The Three R’s

Pray and Practice Advent

Waiting and Willing

December 1 Monday the First Week of Advent

ISAIAH 2:1-5; MATTHEW 8:5-11

Click here for the complete text of today’s readings.

 Advent makes us conscious of waiting. What are we waiting for?

If it is for God to come to us, Isaiah says he already has: “the Lord’s house shall be established.” He is present in his Church (we are the Church) and in his churches (buildings). Now it is up to us to go to him: “Come, let us go up… to the house of God.” But why?

If it is “so he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths,” the rest is ABC. If (A) we want to “walk in his paths,” then (B) we want him to “teach us his ways.” Then (C) we will “go up” to his house. There, the bishops taught at Vatican II, when the Scriptures are read, “the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them.”

We will go up. And in. Into the temple of our hearts, where God’s words “abide in us” – provided we read them, reflect on them, and respond to them in choices that make them part of our life.

Do you want to go up? To learn his ways? To walk in his paths?  If so… what are you waiting for?

Pray (all day today): “Lord, let me go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.”

Practice: Use the “three R’s” of Scriptural prayer. Read. Reflect. Respond. Five minutes a day.