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November 24, 2005 Edition

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Living the Scriptures
Faith Alive!
This week's readings
Pope's Prayer Intentions
Prayer for victims of Hurricane Katrina

Advent: We beg, 'Make us turn to you'

photo of Fr. Randy J. Timmerman

Living the Scriptures 

with St. Paul University 
Catholic Center 

Fr. Randy Timmerman 

My six-year-old nephew yelled up from his grandparent's basement "I'm hiding and no one is looking for me."

Several of us were playing a game of hide and seek and were interrupted by a neighbor stopping over - we all got busy chatting and forgot that we were in the middle of a game.

I am reminded of that event each Advent. Advent helps me to pause and ask "am I looking for God?" or " am I busy about other things?"

First Sunday
of Advent
(Nov. 27, 2005)
Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
1 Cor 1:3-9
Mk 13:33-37

Now God is not hiding, but the question remains, "am I looking for God?" Jesus offers, "Watch therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: (watch!)"

We know the Lord of the house may come suddenly. We have received those painful phone calls informing us of the death of a loved one. Obituaries and the television daily remind us of the Lord's sudden coming.

Somehow if sudden death finds one in the "evening" of life, as in a long life, we find it easier to accept than when sudden death arrives for a child or a young person in the "morning" of life.

However, the second half of that teaching is where caution lies, "do not be found sleeping." This is not about physical sleep but spiritual sleep. Rest assured the Lord of the house will come for me. Do not let this truth slip from your consciousness.

Along with this truth of his return for me comes the realization of accountability or a day of reckoning. The master of those servants will return.

Recent Gospels have reminded us that we are servants and tenants rather than the landowner or property owner. We are to be the spouse of Christ with the proper garment and not some invited guests at a banquet. I will be held accountable for the talents entrusted to me and how they have given glory to God.

Reflection questions

• What must you say and do to be "looking for God" this Advent? How can you prepare your heart for the Lord's sudden coming whether you are young or in the "evening" of life?

• What is the place of resistance this Advent for you in the prayer of "help me to give up what you want me to give up"? Ask God for the grace to find His presence in this place of resistance and trust that He will be found there.

Our interior spiritual life needs complete vigilance, attentiveness, and discipline. Where do we start and how can we be assured we are not asleep on this matter?

Turn to the cry of the psalmist: "Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved." It is a bold demand and not a wimpy plea. With confidence we implore the Lord to make us turn towards him.

A prayer for this Advent might be, "Lord, help me to go where you want me to go. Help me to speak what you want me to speak. Help me to do what you want me to do and help me to give up what you want me to give up."


Fr. Randy Timmerman is pastor of St. Paul University Catholic Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org


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Faith Alive!

Faith Alive! logo

In a Nutshell

  • During Advent we wait. The waiting takes the form of longing. What do we long for?

  • Our Advent waiting and longing can be priceless experiences! Isn't this longing really God's action in our hearts, prompting us in fresh directions?

  • What we long for is beyond imagining. Scripture says, "It has not entered into the mind of humankind" what God has prepared for us.


    Catholic News Service
    3211 Fourth St NE
    Washington DC 20017
    202.541.3250
    cns@catholicnews.com
  •  Food for Thought
     
    It is said quite often that a spiritual thirst co-exists in today's society alongside a seeming lack of interest in things having to do with God.

    Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh, Pa., brought this up at the October 2005 world Synod of Bishops in Rome. He said he believes that a reason for the great popularity of the World Youth Days started during John Paul II's papacy is the "sense among some of our young people that the secular, material world does not provide them sufficient answers for their lives." Bishop Wuerl said, "There is a hunger for God and the things of the spirit, but it needs to be encouraged, informed and directed."

    There is an "authentic thirst for God and for an intimate, personal relationship with him" that is a "sign of the times," Pope John Paul II once said. This is, he added, a desire for meaning in life.

    The late pope called this a "silent pilgrimage to the living truth." Leaders in the church, he said, need to ask "whether they have paid sufficient attention to the thirst of the human heart for the true 'living water.'"

    full story

     
    Advent: Season
    of spiritual longing
    By Leisa Anslinger

    Catholic News Service

    A gift we might give ourselves this Advent would be to spend a bit of time alone or with others and simply to allow God to be perceived.

    "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." The words resound in parish churches at this time of year. But the more realistic refrain for many of us might sound something like this: "Let us perceive Emmanuel!" We know that God is always with us, but often don't perceive Christ's presence in our lives.

    full story 


    What are we waiting for?
    By Father Frederic Maples, SJ

    Catholic News Service

    Here is a truth that can be difficult for we 21st-century people living in the fast lanes of our lives: Waiting is a priceless experience in its own right!

    During Advent we wait. We remember the longing of the Jewish people for the Messiah's coming and their centuries of waiting. We recall our Christian longing and waiting for the Messiah's second coming.

    full story 


    An Advent story about
    a man named Ben
    By Jean Sweeney

    Catholic News Service

    Men and women come to spiritual direction for many different reasons. Some have come with a yearning that matches the longing we find in the Advent season.

    Ben, an active man in the church, came with a restlessness of spirit. He was looking for something deeper in him and in his relationship with God. It was a longing he had difficulty articulating -- more like a glimpse that life could be fuller and truer. There was an emptiness in him, he said. He felt he wasn't really known by others or God. His faith and his life felt like a performance.

    full story


    Faith Alive! logo
     Faith in the Marketplace
     
    This Week's Discussion Point:

    Tell what it means -- what it is like -- to experience a sense of spiritual longing.

     
      Selected Response From Readers:  
     
    Copyright © 2005 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops



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    This week's readings

    Week of Nov. 27 - Dec. 3, 2005

    Sunday, Nov. 27, 2005
    Reading I: Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
    Reading II: 1 Cor 1:3-9
    Gospel: Mk 13:33-37

    Monday, Nov. 28, 2005
    Reading I: Is 2:1-5
    Gospel: Mt 8:5-11

    Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2005
    Reading I: Is 11:1-10
    Gospel: Lk 10:21-24

    Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005
    Reading I: Rom 10:9-18
    Gospel: Mt 4:18-22

    Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005
    Reading I: Is 26:1-6
    Gospel: Mt 7:21, 24-27

    Friday, Dec. 2, 2005
    Reading I: Is 29:17-24
    Gospel: Mt 9:27-31

    Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005
    Reading I: Is 30:19-21, 23-26
    Gospel: Mt 9:35--10:1, 5a, 6-8


    Pope's Prayer Intentions

    November General Intention

    Holy marriages. That married people may imitate the example of conjugal holiness shown by so many couples in the ordinary conditions of life.

    November Mission Intention

    Permanent training of missionaries. That pastors of mission territories may recognize with constant care their duty to foster the permanent formation of their own priests.



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    Prayer for victims of Hurricane Katrina

    Merciful and ever-living God,
    since the very dawn of creation
    the waters that you created
    have brought life from death:
    the Great Flood purified our world
    and brought forth a new generation;
    you led your people Israel from bondage to freedom
    through the Red Sea;
    from the side of Christ, sacrificed for us on the cross,
    water flowed with his precious blood;
    and through the waters of baptism
    you call us from darkness into your wonderful light.

    Look with pity on your people
    affected by the waters of Hurricane Katrina.
    Calm their fears, comfort their sorrow,
    heal their pain and mercifully welcome those
    who have perished into your heavenly kingdom.
    Strengthen all who are helping them,
    and thwart all who seek to create chaos.

    Inspire us to reach out to those who are afflicted
    from the bounty you have bestowed on us
    and, like you once did with the loaves and fishes,
    increase our gifts far beyond what we can imagine.

    We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
    who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
    one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


    The above is a prayer from the Diocese of Madison's Office of Worship. For more prayer resources for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, visit the Office of Worship's Web page at www.straphael.org/~office_of_worship/
    (Click on the link on the main page.)



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