth..
Invasion of Grace
Hearing her mystical poems fread rom the lips of the monk during his homily thit morning evoked a visceral reaction.
POW! ….recalling my blindness and ignorance of Him, His works and love for each human soul. And me.
Child, have none told you? God is in your soul!
Invasion of grace, [Embedded in the phrase is his excellent homiy] is Bishop Robert Barron’s phrase, I use it here because it’s such a perfect description of conversion. Whether converting from decades of atheism like me or from lassitude, there is no better description for that moment: Abruptly, mere words take on momentous urgency and indeed, kindle—set on fire—our hearts and souls invading us with something other.
Speaking of lassitude, I’ve recently returned to prescribed “time with Jesus.” Not praying the rosary, litanies, chaplet or any of the many beautifully powerful prayers that have leaped into each day but just being with Him for a prescribed time each day.
Like most of my best ideas, this one wasn’t mine bit rather taken from Grace Abruzzo’s “Know’ Rest for the Weary. Reading her piece transformed a nudge to “Do this!” My post-conversion years with Regnum Christi required my promise to spend at least fifteen minutes of silent prayer daily. But then we left the east coast and the memory of the promise faded.
Our rosaries, chaplets, litanies and Liturgy of the Hours are good and holy, but they’re not enough, are they? Those prayer are one -way, talk, talk, talk -hence may preclude our missing a whispered request, consoloation or hearing a gentle adjustment to the day’s to-do list. Or just being…
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
I will be honest—while these words can sound comforting, there were times when I thought them also a bit of a joke—the not-so-funny kind. What part of “take up your cross daily” is restful? Or “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect?” Or “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature?” Saint resumes are rarely short.
Yet over the years, I’ve come to see what I could not earlier: the yoke is the rest. To allow ourselves to be yoked to Jesus—to labor only with Him and for Him—is the ultimate rest. What does this mean?
In the bible, we first hear of rest on the seventh day of creation when God rests. And God calls His people also to rest, a rest that is not merely physical, but a call to relationship. God rests on the seventh day and asks us to do likewise, to make a space for celebrating and deepening our relationship with Him, apart from our daily work
It’s now almost the very first thing I do–that mostlly wordless fifteen minutes with Him. I know if not then. I’ll let the day slip away.
Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained, so that our relationships and indeed our whole life may become more profoundly human.
Dies Domini
Today is Gaudete Sunday
The penititential colors of the liturgical altars and vestments lighten to an ethereal light rose.
Why?
The event that turned the world upside down 2025 years ago nears. “Gaudete,” Latin for rejoice!!
Saint Paul exhorts us:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:
Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”
I live my Advent in the womb of Mary.
And on one night when a great star swings free
from its high mooring and walks down the sky
to be the dot above the Christus i,
I shall be born of her by blessed grace.
I wait in Mary-darkness, faith’s walled place,
with hope’s expectance of nativity.
I knew for long she carried me and fed me,
guarded and loved me, though I could not see.
But only now, with inward jubilee,
I come upon earth’s most amazing knowledge:
SOMEONE IS HIDDEN IN THIS DARK WITH ME.Someone is Hidden in This Dark With Me– Jessica Powers
