an Advent like no other

[Note: these holy women are all part of my saint posse, 

the ones I call on and depend on to walk with me. 

They are all found at Clear Creek Abbey in Eastern Oklahoma]

It’s been a long time… I’ve missed chatting with you all. I’ll write more about the past few months soon, but today, let me put in a plug for ADVENT…

There is so much about the season of Advent that I have always loved. Waiting. Anticipation. Grace. Beautiful feast days. Incarnation. We are the only religion who make this bold radical claim. The son of God became flesh, like us, within a human mother. And He entered the world as a humble, fragile baby.

In the midst of this bizarre pandemic year, where nothing is familiar and everything feels unsteady, where the future is a mystery and it is impossible to predict or prepare for what comes next… I invite you to be still. 

Talk walks outside. Sit and feel the sun on your face. Break the usual habits and find space, time, silence to just be. 

 

To this end, I want to suggest two resources that you don’t want to miss!

 

·      I pray with the beautiful Magnificat Magazine daily. And this year, as they have in the past, the generous folks at Magnificat have sent me several FREE Advent apps to give away to my readers. Interested?  Just leave me a message here, or email me directly: mymaria@me.com

·      In the past few years, I have written biographies about three modern saints, and each one enriched and transformed my life in a very personal way. 

 

I humbly suggest, for your Advent reading… or as a gift for a friend, the stories of these amazing holy people:

 

Rosemary Nyirumbe: Sewing Hope in Uganda (Liturgical Press)

Sister Rosemary is a Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ministering, to this day, in a special way to the women and children of her homeland in northern Uganda. Read her story. It will enrich your heart!  In Sister Rosemary's own words, “Love is the key!” [click here]

 

The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run: Blessed Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma (Our Sunday Visitor)

Father Stanley Rother, a priest from my home Archdiocese of Oklahoma City is the first American martyr. He was killed in 1981 at the Oklahoma mission to Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala. But the gem of Blessed Stan is not how he died, but how he lived. We are all called to be saints, and he can show us the way through the ordinary living of our lives.

 

This book is available in Spanish and in English now! Please, help me spread his amazing story! [click here for Spanish] [click here for English]

 

Edith Stein, the Life and Legacy of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Sophia Institute Press)

Perhaps you have heard about this brilliant, prolific, gifted woman philosopher. But I fell in love with her heart, through her letters written to friends, colleagues and family, as she shared with them her own conversion story. Always seeking the God, she could not see, she finally felt Him deep inside.   I’ll give you a hint, she read the biography of Teresa of Avila, put it down and said, “This is Truth!” [click here]

Whatever you decide to do for your Advent, just pick one thing. Please join me! And I’d love to hear about it once you decide!

 

Blessings to each of you from the Heartland.  I am thankful for YOU!

 

 

 

I confess... I miss anxiety

It’s just one word. 

But I still notice it, almost every time. 

I miss “anxiety.”

It's been eight years now since the new English translation of the Roman Missal was implemented in Catholic parishes across the country on the first Sunday of Advent--back in 2011.

At our own parish, we were well prepared for the changes by our pastor, who arranged very helpful homilies, over several weeks, and even started using the new language two months early! It was his way of helping us to focus on Advent-- and not on whether we were getting the words “right.”

At the time, as we worked on the transition as a community, I found it very helpful to keep in mind the responses we say at Mass in Spanish.  The 2011 English translation parallels those Spanish responses much better than the previous one ever did.

Yet there is one point at Mass that still stalls me.

Right after we say the Our Father, the celebrant’s prayer that leads to the Sign of Peace, currently says:

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

But prior to Advent 2011, the prayer was:

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil,
and grant us peace in our day.
In your mercy keep us free from sin
and protect us from all anxiety
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Protect us from ALL ANXIETY.

There is nothing wrong with distress. But I genuinely miss begging God, as a community, to protect us from anxiety, all anxiety.

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NOTE:

I have two free Advent Apps from MAGNIFICAT to give away!! 

Please leave a blog message or private message me if you’d like one!! 

First come first serve.

Happy first day of Advent! 

the Lord your God is in your midst

It has not been lost on me this Advent just how different this third week is compared to the rest of this season.

On the first week of Advent we celebrated St. Francis Xavier, St. Nicholas, and the powerful feast day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

During the second week, we had St. Lucy, St. John of the Cross--and the beautiful feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Yet while our first two weeks featured a pretty high-ranking posse of saints, this third week of Advent is instead quiet, still, full of calm.

Instead of outward-directed feasts, it is the Scripture readings for each day that have knocked me off my feet!

“The Lord, your God, is in your midst”!

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us’.”

“Do not be afraid…because your prayer has been heard.”

For nothing is impossible for God!

And today, as if to emphasize the message we might have missed from Sunday’s readings, we hear once again the same reading from the Prophet Zephaniah. May I suggest you read it today as a message for you, personally?  Go ahead, LISTEN with your heart to what God is saying to you today:

“Shout for joy, [fill in your name]! Be glad and exult with all your heart, [fill in your name]! The Lord has removed the judgment against you, he has turned away your enemies; The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst, you have no further misfortune to fear… Fear not, [fill in your name], be not discouraged! The Lord your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; He will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love”

~Zephaniah 3:14-18

[photos: Ein Karem: Mary traveled to Ein Karem for three days to visit Elizabeth ]

when you find yourself standing at the edge of an ocean

With music on the harp and all stringed instruments; sing out with joy as you proclaim: the works of God are all of them good.

~Sirach 39:16

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“Our holy seasons always ought to be something special. They are really holy mysteries, and they should awaken a mystery as echo, as consideration, as prayer, in our minds and in our hearts.

The theme…is that, somehow man will be confronted with the Last Things, will be placed in the final order, will face the definitive questions, and definitive answers will be expected of him.  Whenever the Church dons solemn purple vestments, it always means that serious questions are being set forth and we are facing the great connections, the principles of universal validity… This means that we think about man, about ourselves, from the perspective of the ultimate reality and, in so doing, become ready—really ready—to encounter and respond to Him, the Ultimate, in an appropriate way, as befits a creature encountering the [Absolute] Ultimate.”

~Alfred Delp, S.J. in

“Advent of the Heart:

Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings

1941-1944”

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Advent may be my favorite of all liturgical seasons.

We are eagerly waiting for Christmas, yes. But we are also getting ready, our homes and, hopefully, our hearts.

I think life is like Advent. We are always getting ready for what comes next, praying that we learn to notice God in the every day of life, and begging that our hearts awaken to His voice within us—now.

What do you think of the quote above? I have been ingesting and chewing on Father Alfred Delp’s words on Advent for several years now—off and on.  And I am struck by the reality that the personal confrontation with “definitive questions” that Father Delp notes as intrinsic to holy seasons, is not only relevant for Advent, but it also applies rather well to significant, major life events in my life.

Major life moments—the birth of a baby, a major crisis, the death of a parent—become our very own, personal, intimate, holy “seasons.” Much like the liturgical "purple seasons," these moments confront us in a very poignant way, challenging us to meet head-on the ultimate questions about life and its meaning.

I first thought about this four years ago, as I mourned the death of my dad. In a very real way, the months that followed his sudden death reminded me of that feeling when I’m standing in the waves at the edge of the ocean—and I begin to loose my footing. With every wave, my feet sink deeper and deeper into the wet sand as the water threatens to topple me over. It’s the epitome of the phrase, loosing my footing!

That time was most certainly a “holy season,” one that demanded that I confront deep questions and fears, even doubts, about death, and about my certainty regarding the meaning of life—both now and in the hereafter.

Whether I admitted it out loud, God already knew that along with the sadness and grieving, my spirit was swimming in questions. What do I really believe? Why are we here? Why death? How confident and certain am I about the “Absolute Ultimate”? Is it okay to acknowledge doubt?

At the end of the day, at least today, all I can do is kneel humbly before God… right in the midst of this holy mystery that is my life.

I don’t have to have it all figured out. I am waiting—and getting ready.

[all photos from our Holy Land pilgrimage!

© Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda, 2018]