She “asked herself what this greeting could mean” (Lk 1:29)
Mary, a woman of contemplation
4th Sunday of Advent – Year B
As a priest it is not easy to separate your academic interests, your faith-life, and your ministry. At least I don’t find it that easy. In my current academic research for a PhD, I am studying the effect of Christian contemplative practice on recovery from addictive behaviour. Past few weeks I have been analysing the journal entries and interviews of some of the participants in the intervention-study that I conducted a few months back. The method of contemplation that I used is called ‘Jesus Prayer’ – it originated among the desert fathers and mothers in the 4th centuryEgypt, and is still very popular in the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. It simply consists of repeating the prayer from the gospels: “Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me […]
Month: December 2020
2nd Sunday of Advent Sermon – Year B Homily: He Comes!
He Comes!
2nd Sunday of Advent – Year B
“Here is your God” (Is 40:9)
Particularly during Advent, I love to use the following set of penitential invocations that goes with the ‘Kyrie Eleison’ or ‘Lord have mercy’:
Lord Jesus, you came to gather the nations in the peace of God’s Kingdom.
You come in word and sacrament to strengthen us in holiness.
You will come in glory with salvation for your people.
This set of invocations remind us that the coming of Christ can be understood in three ways, so to say, with three tense markers: in the past tense, in the present tense and in the future – Jesus came; He comes; and Christ will come. The 1st coming of Jesus is plain enough. It refers to the historical coming of the 2nd person of the Trinity, […]