Rooted in Hope 2018 1021.Indd

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PUBLICATION Editorial Director: Elizabeth Foss Designed by: Kristin Foss Illustration, Cover art & Calligraphy: Carolyn Svellinger Copy Editing: Rosie HIll

ISBN: 9781729078013

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. &READ COMMUNITY

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GATHER A GROUP Group Guides will be available at takeupandread.org as our gift to you. INTENTIONAL DESIGN

In this Scripture study, we wanted to connect you deeply with the Word and help you plan to stay connected throughout the busy Advent season. We added new design layouts and planner pages to ensure you have the tools to keep him close to your heart everyday.

ROOTS + BRANCHES Here we frame the day with roots + branches, to introduce you to the focus of the daily Scripture reading.

DAILY SCRIPTURE Each day, we provide you with Scripture straight from your Bible.

LECTIO DIVINA We walk you through your practice of Lectio Divina, with prompts that promote pondering and prayer time.

DAILY PLANNER As part of your Actio, we designed a daily planning page to keep the Word close to your heart throughout your Advent.

SELAH + SCRIPTURE MEMORY Each week allows one day to rest, pray, refl ect and catch up if you need it. INTRODUCTION

nhale! Here on the doorstep of December, inhale the crispness of the season. Bright with Ihope, we promise ourselves: this year will be different. This year, we’ll remember the Advent candles, and they’ll be on the wreath and ready on the first Sunday. This year, we’ll finish shopping and wrapping well before the guests come so that we’re not squirreled away in our room at the eleventh hour wondering whatever happened to the tape and why we ran out of ribbon. But mostly, this year, we’ll arrive at the creche on Christmas Eve peaceful and recollected. The meaning of the Savior will be sunk so deeply into our hearts that we will overflow with genuine joy.

At Take Up & Read, we’re hoping all those things, too. And we created this unique prayer journal and planner with those hopes in mind. In your hands, you hold the tool to integrate all the busy details of the season with all the prayerful intentions of an Advent rooted in hope. Seamlessly integrated into tools of prayer are the practical tools of planning for action. This journal acknowledges that you are a busy woman who has much to do.

And it asks you to press “pause,” to pray, and then to plan to do exactly what God intends each day. We’ll step you through the age-old, time-tested method of prayer called lectio divina and then we’ll take you from contemplation to active participation in seamless movements.

But before we settle in to see the details of this prayer plan, I want to acknowledge that there will be days when you don’t “fill in all the blanks.” Throughout this book, we have placed tools for bringing lectio divina to life in your life—right now in the busiest of seasons. Intentionally, we gave you more to do, even though we know you are very busy. That’s the paradox of prayer: when you take the time to pray, God shows you where you have time to do what it is important. Please take this a day at a time, even a moment at a time. Maybe you will focus on one part of the lectio divina in the morning and leave all the other spaces blank. And then, maybe, you will find a small pocket of time in the afternoon to engage once again, discovering that you’ve carried the Word with you all day, and it is bearing fruit, and those fruitful thoughts spill onto your pages. This is your book. Pray your way.

Little by little, let the examples of the holy prophets whose stories are told in this book inspire you. They didn’t travel a straight and perfect path. They stumbled, and they fell. But God used each and every one of them in the great arc of the salvation story. He’s using you, too. Every day, with every decision.

Pray. Then be open to his plan, and see how it can become your plan.

5 ROOTS + BRANCHES

St. Andrew Novena

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin Mary at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.

(Mention your intentions here)

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother. Amen.

ROOTED IN HOPE | NOVEMBER 30 DAILY SCRIPTURE

LUKE 2:4-7

Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

PSALM 46:10

“Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.

FOR FURTHER READING

LUKE 1:4-7

ROOTED IN HOPE | NOVEMBER 30 ith this study, we begin before the beginning because WAdvent is still a few days away. This year, the shortened season means that the traditional date for beginning the Saint Andrew Christmas prayer falls outside the Advent season. We use these grace days to set the scene.

Traditionally, this contemplative prayer is to be prayed fifteen times a day, every day during Advent. It is neither magical nor superstitious. Nothing terrible will befall you or your family if “you break the chain.” But something miraculous might happen if you develop the habit of contemplating the manger over the next 25 days.

When you say this prayer, put yourself inside of it. Be there in that holy hour and moment. Look around you. Smell the smells. Sit inside the stable warmed by the steam of an animal’s nostrils. Feel the exquisite softness of infant skin. Kiss the top of his perfect downy head.

Feel, too, the piercing cold—the hardened hearts of those who shut this holy threesome out at the time of need. Know the burdens they bore to get to this place. Know the burdens that lie ahead of them.

With this passage of Scripture, begin to cultivate in your heart a habit of lectio divina, the art of reading the divine Scripture with the intention of knowing what it really says, knowing what God wants you, uniquely, to hear, knowing what to say to him in response, and knowing what to do about it all. With this beginning, resolve this Advent to know, in the truest sense of the word.

Your life, no doubt, is about to be very busy. In this small space between the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and the First Sunday of Advent, there is already a palpable quickening to the beat of our days. You are making lists and jotting notes, capturing ideas on paper or on Pinterest. You are likely

8 shopping—hopefully you have remembered to put Advent candles on your late-November list. They will almost certainly be unavailable next week. On one of those lists, make a plan to be still.

Plan to sit with Scripture and let it seep into your being.

Plan to quiet your racing mind and your busy hands and feet and just be.

Plan to revisit this plan every day.

In order to enter fully into the miracle of Christmas, endeavor to enter fully into Scripture during Advent. Let yourself steep in the Word. Take your time. Light a candle, fix a drink of something hot and hold it in your hands (a timeless trick for staying awake). Read your Bible with the fullest attention you can summon, carefully noting the author’s intent and the literary value each book holds. Meditate upon it with a clear, active mind, searching it for the truth God has hidden there. Let the Word move your heart toward prayer in a way that unites it with God and makes him a part of you, and you more and more like him. Ask him into your interior spaces and let him clear away the debris he finds there and replace it with his holy wholeness. Contemplate the Word with a mind that lifts above the scurrying of your busy whirlwind and rests serenely in the peace of Christ.

These are lofty goals, to be sure, lofty aspirations for a season where so much is already dictated to us by the duties of our vocations. But they are essential goals. They are the pegs upon which a peaceful Advent hangs. They are the very disciplines the Lord desires so that he can reveal himself to you.

ELIZABETH FOSS

9 COMMIT + PLAN

CULTIVATE|How will I cultivate a daily habit of lectio divina?

When can I plan to make time for the Word of What is my motivation to continue my Scripture God and myself each day? study practice?

PREPARE|How will I prepare for the piercing cold?

When do I struggle the most during Advent? How can I bring grace and love to the hard days?

SAVOR|How will I slow down and savor?

How can I remind myself to savor the season? What brings me peace when Advent feels hectic?

GROW|How will I grow closer to Christ this Advent?

Where will I find quiet moments, alone with How do I see Christ’s fingerprints in my daily God? life?

I will forgive myself for I will forgive others for COMMIT + PLAN I am grateful for

this Advent, I am saying “yes” to this Advent, I am saying “no” to

I will let go of perfection in these ways ROOTS + BRANCHES

Lectio Divina

I would like in particular to recall and recommend the ancient tradition of Lectio Divina: the diligent reading of Sacred Scripture accompanied by prayer brings about that intimate dialogue in which the person reading hears God who is speaking, and in praying, responds to him with trusting openness of heart (cf. Dei Verbum, n.25) If it is effectively promoted, this practice will bring to the Church – I am convinced of it – a new spiritual springtime.

Pope Benedict XVI

Devote yourself to the lectio of the divine Scriptures; apply yourself to this with perseverance. Do your reading with the intent of believing in and pleasing God. If during the lectio you encounter a closed door, knock and it will be opened to you by that guardian of whom Jesus said, ‘The gatekeeper will open it for him’. By applying yourself in this way to lectio divina, search diligently and with unshakable trust in God for the meaning of the divine Scriptures, which is hidden in great fullness within. You ought not, however, to be satisfied merely with knocking and seeking: to understand the things of God, what is absolutely necessary is oratio. For this reason, the Saviour told us not only: “Seek and you will find,” and “Knock and it shall be opened to you,” but also added, “Ask and you shall receive” Origen of Alexandria

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 1 DAILY SCRIPTURE

DEUTERONOMY 30:14

No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

2 TIMOTHY 3:14-16

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

ROMANS 15:4

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

FOR FURTHER READING:

1 CORINTHIANS 2:9

PSALMS 36:7-9

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 1 ogether, as a community of faithful women, today in the first week of TDecember, we are ready for a spiritual springtime. We are ready for new life—for a spiritual renewal of our minds, hearts, and souls. We are embracing Advent in the truest meaning of the word: this will be the time for an arrival of a notable person, and he will take up residence in our very beings and fill us to overflowing with himself.

How? How will the tired soul living in the woman who has come to the end of the secular year be energized by the beginning of the liturgical year? How will she do it while staring down the million and one things women have to do this time of year?

She will pray—more. That’s right. She will take more time to pray at the very time of year when time seems so short. Can we do that together? Can we take up for ourselves the ancient tradition of lectio divina and let the Word lead us to live in charity? We can and we must. This is the best way to prepare ourselves to greet the Babe with peaceful composure and serene grace.

In his 2010 apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini, Pope Benedict XVI beautifully instructs the faithful to prayerfully read Scripture. Following his lead, we will be drawn into a practice that is as old as Scripture itself.

In the early Christian communities, Scripture was read to nourish faith with the wisdom of truth. When we hold the New Testament, we take up the understanding that the first Christians had of the Old Testament, together with the divine revelation the Holy Spirit granted to Jesus’ earliest followers.

The Church Fathers’ faith was informed by their careful, prayerful reading of the Word. Today, we are blessed to welcome their wisdom into our reading when we access the commentaries that were the fruit of their lectio. The monastic movement grew in the fertile soil of lectio divina. The daily, ordered life of the monks was (and is) centered upon spiritual reading of Scripture. Can ordinary women in the twenty-first century find spiritual nourishment and new life in this age-old practice of holy men?

We can.

There are five steps in the pattern, five distinct movements that will direct the way we travel through our days. A meditation engages the mind, using reason to search for knowledge in the message. The prayer is the movement of the heart towards God, a beseeching on behalf of the soul. The contemplation elevates the mind and suspends it in God’s presence. Finally, the action is the way we live our lives as gift of charity towards others. It’s a tall order, but it’s the very best way to live.

Let’s take a careful look at each step.

Pope Benedict writes, “It opens with the reading (lectio) of a text, which leads to a desire to understand its true content: what does the biblical text say in itself (Verbum Domini, 87). This is where we explore the literary genre of the text, the characters we meet in the story, and the objective meaning intended by the author.

“Next comes meditation (meditatio), which asks: what does the biblical text say to us?” (DV, 87). Prayerfully we ponder what personal message the text holds for each of us and what effect that message should have on our lives.

“Following this comes prayer (oratio), which asks the question: what do we say to the Lord in response to his word? Prayer, as petition, intercession, thanksgiving and praise, is the primary way by which the word transforms us” (DV, 87). How do we respond to his Word? We ask him what he desires of us. We ask him for the strength and grace to do his will. Moved by his mercy, we give him thanks and praise.

The fourth act is “contemplation (contemplatio), during which we take up, as a gift from God, his own way of seeing and judging reality, and ask ourselves what conversion of mind, heart and life is the Lord asking of us?” Here, reflect on how God has conveyed his love for us in the day’s Scripture. Recognize the beauty of his gifts and the goodness of his mercy and rest in that. Let God light you from within and look out on the world in a new way because you have been transformed by the process of prayerful Scripture study.

15 Finally, the whole point of this time we’ve taken from our day is to get up from the reading and go live the gospel. Actio is where we make an act of our wills and resolve to bring the text to life in our lives. This is our fiat. “The process of lectio divina is not concluded until it arrives at action (actio), which moves the believer to make his or her life a gift for others in charity.

“We find the supreme synthesis and fulfillment of this process in the Mother of God. For every member of the faithful Mary is the model of docile acceptance of God’s word, for she ‘kept all these things, pondering them in her heart’ ” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51) (DV, 87).

Together, this Advent, we will endeavor to engage in lectio divina every day. We’ve created pages for your time of prayer, and we’ve created pages for your active time. We want this book to come alive in your hands, to bring you a spiritual springtime. Try to take the time each day to dig deep, but if you have to cut your time short, don’t be discouraged. Ask the Blessed Mother to help you find pockets throughout the day to re-engage. Pray the parts you can, and trust the Holy Spirit to water it well in your soul. Know that God can do loaves and fishes miracles with your small parcels of time, if only you are willing to offer him what you have. Before Advent gets swallowed with the ordinary to-to lists of seasonal hustle, sit in prayer and see how you can tune your heart to the beat of the Lord’s, and ensure that the best gift you give this season is your life, given for others in charity.

ELIZABETH FOSS

16 17 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

What is the objective meaning of the text? LECTIO

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Light one candle for hope.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 2 DAILY SCRIPTURE

1 THESSALONIANS 3:12-4:2

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

LUKE 21:34-36

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” FOR FURTHER READING

JEREMIAH 33:14-16

PSALM 25

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 2 “Light one candle for hope, one bright candle for hope…” The notes ring out, sweet and clear as the youngest lights the first candle on our dining table Advent wreath. For Christians whose rhythms are matched to the liturgical calendar, it is a new year, bright with hope. Everything sparkles with promise: the promise of Christmas. It’s right around the corner.

No, really. The time truly is short. Advent is truly short. What does that mean for those of us who are waiting? In terms of the workaday world, it means there are twenty-two shopping days until Christmas. In terms of the liturgical calendar, it means there are twenty-two days until we celebrate the solemnity of Jesus’ birth. In terms of the second coming of the Son of God, it means that we are reminded by the short season of this year’s Advent that the time is coming and we might be surprised by how short the wait really is.

Jesus warns us all to be watchful. He doesn’t want us to be caught by surprise. Remember though, he uttered these words 2,000 years ago. People have been waiting a long time. We might have him in our midst in just a few short weeks. Or we might need to be really patient, as patient as the generations who have lived—and died— waiting in hope before us.

What will we do while being patient? For the next three weeks, most of us will shop and wrap and bake and busy ourselves with countless to-do lists in order to make merry for the people we love.

But what will we do with our souls while waiting for the Master to arrive?

St. Paul offers us an idea that stretches beyond Christmas. Let us be patient in our wait, and let us also be appreciative. Thank God for the gift of faith, for the grace of knowing him. And when the work of this wait wearies, let the understanding that grace is yours be a sustaining strength.

While we wait for the coming of the Lord, keep believing. With God’s grace, Christ makes us strong in our faith until the end. While we keep vigil, the lamp of faith stays lit because God sustains our faith. Even if you struggle with doubt, even if you wrestle with wondering if it’s all true, that glimmer of light flickers still (that’s why it’s a wrestle), and if you ask him, he gives the flame more oxygen. God animates perseverance.

22 In a twist of irony worthy of Dickens, twenty-first century Decembers are quite possibly the most difficult time of the year for women to persevere in hope and faith. When the secularism of the season seeps into our souls and the wait starts to feel like work and worry, it’s easy to be discouraged. What is all this bustle about? Why are we frenzied in our pursuit of Family Channel movie moments? Why does Christmas feel like the pursuit of perfect presents? This wait isn’t really about looking around corners for magical moments when the gentle snow falls on exquisitely wrapped gifts and everyone has two mittens that match and no one’s nose runs.

It’s about making room in your heart for your God, so that he overcomes you with himself.

It’s about a God who humbled himself to be born in a stable, to live a life of service, and to die bloodied on a cross in order to rescue us from our selfish sinfulness. The wait is about a God who perseveres in hope for our salvation.

Because God is faithful.

When God calls us into a relationship, he causes us to remain in him. In this moment, we sit in the presence of God in his Word. He speaks into our souls. The mere fact that that is happening assures us that he wants us. We are called by him into an eternal relationship with him, and he will keep us there, safely, if we choose to nurture that faith. Slow down and seek him.

God gives us the freedom to keep responding to him, especially in the busyness of this season. There is hope in his call. Further, there is the assurance that while we are on the watch we will not be lacking for any spiritual gift. He will provide. Just stay awake! Be alert and cooperate with the grace that he assures. God is faithful, and you are called by him to become more and more like him.

Beginning today.

ELIZABETH FOSS

23 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

What is the objective meaning of the text? LECTIO

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Jesse

We begin with Jesse. A son of Obed and the grandson of Boaz and Ruth, Jesse was David’s father. Isaiah would prophesy that the Messiah would come from the “root of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1, 10). Jesse came from a prominent family, but he was mostly unknown— leading a quiet, hidden life as the father of eight sons. (On second thought, life with eight sons probably wasn’t all that quiet.) Unexceptional on his own merit, Jesse’s righteousness, still being realized today, was entirely the work of God. Our focus isn’t on Jesse; it’s on God at work in and through Jesse and the generations that followed him. Salvation history unfolds one “yes” at a time and today we consider the sturdy root of Jesse.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 3 DAILY SCRIPTURE

ISAIAH 11:1-10 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious. FOR FURTHER READING

JEREMIAH 33:14-16

ROMANS 15:7-13

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 3 ithout warning, nervous laughter bubbled up and overflowed into Wmy phone. “You applied for a job where?” I asked between halted breaths.

It was an ordinary fall day, and my husband called to tell me something I’d heard many times during this long season of underemployment: he applied for a job. Only this position was different; it required relocation from our home in the Pacific Northwest to Alabama.

Immediately, I experienced what I can only describe as an inner knowing—a whisper from the Holy Spirit, perhaps—that this job was meant to be. While I didn’t hear an audible voice, somewhere deep within I sensed that not only would my husband interview for the position, he would receive an offer as well.

I laughed long and hard at God’s crazy sense of humor: the sheer absurdity of leaving everything we’d known and worked for over the course of our marriage, the life we’d built for our growing family, the idea of chasing the unknown some 2,500 miles away.

Sure enough, my husband had one telephone interview, then another, and in December, he flew across the country for a series of in-person meetings. I held down the fort at home with our young children, anxiously hanging on every word when he called to tell me how well things were going and how kind everyone was.

Despite my initial acknowledgement that God was providing for our family in amazing ways, doubt and distrust crept in. I could leave belongings behind; things weren’t so important to me. I could even leave the sweet little house in which we’d raised babies. Yet the thought of leaving our beloved friends, family, and community—the safety net of people we’d woven into the fabric of our lives—to follow God’s call. I spent many tears and sleepless nights begging God to provide in a way that didn’t rip me away from my comfort zone.

The job offer came. My husband was excited. I was scared to death. We talked. We prayed. I begged God for peace amidst the storm of my

28 emotions. I remembered Pope Benedict XVI’s words: We are not called to comfort—we are called to greatness. And then, one day, in an act of the will, I offered a hard-fought “yes” concerning our move. A wave of peace unlike anything I’d experienced in the tumultuous days prior swept over me. God’s light shone through the cracked window of my obedience, ready to illuminate the next season of our lives.

Sacred Scripture sings of individuals who said “yes” to the LORD. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Jesse, David, Joseph, and Mary—there’s a long list. None were obliged to obey. God speaks into the quiet of our hearts, awaiting a response, never forcing our assent.

Upon reflection, I’m grateful that we followed God’s call to Alabama. It was there that we met exceptional people who showed us great love and generosity. We prioritized relationships over results, being over doing, and community over productivity. We opened our hearts to life again, conceiving and birthing our fifth child. It was a time of great fruitfulness, which I count entirely as a blessing from Almighty God.

As his disciples, Jesus asks us, “Who do you say that I am?” Sometimes, we proclaim with Saint Peter, “You are the LORD!” We obey with great faith and trust, as Jesse did. Other times, we suffer from spiritual amnesia. Like the Israelites, we forget God’s constant provision and mercy. We forget that he is God and we are not, believing we can save ourselves by forging our own path. Yet it is when we finally acknowledge God’s sovereignty—when we remember his desire for our eternal happiness— that we have the courage to pick up our cross and follow where he leads.

As he has countless times before, our loving Father transforms each “yes” we offer, no matter how grand or feeble, into infinitely more than we can possibly hope for or imagine.

HEATHER RENSHAW

29 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Jesse was a member of the tribe of Judah from Bethlehem, and the father of King David. He was the son of Obed and the grandson of What is the objective Boaz and Ruth. Jesse had eight sons, of which David was the youngest. meaning of the text? Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would come from “the root of Jesse” LECTIO (Isaiah 11:1,10), meaning from Jesse’s family.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Joseph

Twelve sons were born to Jacob, and they became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph, who was Jacob’s favorite of the sons, told his brothers about two dreams he’d had. In both, his eleven brothers and his parents bowed down to him. His brothers hated Joseph because of their father’s affection for him and because of the dreams. They plotted to be rid of him. Their plans went awry, and Joseph ended up in Egypt, where he was purchased by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. There, Joseph submitted to the will of God and served Potiphar faithfully. When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph, he refused. The spurned woman retaliated by lying about Joseph. In spite of his innocence, he was imprisoned.

Joseph’s story foreshadows Jesus’ story because the one who suffered was righteous. Joseph was extraordinarily faithful in every relationship, even to his jailer! All along, he worked for the good of the people around him, and they responded by persecuting him. Joseph--steadfast and faithful and righteous-- was eventually vindicated by God.

Joseph told his brothers, “And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” (Genesis 45:5)

As we look forward to Christmas, we ultimately look towards the One sent by God to save our lives.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 4 DAILY SCRIPTURE

GENESIS 39:6-23

Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her. One day, however, when he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house, she caught hold of his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to the members of her household and said to them, “See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.” Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me; but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.” When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, “This is the way your servant treated me,” he became enraged. And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love; he gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.

GENESIS 50:19-20

But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-24 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.

FOR FURTHER READING

PHILIPPIANS 4:4-7 33

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 4 here are days that begin with tall orders. Days that are bursting Twith opportunity to do the work of mercy. Days when you hear the Lord saying that he appeals to you as his daughter “to respect those who labor among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.” (1 Thessalonians 5:12) Further, he urges you “to admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all” (see 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15).

Oh. That’s all? How in the world does one live up to that charge? By listening just a little longer and hearing God’s plan for living a life of holy service. St.Paul tells us to rejoice always and to pray without ceasing. The two go together.

If we were to try to rejoice always, in all circumstances, we’d fail miserably. It is not humanly possible to rejoice about everything that happens or doesn’t happen. But we aren’t called to rejoice in the gritty, difficult details of life; we are called to rejoice in God and his promise to be with us when people disappoint us and life gets hard. We draw from his goodness to daily meet the challenges of the day and rejoice in whatever they hold for us. St. Paul anticipates the next obvious question.

How do we rejoice? How do we keep God’s promises front and center so that we remember that he’s there in the messes and we can rest in that? We pray without ceasing and we give thanks in everything. This is the life-giving sequence of thought that needs to crowd out the thoughts of self-doubt or anger or frustration. If we are able to keep an inner dialogue of prayer going, and if we are mindful of every tender mercy and give thanks for it, we can live lives that are spiritually fruitful regardless of what befalls us.

God tells us how to pray. He tells us how to stay in his presence and go about our days, living out our lives as prayers in action. St. Paul calls us to holy behavior, then he reminds us that God makes us holy. It is Christ who sanctifies us. He uses our prayers to sanctify, seamlessly weaving a lifestyle of sanctity into a holy life.

34 There are moments, days, even whole seasons when we feel like the cards are stacked against us. Joseph’s story speaks to us. Joseph, son of Jacob, was his father’s favored son. His brothers were incredibly jealous of that favor, to the point where they plotted to kill him and sold him into slavery. But even though Joseph lost thirteen years of his life to captivity and slavery for a crime he did not commit, he rejoiced that the Lord was with him. Joseph overcame the tragedy of an unjust accusation and punishment because he maintained his faith and joy in the Lord. He trusted that God had a plan for his life and his good, even when all appearances said otherwise. And after Joseph was reunited with his brothers, he spoke words of confident faith to them, assuring them that God had used his terrible circumstance for the good.

God assures us that he is still at work during those dry times. We worry that he tells us to retain only what is good and to refrain from every kind of evil and we fail at that over and over again. How can we possibly be progressing towards holiness? Read on, my friend. Read on.

We don’t make ourselves holy. God makes us holy. He calls us into the pursuit of holiness and then he alone perfects us. Today, what he wants is for us to trust him. He humbled himself to be born into this life in order to forgive our sins. We believe that. We celebrate that, beginning with Christmas and culminating in Easter. If he can forgive our sins, he can also supply the grace as necessary to become perfectly holy and entirely blameless—to progress in this lifetime, little by little, as his grace makes us more and more like Jesus.

God is faithful, and he will finish his good work in you. Of this, you can be assured.

ELIZABETH FOSS

35 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob and was especially loved by him. His favored status made his brothers jealous and they conspired to What is the objective kill him, but instead sold him into slavery. He was a model of righteous meaning of the text? suffering and he grew in wisdom, despite his circumstances. God used

LECTIO him to save Egypt from starvation, and Joseph extended that blessing in forgiveness towards his brothers.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Moses

Moses holds a mighty place in salvation history. He was a deliverer, lawgiver, and mediator for the people of Israel. The greatest of all prophets, Moses spoke to God on behalf of his people and spoke to the people for God. His friendship with the Lord was deep and true and intimate.

Whenever we contemplate our faith, we find mystery. Our faith is rich with mysteries—truths we know and we take deep into our hearts, but truths we cannot fully understand or explain. When we sit here in silence with Moses and see the bush that is ablaze but not consumed, we acknowledge that God can and does dwell in the supernatural. God showed Moses—and he shows us—that he is firmly in control of the forces of nature. We look on in fear and wonder. A God who lights this bush on fire but does not let it burn is a God who will transcend natural order to live among us, and then to die and rise to new life. He dwelt in the womb of a virgin. He is truly present in the bread and the wine. He is a mighty Lord and the Master of the universe.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 5 DAILY SCRIPTURE

EXODUS 3:1-12

Moses at the Burning Bush Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

FOR FURTHER READING

EXODUS 3:13-22

HEBREWS 12:29

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 5 ometimes, when we read the Old Testament, it can seem Stedious and confusing (do I honestly need to know the length and width of ALL the temple curtains?). Other times, such as in today’s reading from the book of Exodus, the story has roots that reach right down through the ground, travel forward in time through dust and dirt to the life of Jesus Christ, and reach ahead again, encircling our very hearts.

The life of Moses is often seen as a prefigurement of the Annunciation, Incarnation, and the Holy Eucharist. It’s one of many Biblical examples showing that it is God who seeks us, purifies us, and sends us forth to participate in the mission of his Kingdom.

In this passage, God seeks Moses in the burning of the bush. He waits for Moses to take notice and then calls him by name. Moses isn’t just a tool to God; God loves him deeply and seeks his willful participation in salvation history. Once God has Moses’ attention, he shows him in the burning of the bush that his love is blazing but it will not not consume. It is the purifying love of God, his very grace set upon our hearts to remove all trace of sinfulness. Once Moses has experienced this purification, God gives him both the instructions and the courage to complete his mission of rescuing the Israelite people from slavery.

Again, hundreds of years later, when the angel Gabriel visits Mary, he seeks her and calls her by name. He brings the news that she has a special mission in bringing the Messiah to the Israelite people, and seeks her consent. Fortunately for all of creation, she has always had within her the desire to unite her will to that of our Heavenly Father. After she consents to mother the Savior, Mary is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and begins her holy role as the Virgin Mother. Her fiat, the wonderful and eternal yes to God, allows Christ to come into the world and free us from the slavery of sin.

40 The Blessed Virgin and Moses were unique in their time. Each of us, however, has the undeniably precious gift of God seeking us every day in the Consecration at Mass. We too, humble like Mary and sinful like Moses, are sought by our very own Creator. When, in a state of grace, we receive the Holy Eucharist, we consent again and again to God’s purifying flame. It is a blazing fire that burns away what we don’t need but that leaves the essence of our true self, the self that longs to be most closely united with Christ, as Mary was. At the end of the Mass, the priest sends us forth to continue with the mission of evangelization. Simple though we may see ourselves, just like Moses and Mary, God has given us a completely unique role in his Kingdom. We, too, can be an example of what true freedom looks like.

Have you been still enough to hear God calling your name? It’s critical that we make time every day to pray in silence, to turn off the noise around us so that we notice the presence of God in our lives.

Have you experienced this sort of blazing fire in your life? Saint Paul refers to God as a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). It’s not always a pleasant experience to have habits and vices stripped from us, but our Heavenly Father’s fire will only burn off the unnecessary evil in our life. No matter how painful, he will not consume us. He made us in his image and loves us so tenderly, so dearly, as a father loves every freckle on his daughter’s nose and every hair on her head.

Have you taken up the mission God has given you in your life? Are you fulfilling the tasks set before you, no matter how humble, no matter how difficult? If that’s a struggle for you, take heart and begin again today by trying to hear God’s voice, and by frequent reception of the sacraments. The more we listen and are purified, the clearer our mission will become. MICAELA DARR

41 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Moses was the deliverer of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, the lawgiver who brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount What is the objective Sinai, and the mediator before God for the people of Israel. Moses meaning of the text? was a man of exceptional holiness and had a deep friendship with LECTIO God. In the New Testament, he appears alongside Elijah at Jesus’ Transfiguration.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Gideon

Gideon was a prophet whose name means “mighty warrior.” God called to Gideon and asked him to defeat the Midianites and save Israel. Despite his faith, Gideon had his doubts; he was insecure and worried about whether he was capable of doing what God called him to do. Gideon set out a fleece and asked for a sign and begged for God to prove himself before he would step out in faith to live his vocation. He wanted God to overcome the natural and leave a supernatural sign: he wanted dew on the fleece he laid on the threshing floor, but a dry floor all around it. Then he wanted the fleece to be dry and the floor to be wet with dew. He was not easily persuaded.

Saint Ambrose saw the dew as the Divine Word, sent from heaven to speak into Gideon’s heart. Saint Augustine saw Christ as the “sweetness of the dew,” and so, Gideon’s fleece, which absorbed the dew, is like the womb of the Mother of God. She received Christ in her own body and she bore him into the world. She was a living, breathing sign of the miraculous things that God will do; she was also a living, breathing example to us of stepping out in faith, even without a sign, in order to answer God’s call.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 6 DAILY SCRIPTURE

JUDGES 6:36-40

Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.” And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

FOR FURTHER READING

ROMANS 8:24-28

ALL OF JUDGES

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 6 few days after Mother’s Day 2016, I decided I’d better take Aa pregnancy test. I didn’t really expect it to be positive. My cycle had been out of whack, and a doctor had even suggested I was entering perimenopause.

Besides, only months earlier I’d cleared out all things baby and had stopped pining for another little one. It was time to focus on this season of motherhood and to celebrate milestones like no longer being in the business of hazardous waste removal.

Well, bring on the poop. I was pregnant.

When I saw those two pink lines, I started to cry. For the first time, my tears following a positive pregnancy test weren’t out of joy but stemmed from uncertainty and fear.

I felt a lot like Gideon then. I wasn’t sure I could do what God was asking of me.

After all, I had prayed for another baby, but when it didn’t happen, I oh-so-bravely accepted God’s will. Now, he was hurling a curveball in my direction, and I wasn’t sure I had what it took to catch it. It didn’t help that I was plagued with all-day nausea during the entire pregnancy and ended up in the hospital because of dehydration and preterm contractions.

But as God so often does, he gifted me with divine nudges that it was going to be okay.

Just two days after the positive pregnancy test, my oldest child waltzed into the kitchen and said out of the blue, “Can we adopt? I know you’re too old to have a baby [Ha! I’ll show her!], but I really want a baby in the house, and I could help so much!”

And this teen of mine has been an invaluable help—holding her baby brother, changing his diaper, playing with him when

46 my hands are full with other tasks. My husband showered me with love and support and showed daily excitement about the little wonder growing inside of me when I couldn’t because of nausea, fear, or exhaustion. When I lamented my current lack of baby paraphernalia, a generous friend immediately started listing all of the things she had to share with me.

My mom gently reminded me that one of my best friends— my younger brother—was also a surprise. She discovered she was pregnant after she’d been diagnosed with some health problems, and she was scared, too, but my brother has proven to be a huge blessing to us all, and he truly is one of the most caring, unselfish people we know.

Then after an exhausting but beautiful labor, my baby Charlie was placed in my arms, and I wondered why I’d ever doubted God at all. I can do hard things, I thought. I’d just spent my final weeks of pregnancy in Advent waiting not only for Christ, but for my own baby. And here he was—joy personified.

When we celebrate the Feast of Saint Nicholas, my children will wake and run to their stockings in hopes of finding tiny treats and trinkets. What would happen if their stockings were empty? If there were no sign of a treasure even after their hands plunged deeply into the oversized socks? I expect my younger children might cry. Isn’t that what I have done when I’ve been faced with the unexpected?

But what did Mary do? Mary, unlike dear Gideon, always trusted her Father. Always. Even when she was scared, confused, or pierced with a sword of sorrow. We’re called to do the same — even if it takes a lifetime to learn to do so.

What are you afraid of at this very moment? Sometimes what God asks of us is only suffering. It’s only human to ask God for a sign when you’re hurting and feel scared, but you may be met

47 with radio silence. You may not have your own bone-dry fleece or dew-speckled ground. What then? Will you still answer God’s call in faith and go where he leads you? Are we willing to lead lives marked by joy and serenity regardless of our circumstances and whether or not we can recognize God’s hand in our lives? That’s what it takes to be a saint, my dear sister, to trust in our Father even when there are no clear signs or answers and to believe in his goodness when life doesn’t feel so good at all.

God may lose battles, but he wins the war. Advent is a season of hope. It’s also a season that demands patience—not only in the crowded malls but in our hearts as well. As Saint Ignatius of Loyola said, “In a time of desolation, never forsake the good resolutions you made in better times. Strive to remain patient—a virtue contrary to the troubles that harass you—and remember you will be consoled.” KATE WICKER

48 THAT’S WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A SAINT, MY DEAR SISTER, TO TRUST IN OUR FATHER EVEN WHEN THERE ARE NO CLEAR SIGNS OR ANSWERS KATE WICKER

49 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Gideon organized the Israelites against the Midianites, who were raiding the land during the harvest season. An angel promised him that What is the objective the Lord would be with him, and with confidence, Gideon’s small army meaning of the text? surprised the Midianites, pushing them to the Jordan River, where they

LECTIO couldn’t escape. The Israelites invited him to be king, but he refused, telling them that God was their only ruler.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? SELAH + WEEKLY SCRIPTURE MEMORY

Today is a day to rest and be grateful. Take some time to look over your journaling from the week, to read a little more, to catch up on days when you didn’t have as much time as you would have liked.

Spend a few moments looking carefully at our memory verses, to burn the image into your brain. Write them yourself, and post it where you can see it. Make them a screensaver on your phone.

If there is a child in your life, teach these words to him or her. Let Advent be hidden in their hearts. The Scripture memorized will serve that child for a lifetime. This memory work is a gift, a legacy. Hiding the Word of God in the heart of a child is stocking her soul with saving grace. Together, take on this joyful endeavor. We’re right there with you.

1 Corinthians 1:8-9

He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

52 ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 7 1 CORINTHIANS 1:8-9 ROOTS + BRANCHES

Samuel

Someone wanted Samuel, begged for him, beseeched the Lord with fervent prayers for him. The fruit of those prayers was the fruit of Hannah’s womb. Hannah, Samuel’s mother, was a faithful woman who, when God answered her prayer, returned her son to the temple and dedicated him to God. There, under the care of Eli, he grew into a man of honor, who loved God’s people. “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread” (1 Samuel 3:1). But God spoke insistently to Samuel. As he grew, the Lord’s revelations, carefully stewarded by Samuel, established for him a reputation for trustworthiness. Samuel’s horn was filled with the holy oil of anointing, and God sent him to Bethlehem to anoint David, Jesse’s youngest son, to be the successor of Saul. Later, Samuel would also be a protector, a holy prophet who befriended David and sheltered him against Saul’s rage. Samuel’s life is a testimony to God’s faithfulness and to his generosity when he hears and answers our prayers.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 8 DAILY SCRIPTURE

1 SAMUEL 1:9-18

After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a Nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants and no razor shall touch his head.” As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.” But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.

FOR FURTHER READING

1 SAMUEL 1-3 (EARLY LIFE OF SAMUEL)

1 SAMUEL 10 (ANOINTING OF SAUL)

1 SAMUEL 16:1-13 (ANOINTING OF DAVID)

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 8 annah’s heart was so broken with the grief of longing Hthat her deepest prayers looked to the holy eyes of Eli like someone who had too much wine. What burning embarrassment must have crept into Hannah’s face when Eli approached her with that claim! Yet Hannah was unashamed to lay not only her grief, but her great hope, before God and his servant Eli, and to trust that they would hear the cries of her heart.

I certainly can relate to the notion of being nearly drunk with grief, to being seized with longings so deep that they spring from my heart as a prayer of jumbled words, hot tears, and unspeakable pain. But far too often, when my heart is hurting, my faith can stagnate right there, and I can forget that my call is to follow Hannah’s example and be a woman of hope even in my grief.

It is Hannah’s hope that lifts her prayer up beyond pleading to worship, rising up like incense in the temple that day. It is hope that makes the difference between the prayer that opens our eyes to redemption and the prayer that forgets that help is on its way. It is hope that makes our prayers bold enough for us to defend them even when they make us look a little crazy. It is hope that lets us open our hands for the answer and keep them open, holding all the grace that is poured into them when God responds loosely enough that it rises back up to him again as praise.

I have often wondered just how Hannah did it, kept that promise to give her precious, sought after Samuel back to God after she had waited and begged for so long and finally received her heart’s greatest desire. What I see now is that it is Hannah’s hope that allows her to hold both her pain and her joy loosely, letting God do as he wishes with both of them. Because Hannah is a woman of hope, she believes in the goodness of God, and she trusts that redemption comes to us in all things. She wholeheartedly lives the oft-repeated modern mantra that “all is grace.”

56 And when all is grace, we can wait out our pain and longing in hope. When all is grace, we can give God back our answered prayers in faith. When all is grace, we can see salvation coming in glimpses and flashes, and take up our place in its story. When all is grace, we can be drunk with grief and bold with hope all at once. Because this is just what salvation is: the cradle and the cross, the grave and the stone rolled away, the dark days before a Savior and the lit up skies of “Hosanna in the highest.” Hannah’s hope is our reminder that when we pray, this is the filter that turns the drunken nonsense of our humanity into holy hope of our eternal faith.

The boy who is the answer to those broken, hopeful prayers, offered back to God by Hannah, becomes the priest who anoints Saul king at the pleading of Israel. He puts into motion the answer to another prayer, the prayer of the people for God’s blessing, for God’s rescue—their prayer to be saved. And even though their demand for a king is a truly broken, drunken prayer, it is a prayer of hope, and prayer that God can save them if he chooses to.

The oil of anointing that Samuel pours over Saul eventually drips down to David, who rises up to become the king who will become a beacon for Israel, a light in the darkness, a forbearer of the Good News of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

We are all the pray-ers of broken prayers. We are all begging at the throne of grace to be saved. If we can all be hopeful that God knows the heart of those prayers and will answer them with the compassion that leads to our eternal redemption, then we can all stand in the tableau of salvation history beside Hannah, bold-hearted and brave. Because we are broken- hearted, but we are believers, and we see salvation on the horizon. COLLEEN CONNELL

57 CONTEMPLATIO ORATIO MEDITATIO LECTIO LECTIO DIVINA How doesthisstoryprepare gift tomeinthisscripture? How has God conveyed hisHow hasGodconveyed What “yes”isGodaskingWhat me forChrist’sbirth? What istheobjectiveWhat Send forth your Spirit and they shallbecreated. AndYou forthyourSpiritandthey thefaceofearth. Send shallrenew meaning ofthetext? Come Holythefire ofyourlove. Spirit,filltheheartsofyourfaithfulandkindleinthem O, thelightofHoly God,whoby Spirit,didinstructtheheartsoffaithful, of me? grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy thesameHolygrant thatby Spiritwemaybetrulywiseandever His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord,His Amen. consolations,Through ChristOur |ADVENT STUDY successor toKingSaul. Lord toBethlehem toanointDavid,the youngestofJesse’s sons,asthe him tothe templeanddedicated himtoGod.Samuelwassentbythe unceasingly forachild,and,when Samuelwas born,she returned Samuel wasthe lastjudgeofIsrael. Hismother, Hannah,prayed ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

David

Throughout salvation history, God chooses the overlooked and uses them to do his work in the world. And every time it happens, the people are surprised. Jesse offered David to the prophet as an afterthought. The young shepherd appeared before Samuel and he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome (1 Samuel 16:12).

Jesse (and his other seven sons) were surprised when Samuel anointed the youngest boy. God knew that David was more than he appeared to be. God saw into the heart and soul of the man and God chose to use him—frailties and all—to be a mighty branch in the tree of the family of Jesus. Despite his mostly triumphant reign, David was a grievous sinner whose transgressions filled his later years with misery. Despite being painfully aware that he had deeply betrayed God, he returned again and again to the throne of mercy. God loved David. God sees what the world doesn’t, and God judges beyond the surface, beyond the façade, well beyond the way things appear. Those beautiful eyes— windows to the soul—laid bare to the Lord the truth of the boy, and God saw in him a king who could be trusted with the lineage of salvation.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 9 DAILY SCRIPTURE

1 SAMUEL 16:1-13

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.” He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.

FOR FURTHER READING

1 SAMUEL 17

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 9 n my high school English classroom, I have one major Iobjective as I try to set the tone of our community: I want this to be a place where you, my students, are seen. A space where you don’t need to hide because you feel comfortable. A space where you may not like every person in the room, but you respect them. A space where we are all on the same team. If I can manage to create such a place for the 150 different backgrounds, personalities, and daily baggages that come through my door, it will be a near miracle. But I still want to try. I want the students to be seen—because what I really want is for them to feel loved.

While this is a noble goal for creating a space, the tricky opposite is often a personal objective of mine: I wish to be seen in the spaces I occupy. Am I contributing to the faculty meeting? Do I have a place at the family table? Am I present in my friendships? Is my online persona annoying or friendly? Am I seen, and how? Who’s looking?

The desire to be seen—loved—is an innate trait in all of us. The trap can come, though, when we start to focus on wanting the love of all, instead of the love of a few who matter.

The fact is, there is no way you are going to please them all.

The fact is, you deserve to be seen, but some will still turn their eyes away. Or look on with disgust. Or raise their eyebrows in judgment.

That is not how God sees, “for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:6). And when we sense the wayward glances of our peers—or worse, feel like nobody’s watching at all—it is so hard to remember that only one gaze really matters. If we let it, his gaze can fulfill our deep desire to be loved completely, all on its own.

62 How does God look at us? I usually imagine that his eyes are soft, proud, and laughing. He is the best kind of teacher: his presence demands respect, but he is warm. His look should be enough, but sometimes it isn’t—I’m too concerned with the glances that everyone else is throwing (or not throwing) my way.

This is tough, ladies: have you ever felt like no one in the earthly realm is noticing you? The desire to be seen, I think, can be fueled by our fear of loneliness, a truly biting dread. Perhaps no one is noticing your hard work or efforts to be a better mom, sister, daughter, colleague, or person. It’s so easy to feel like everyone else is at the big party on parade, being showered with love for their accomplishments, and you’re left in the field with no recognition,tending to the sheep alone.

Wait—but who ends up as King in that situation again?

David, an emblem of humility, didn’t give a darn about who was looking at him and who wasn’t. He simply persevered to finish the task in front of him, and with the Spirit of the Lord as his guide, he knew the eyes he should be seeking. As a human king, David will have his own struggles with sin and temptation later, but he understands that one pair of eyes is in a different category above all the others, and that God’s gaze of approval is one worth striving for. It is no surprise to me that in a few chapters, this is the man who understands that you can’t fight Goliath if you’re listening to everyone telling you you’re going to fail.

In a season when so much is on display, it’s reassuring to remember that only one gaze, one that looks with the heart, matters most. KATY GREINER

63 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

David was the youngest son of Jesse, and was chosen by God to be the successor to King Saul. His reign lasted forty years and he’s considered What is the objective the greatest king of Israel. A deeply flawed man who committed griev- meaning of the text? ous sins, David nevertheless entered into a true covenant with God. LECTIO David had a poet’s heart and composed many of the psalms.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Elijah

Elijah’s story is as interesting as it is colorful. His name means “my God is the Lord” and he lived a life that was a faithful testimony to that name. God used Elijah to oppose a wicked king and revive the faith of the nation of Israel. But Elijah’s inner life was one of turmoil and contradiction. Sometimes, he was courageous and firm in his faith. Sometimes, he was timid and tentative. Elijah knew what it was to be on fire for the Lord and alive in that joy. He also knew depression.

St. James writes that “Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.” (James 5:17-18)

He was just a person, just like us, with a fallen nature, just like ours. But he prayed fervently and he was heard by God. Elijah shows us that ordinary people can have extraordinary faith and live extraordinarily righteous lives.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 10 DAILY SCRIPTURE 1 KINGS 18:20-40

So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel. Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty. Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.” All the people answered, “Well spoken!” Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made. At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response. Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me”; and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”; with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed. Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” Then he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a second time. Again he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time, so that the water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench also with water. At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.” Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.” Then they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there.

FOR FURTHER READING EXODUS 3:1-12

67 ACTS 2:1-4 ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 10 he room was quiet, though filled with people. Everyone Tassumed the same posture: heads bowed, eyes open but cast downward. So intent on the objects of their devotion were they that they each seemed in his or her own world, unaware of what was happening around them, focused devoutly upon where they fixed their gazes.

I sat there in that waiting room, silently bemoaning the fact that I’d neglected to charge my own phone and observing that there were no waiting room magazines; they had been rendered mostly unnecessary by personal objects of worship we all held in our hands. We think that worshiping idols is a thing of the past—an Old Testament phenomenon rooted in not knowing the one true God. We think that we are so much more informed than they were, so much smarter. And yet there we sit, called to rapt attention by every ding and every like and every comment. Our objects of worship are not golden statues. They are instead gleaming, sparkling idols no bigger than a deck of cards.

We are a generation so in need of a man like Elijah. Elijah, whose name means “my God is the Lord,” shows us how beautiful—and how demanding—a life of intimate devotion to the true Lord can be. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls him the “‘father’ of the prophets, ‘the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob’ (Ps 24:6)” (CCC, 2582) Elijah was a prophet for an age where people worshiped false idols. It seems so foreign to us today—the whole idea that people could offer sacrifices to Baal. The truth is, Elijah’s message and meaning are as relevant now as they were then. He shows us how we were created to worship God and only God. St. James assures us that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours (James 5:17). It is our nature to need the true God, to find in him the sustenance for life. Elijah shows us that God is faithful to those who turn to him in prayer. We, who worship what is held in our smartphones, should stand for a moment on Mount Carmel and understand what it is to be all-in for God.

68 Consider how Pope Benedict XVI sets the scene.

The people worshipped Baal, the reassuring idol from which it was believed that the gift of rain came, and to which was therefore attributed the power of making fields fertile and giving life to people and animals. In spite of claiming to follow the Lord, an invisible and mysterious God, the people were also seeking security in a comprehensible and predictable god from whom they believed they could obtain fruitfulness and prosperity. (Benedict XVI, General Audience, 15 June 2011)

Now, think about that waiting room, or a subway train, or a grocery line, or the first impulse you might have had when you got out of bed this morning. Are we not a people seeking something inside those sleek, shiny boxes?

The many prophets of Baal called out for several hours, but their cries went unanswered. We click, and text, and tweet, and scroll endlessly. But are we satisfied? Are we truly fed? Does the rain fall and quench our thirst and water fertile land that grows rich and lush? Do we find peace and prosperity in that phone? When Elijah sought the Lord, his prayer was answered immediately: fire came down from heaven and the sacrifice, the wood, and even the water were consumed in its blaze. Elijah was confident that the one true Lord would hear him and respond. God did not disappoint.

Take a look at your phone right now. Chances are good it’s not far from you. If you called upon it for sustenance to live, would you have full confidence you’d find it in the places you usually click? Would it answer you with authority over heaven and earth? Or would you eventually click away, disappointed that you feel no fuller than when you began? Be careful what you worship. There is really only one true God.

ELIZABETH FOSS

69 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Elijah defended the worship of the Lord against the abandonment of What is the objective religion and the mixing of other religious traditions into Judaism. He meaning of the text? fought pagan cults, particularly that of Baal, and God gave him the

LECTIO power to work miracles in order to convince Israel of the one true God.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Amos

A shepherd in Judah and the “dresser of sycamore trees,” Amos was not a prophet by training; he didn’t seek a job in prophecy. He was called to the extraordinary vocation by God. He has the distinction of being the first prophet to teach that a faithful remnant would survive a large-scale devastation. God called him at a time when Judah and Israel were living large—luxury and idleness ruled the people and the people of God were being corrupted by wealth and injustice. Amos sounded the alarm and tried to wake the complacent people to the perils of violating moral law. Amos spoke the truth of divine mercy and he extended to the Israelites the promise that God would return favor to the chosen people.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DAY TWELVE DAILY SCRIPTURE

AMOS 9:11-12

On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the Lord who does this.

ACTS 15:16-18

‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it, and I will set it up, so that all other peoples may seek the Lord— even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called. Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things known from long ago.’

FOR FURTHER READING

AMOS 3:12

AMOS 8:9

AMOS 9:8

MATTHEW 27:45

ROOTED IN HOPE | DAY TWELVE always wanted to have a lot of children, but with two children under Itwo, I found myself in a state of shock at how hard things were. My body was not my own, my time was not my own, and since I had never lost my baby weight the first time around, I was uncomfortably overweight, and feeling totally overwhelmed and unhealthy.

I decided to reclaim my life for myself. I got out all my old NFP charts, contacted an instructor who could help me chart while breastfeeding, and utterly and completely committed myself to having a solid chunk of time where my body was my own again. With disciplined dieting and working out, I lost 40 pounds in less than five months.

And, gradually, I stopped praying.

I wanted my life to be exclusively mine again. I had my plans and goals, and in my mind God had nothing to do with the decision to be open to more children. When our second baby was a little over one year old we discovered we had conceived, which was not my plan. I accepted it, but on the condition that things would still be mine—my body, my time, my life. I mentally resolved to not let this pregnancy change or affect the ways things were. My heart was hardened because I had stopped talking to God.

Then we lost our baby to miscarriage.

The darkness that surrounded me those first days of discovering our baby was no longer living was thick, like a dense fog. So little hope was present there. I felt so much guilt over my selfishness and how much I had distanced myself from our Lord. I knew that losing our baby was not punishment for my selfishness, but I experienced deep regret at my refusal to rejoice over that gift that God had given me, and at my decision to prize my vanity and desire for control over openness to new life.

Yet it was during those dark and difficult days that God moved in my heart, opening it to the gift of new life, and the gift of his life of grace working in me—more than almost any other time in my life. I grieved intensely at the loss of our baby, but I spoke to our Lord intimately for the first time in a long time, and I invited him back into my heart and my life

74 in a new way. I began to gain new hope in his promises.

A new desire to give of myself for whatever children God wanted to give us welled up in my heart, and within a month or so of miscarrying, while my heart was still grieving and my body was still healing, we conceived again. The joy that followed the discovery of that pregnancy is one I can’t describe.

Through Amos, God says that he will repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old;

In Acts, too: I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it,

Even in the midst of the waiting, he is working. He is restoring and healing and rebuilding, sometimes most especially when we can’t see it or feel it.

As Christ was dying for us on the cross, the earth was darkened, but even in that darkness, hearts were being transformed, conversions were happening. The work our Lord is doing in the midst of darkness can sometimes only be seen after the dawn, in the light of his resurrection.

In the darkness, God rebuilds the broken parts of our hearts; in the midst of death and grief, He can bring about new life. Amos speaks of the darkness which is a result of the sin of the Israelites, but he also prophesies a restoration in and through the coming Messiah, and in that prophecy there is hope, the hope of the newborn Babe. ANA HAHN

75 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Amos was a shepherd and a “dresser of sycamore trees.” He didn’t intend to be a preacher, but when the Lord commanded him to, he What is the objective prophesied. He lived in Israel during a peaceful, prosperous time and meaning of the text? addressed the corruption of wealth. The book of Amos was written in LECTIO the 8th century B.C. by the prophet or one of his contemporaries.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Micah

The prophet Micah was a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea. He lived when Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom, Israel, and Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom, Judah. Jeremiah tells us that Micah feared the Lord and sought his favor and repented before him. Micah was gravely concerned about the moral and spiritual life of Judah. His book takes us back and forth between threats of doom and glimpses of glory. He offers us the realistic look at the hard plight of his people, and then he shares the great promise of the Messiah who will come from Bethlehem, the house of bread. From a humble stable beginning will rise a glorious King, who will allow himself to enter under our roofs as the very Bread of Life.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 12 DAILY SCRIPTURE

MICAH 5:2-4

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth;

MICAH 7:20

You will show faithfulness to Jacob and unswerving loyalty to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.

FOR FURTHER READING

PSALMS 25:8-9

1 CORINTHIANS 10:31

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 12 Icouldn’t breathe. I stood in the back of a church, too angry to approach the altar. The tabernacle’s doors were closed tight and locked, just like my heart. I’d just come from seeing the doctor who’d shared his diagnosis of our son, Jonathan.

Jonathan was supposed to be the “normal” one. The one who didn’t have extraordinary challenges. He wasn’t supposed to struggle with depression and PTSD. He wasn’t supposed to drop out of college, come home, and turn into an angry Hulk. Jonathan was my baby boy, my wonder kid, my pride and joy.

But that day, the doctor explained my son’s deep trauma. After years of watching his sister experience seizure after seizure, waiting for her to start breathing again, and therefore never experiencing a typical life, Jonathan suffered from “survivor’s guilt.” He was in pain and needed professional help.

There was nothing I could do. My heart was broken. And I believed it was God’s fault.

God had betrayed me again. He’d allowed my daughter to suffer. Now my son wanted to give up on life because of the pain—pain that God could stop at any moment but chose not to.

I stared at the tabernacle and wanted to hurl things. There was no room in my heart for Jesus. No room for anything but anger and disappointment. As the tears fell, I silently screamed at God. When I was done, I left the church feeling no peace. I promised myself I’d never return.

For the next few days, my husband and I listened as Jonathan poured out his hurt.

“You love Courtney more than me.” “It’s not fair that Courtney suffers when I’m fine.”

80 “It should be me. I’m stronger than Courtney. I can take it.”

Our hearts grew heavier every day that passed. My anger had not abated.

At my husband’s request, I returned to church the next Sunday. Once seated in the pew, knowing I was still angry, Jerry whispered, “It’s not God’s fault. Everything is going to be OK. He’s walked us through the valley with Courtney. He won’t abandon Jonathan.”

My husband didn’t know what he was asking me to do. I didn’t hear the readings or the Gospel. I’d begun an internal dialogue with God that was more rant than conversation. Forget the praise and worship!

During the Consecration, Courtney laughed when the bells rang as she always did. But that day it took me by surprise. Jonathan whispered, “Courtney knows Jesus is here. She knows it better than we do.” He held her hand as the priest lifted our Lord above the altar.

I stared at the Host, now transformed into the Body of Christ, and my heart hurt. I fought desperately to hang onto those feelings of discontent. I looked at my children. Jonathan still believed Jesus was present and he was the one in distress. Courtney believed because she knew only love.

I fought hard to hold onto my pain, I’d turned Jesus away just like the innkeeper turned away Joseph and Mary. I told myself there was no room for God. No room for Jesus. No room for the Holy Spirit. The fact that I was surprised when Courtney laughed during the Consecration proves how little room there was in my heart.

Despite the “No Vacancy” sign I put up, God kept knocking. As I waited in the Communion line, taking one small step after

81 another, it dawned on me that, in the Eucharist, we receive our Lord, but only if we open our hearts to him.

At first, I resented his persistence because I’m stubborn. I like to be right. But as I waited to receive our Lord, my heart opened like the tabernacle doors, and the ache in my shoulders lessened. My fists unclenched, and my breath evened out.

God was asking for a place to dwell, and despite my lingering doubt, I took the “No Vacancy” sign down. It would take months to work toward complete peace with what was happening with my son. But after receiving Communion that day, I offered God a resting place that, while not the Ritz, was all for him. In this Advent season, God is not looking for the Ritz; He is just looking to reside in the humble stable of your heart, with its messiness, broken pieces, and dark corners. Are you willing to make room and allow him in?

MARY LENABURG

82 HE IS JUST LOOKING TO RESIDE IN THE HUMBLE STABLE OF YOUR HEART, WITH ITS MESSINESS, BROKEN PIECES, AND DARK CORNERS.

MARY LENABURG

83 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Micah was a prophet during the 8th century B.C. A contemporary of Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea, he addressed the injustice and corruption of What is the objective priests and the moral decline of Samaria and Jerusalem. He foretold meaning of the text? catastrophe and he assured Israel of restoration by a Davidic king who LECTIO would come from Bethlehem.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Jonah

Jonah’s notorious saga began with disobedience. He really didn’t want to be a prophet, and rather than obeying right away, he became a sterling example of both the consequences of delayed obedience and the divine mercy God so wants to extend. God called Jonah to go to Ninevah and call the people there to repentance. But Jonah, overcome by his hatred of the foreign land and its people, fled by sea in the other direction. A storm arose and the sailors in the boat with Jonah agreed that the storm was a curse. When they drew lots to see who was the source of the curse, Jonah confessed his disobedience and was thrown overboard. A giant fish swallowed him—God’s providence against drowning. Jonah called out to God for mercy and mercy was extended; after three days, the fish vomited him onto land. This time, Jonah went to Nineveh and warned the people of impending doom. To his astonishment, they listened to him and amended their ways. Jonah’s time in the dark, dank belly of the fish, from which he emerged miraculously incorrupt, foreshadowed Jesus’ time in the dark, dank tomb, from which he emerged into the light, defeating death and opening the gates of paradise.

But the story doesn’t end there, and our Scripture study today takes us to Jonah’s stubborn persistence in hatred of Ninevah and the way his greediness and racism threatens to consume him. 86

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 13 DAILY SCRIPTURE

JONAH 4:6-11

The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

FOR FURTHER READING

READ THE BOOK OF JONAH

(IT’S NOT THAT LONG!)

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 13 onah, a prophet who was stingy with God’s message, was Jasked by the Lord to go to Nineveh, a Gentile city, and warn the people to amend their ways. But he didn’t go. Instead, he went off in a different direction across the Mediterranean Sea. When he was thrown overboard, God saved him from drowning by providing a great fish to swallow him and then to regurgitate him three days later.

Jonah is an Easter story, to be sure. Three days in the tomb of the giant fish, and then a second chance at life foretells Jesus’ burial and resurrection. But it’s also an Advent story, because Advent is about preparing for the birth of Mercy Incarnate. Jesus came to save the world, to teach us how to have goodwill toward our enemies. Jesus came to show us how to bless the people who curse us. He came to extend mercy to the world. Jonah does not want to be an instrument in the repentance of Nineveh and the restoration of that land to God. He wants God to smite them. Following his time in the tomb of the great fish, he reconsiders and obeys God’s call, but he’s still not persuaded by mercy.

After Jonah’s infamous stay in the belly of the fish, after he goes to Nineveh and the people listen to him, after God has poured out patient mercy on Jonah, he’s still a racist. He wanted the people of Nineveh to perish, and he’s mad that God was rich in love and ready to turn punishment into forgiveness. God provides a bush to give Jonah shade from the Mediterranean sun, and the prophet sits sulking in the shade. Then, in a brilliant stroke of excellent lesson planning, God provides a worm to kill his shade plant, and then wind and heat are employed to make him more uncomfortable. Sometimes, God’s provision feels like the nasty belly of a fish. Sometimes, it’s the heat and wind of a scorching day. Sometimes God’s mercy does not feel tender at all. Instead, it’s a miserable existence that might just make us turn to God and repent. God has saved Nineveh. But will Jonah allow him to save Jonah?

88 As the sun beats down on Jonah’s head, he feels faint and begs to die. He is so angry over the salvation of Nineveh that he tells the Lord that he is being consumed by the heat of his hate. That’s some pretty serious racism. God speaks into that hate, and points out that Jonah neither planted nor watered the shade tree; he had no provision over it. God tells him that Nineveh, by contrast, was full of people about whom God cared deeply and for whom he wanted restoration.

God loves to show mercy. And God loves for us to love mercy. There are no ethnic barriers to God’s love, and so, there should be no ethnic barriers to ours, either. Like Jonah, like Nineveh, like the plant, we owe our lives to God.

With that life, you are called to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).

That means that Christmas is not just for the people you gather around your table, or just about the people with whom you gather in your church. To truly celebrate this season, you have to embrace people outside your circle. You have to open the doors of that stable to Christians who worship in ways different than you do, whose doctrine is not precisely what yours is. And you have to impart the love of the Infant to people who don’t know him at all.

You are his hands and feet here on this earth. He wants you to go to Nineveh. Maybe you got sidetracked. Maybe your life right now feels as uncomfortable as the inside of a giant fish. Maybe the wind is blowing hot and dusty in your face. Maybe you need to stop thinking about yourself and your quirks and your prejudicial idiosyncrasies and pour out that energy in love on someone different from you. Maybe, today’s the day to do that.

ELIZABETH FOSS

89 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh to warn the people that they would be punished for their wickedness. Jonah hated the Ninevites and wanted them to perish. He tried to escape the assignment on a ship which What is the objective capsized. God saved Jonah by having a large fish swallow him. Jonah meaning of the text? remained in the fish’s belly for three days and then was vomited onto LECTIO a beach. Finally, Jonah went to Nineveh. The people repented upon hearing his prophecy.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? SELAH + WEEKLY SCRIPTURE MEMORY

Memorizing Scripture makes it our own. When we commit it to our hearts, we always have it to carry wherever we go. This week, remember that the Lord will strengthen you to the end. It’s a journey, and he’s taking it with you. This week, we look with love on the Prince of Peace who will make us perfectly holy in his time.

Spend a few moments looking carefully at our memory verse, to burn the image into your brain. Write them yourself, and post it where you can see it. Make them a screensaver on your phone.

One more thing: if there is a child in your life, teach these words to him or her. They will serve that child for a lifetime. Don’t be surprised when the child memorizes more easily than you do, even when the verses are longer. This memory work is a gift, a legacy. Hiding the Word of God in the heart of a child is stocking his soul with saving grace. Together, take on this joyful endeavor. We’re right there with you.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

92 ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 14 1 THESSALONIANS 5:23 ROOTS + BRANCHES

Habakkuk

Habakkuk, whose name means “loving embrace,” lived during a time of wickedness and warned his people of the Chaldean invasion of Judah. He offers a warning for us, too, asking us how we will live in order to bring life and not death at the time of judgment. Can we hear the prophet’s voice now, as we ready to turn the calendar page to a new year in times that are also very uncertain? “The just shall live by his faith” (2:4). Even if times are trying, can we, like Habakkuk, rejoice in the Lord? Habakkuk didn’t know how God would both hate sin and save the sinner, but God revealed to him that it was so, and Habakkuk stepped out in faith to proclaim it. As we continue our journey towards Christmas, we have the tender mercy of knowing that it was Christ who will be born to show eternal mercy on sinners.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 15 DAILY SCRIPTURE

HABAKKUK 2:1-4

I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith

HABAKKUK 3:2

O Lord, I have heard of your renown, and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work. In our own time revive it; in our own time make it known; in wrath may you remember mercy.

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 15 HABAKKUK 3:16-19

I hear, and I tremble within; my lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones, and my steps tremble beneath me. I wait quietly for the day of calamity to come upon the people who attack us.

Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.

96 DATE:

97 t doesn’t take more than a minute of the news to hear that Iour world is filled with struggle, pain, and suffering. It seems that as soon as one conflict is resolved, there’s one to take its place. And even in my personal life—while I’m so thankful for the storms that have passed—I stumble under the weight of what seems like one new storm after another. There are conflicts and problems I can’t solve, and many days, it’s hard to trust that resolution will ever come.

Habakkuk also lived in times of great conflict. He too felt the weight of struggle and suffering. He didn’t have answers to the problems of his time, nor could he understand why God didn’t just stop those doing evil. And when he asked, “Why?” he got a difficult response: wait. God revealed plans for the righteous to triumph over the evil—plans that seemed almost unbelievable to Habakkuk—but told Habakkuk he must wait, and in the meantime, live by his faith. Habakkuk questioned God’s plan, but eventually embraced a life of faith, choosing to trust and even rejoice in God’s promises. And God did indeed fulfill them, working in incredible ways to end the evil of Habakkuk’s time.

When I cry out to God in frustration, I often hear him say that I need to wait, too. This is the point at which I used to give up in the past.

Years ago, I was in a very unhealthy relationship. A person I trusted took advantage of my naivety, leaving me hurt and confused. I couldn’t find a way out, and didn’t think I ever would. I prayed more fervently than I ever had before, but God didn’t answer my prayer in the way I expected or wanted. The hurt continued for a long time, until I finally found the strength to walk away. Even then, the person who’d hurt me expressed no remorse. It didn’t seem like God had heard my pleas, and in my frustration, I hardened my heart and stopped praying— stopped believing he was even there at all.

Thankfully, beyond my wildest dreams, I found my way back to God several years later. During that time, there were two

98 practices that strengthened my faith and taught me to live in hopefulness—to rest in him and wait for redemption—even when it looks like evil has won. Habakkuk used these practices, too.

The first is dialogue. Instead of shutting down and hardening his heart, Habakkuk kept talking. God can take our hard questions, and wants them, even when they come from a place of anger or frustration. Because when we’re asking questions, we’re still engaging. It’s when we shut down and turn away that our faith is most at risk of wavering.

The second practice is reflection. Habakkuk recounted the history of his people and in doing so, recognized how God worked in the past. Reflecting on our own past trials often allows God’s presence to become clear in a way it wasn’t at the time. And when we begin to see God’s hand in the difficult periods of our lives, our faith is strengthened, fortifying us for struggles we will inevitably face in the future. Reflecting on those spiritually dark years in my past, I see now that God was making a way for me to move towards healing and greater self- confidence through the love of others in my life. Evil did not win, love did.

I still wait to see how God will redeem many conflicts and problems in our world and in my life. The waiting is not easy. But it’s easier when I embrace a life of faith like Habakkuk, keeping dialogue with God open, and looking for his hand in the past.

Jesus told us that He has overcome the world, and that he is the way to peace. When we trust this, and live by our faith—even in our waiting—we can share that gift with others, bringing greater peace to the kingdom on earth while we keep our eyes fixed on the Kingdom of Heaven.

ALLISON MCGINLEY

99 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Habakkuk was a minor prophet whose book was written sometime in the late seventh century between 605 BC and 597 BC. The prophet What is the objective wrote about his struggle to understand the Babylonian conquest of Ju- meaning of the text? dah as God’s punishment. Woven into the story is the Lord’s assurance LECTIO of mercy for the just.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Isaiah

Prophet and poet, Isaiah’s deep love and devotion to the Lord resonates throughout his writing. He was a prophet with a difficult mission during a difficult time. He was to tell of the fall of Israel and the chastisement of Judah, but his words fell on the ears of people enjoying peace and plenty. As the hard times came to be, he was a comforter and consoler. Of all the prophets, it was Isaiah who gave us the richest, clearest Old Testament vision of the Messiah. With Jerusalem under siege and the future looking anything but certain, the poet-prophet issued forth beautiful Immanuel prophecies in brilliant literary style. His spiritual insights were so enduring and so profoundly expressed that Isaiah is the prophet who is most often quoted in the New Testament.

102

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 16 DAILY SCRIPTURE

ISAIAH 41:9-10

you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

ISAIAH 54:10-11

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I am about to set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

FOR FURTHER READING

GALATIANS 2:20

PROVERBS 3:5-6

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ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 16 his is not where I planned to write tonight. The dining Troom walls are a familiar shade of cranberry. My brothers are in the next room over, finishing up summer assignments for their first week of school. My parents are asleep upstairs. My little sister is tucked away in her new home in a southern town.

I did not plan to be back in my childhood home this late in the season, on the hem of September. In fact, I should be writing tonight from a place very far from here, from an old house in rural England. My intended flight took off without me last night. My new departure date is elusive.

A delayed visa application has set back my plans. It’s pushed back my start date for a teaching fellowship I’m anxious to begin. It’s cut into the time that I want there to settle into a new town, a new country, a new community.

I’m not a planner. I prefer to let events unfold as they may. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason, and who am I to question? But every once in a while, I eat my words. Often in the face of change, when I am scared the rug is going to be ripped out from under me, I stare at the rising tide of uncertainty and scramble for control.

All summer, I’ve dreaded the unknown, the changes that were sure to come at me quicker than I could prepare. So I planned. I planned and I planned until I was sure nothing could knock me down this round. I’m entering a time of transition. My friends have all found new corners of the universe to inhabit. I left my beautiful, though broken, Charlottesville right on the cusp of tragedy. As my little sister settles into her first year of college, my family will once again recalibrate their operations at home, just as they did when I left for school.

And I’ve found myself in the middle of it all. Not fully here, but not yet gone. Frustrated that I wasn’t on that flight last night. Frustrated that I’m not able to start the next chapter. Frustrated that my plan, my calculated and vainly crafted plan, has been washed away. It’s a sheet with running ink. 104 Sometimes my plan is not his plan. And his plan is always better.

God kept me here longer than I intended, but he has already shown me why in abundance. He’s given me time to throw all of my energy into Take Up & Read. He’s granted me the opportunity to spend time with my family before I leave them for ten months. He’s caused me to pause, to open my heart to the alternative, to the unconventional path.

Yes, this week hasn’t gone according to plan. But it means that I am here, nestled in my Virginia home for a little while longer. I am here and it is my choice how fully I want to be here, how present I choose to be. I can keep one foot out the door, or I can spend these last few weeks stateside fully opening up my heart to the presence of the one who will see me through it.

I can invite him in. I can spend time with my Bible open at this familiar dining room table. I can spend my afternoons in the parish where I received my first sacraments. I can firmly root myself in the familiar, so that I am ready when it is time to leave. Ready to face the uncertainty. Ready to carry out his word and mission in a new place. Ready to answer the call I don’t see coming.

CARLY BUCKHOLZ

105 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Isaiah is the first of the four major Old Testament prophets. He belonged to a leading family in Jerusalem and probably began his public ministry around the age of twenty. He prophesied from around 742 to 701 B.C. What is the objective The book of Isaiah offers the most significant Messianic prophecy and meaning of the text? the most insight into the Suffering Servant. Both of those prophecies LECTIO come to fruition in Jesus. Isaiah is the most frequently cited prophet in the New Testament.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Jeremiah

Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet because he wept bitterly for the sins of his people. During the time of Jeremiah, God’s chosen ones lived captive in a foreign land. Through the tears of his prophet, God offered hope—that a righteous Branch, a great King, would one day reign in the hearts of the faithful. God spoke this hope to Jeremiah as he watched a potter work wet clay on a wheel. As he was working, the vessel—the one he’d so carefully crafted— fell apart, right in his hands. Instead of giving up and abandoning his wheel, he took the ruined lump of clay and created something new. Watching the potter work his craft, Jeremiah knew that God had revealed something about himself—that he takes what is broken and makes it whole. Jeremiah’s story offers us the hope that God would take a fallen people, broken vessels, and make them new. He took a simple man named Jesse, the humble stump, and from him grew a many- branched tree. And from the growth of Jesse’s tree, God formed a new vessel—the womb of a Virgin. The Divine Potter not only crafted it, but also made his dwelling in it. He took on the flesh of the Virgin, yours and mine, and recreated us.

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ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 17 DAILY SCRIPTURE

JEREMIAH 18:1-11

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. FOR FURTHER READING

2 TIMOTHY 1:6-8

ISAIAH 64:8

ROMANS 9:20-21

109

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 17 ith six kids in the house, I can predict the breaking of an item with Walarming accuracy. When it comes to predicting the brokenness of my own spirituality? That one blind-sided me.

In the spring of 2009, I was the perfect mom. Yes, child number two had been a handful of a baby, but nothing a boppy, a tight swaddle, and earplugs for mom couldn’t fix. My four children kept me busy, but with one in school and three at home, I had hit my parenting stride. My fridge was stocked with Dr Pepper and I was well on my way to becoming the Catholic Martha Stewart.

Then, I got pregnant with baby number five, Luke. At my 20-week ultrasound we learned I had a placental tumor and the baby wasn’t growing well. The next few days, weeks, and months our lives were filled with perinatologist appointments, blood draws, ultrasounds and a boatload of worry, imaginary scenarios I dreamed up, and fear. Then came the unplanned C-section, the neonatal intensive care unit 44-day stay, the emergency surgery, and our son, coding and being resuscitated. I mean, what baby stops breathing while his parents are three floors up, praying with a priest?

Nothing breaks you open quite like hearing the doctor say, “We’re going to do everything we can to save him.”

If this is how the potter treats his clay, then I want no part of it. How, amidst God’s great wisdom, could he use my child to break me open, to make me whole? How could the seven surgeries, the twelve specialists, the hundreds of therapy appointments, the thousands of hours we spent teaching our son to eat, and a marriage that found itself in counseling— how could those make me whole? With each one of those setbacks, I could feel a part of my soul being broken, normal bit by normal bit.

It was during Luke’s seventh surgery where I found myself standing on the second floor outdoor balcony, adjacent to the hospital’s tiny chapel. Luke was cradled in my arms and I was relishing the quiet moment. The night was dark, just after dusk, and the breeze carried the smallest hint of humidity. Out there, nothing smelled like the antiseptic hospital behind us and I could see a few lit hospital windows here and there. It was then, I

110 spotted it. The NICU is located on the fourth floor and I could see nurses, bustling around what looked to be a new inhabitant.

I caught my breath. Four years ago, I had stood in that same NICU, at roughly the same time of year, wondering if our son was going to live through the night. Oh, if only I could’ve shared with the Kathryn of yesteryear what the Kathryn of that moment knew.

She would survive and be whole once again.

Luke’s middle name is Timothy, taken from the readings the weekend he was born:

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands, for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God. (2 Timothy 1:6-8)

It was in my brokenness that I could finally strip away all the barriers I had put up to knowing and loving my Maker in a real and tangible way. The jealousy and the materialism, the pride and the righteousness—they were chipped away, my exterior broken, so that my interior could be made new. It hurt, y’all. It was painful to realize my shortcomings and my inadequate human self. But, dang, was it beautiful to see how God shaped me to love him with the kind of love that is eternal. I found my purpose. For when you suffer big, you learn to lean in and love big.

You really are made whole.

And praise the sweet Lord for that. KATHRYN WHITAKER

111 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Jeremiah, a major prophet, ministered from 627 to 586 B.C. and witnessed the events leading up to the capture and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians. Jeremiah stood as a voice What is the objective in Judah calling for repentance and reform in the face of impending meaning of the text? destruction. He was very fond of the phrase, “thus says the Lord,” con- LECTIO tinually bringing the people back to God’s commands and justice over their propensity for meaningless outward piety.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Ezekiel

Ezekiel, whose name means “God will strengthen,” was, indeed, a stalwart man of God. He lived in a community of Jewish exiles on a river in Babylonia. A man of strong will, who was distinguished by his firm character, he was respected by his community and his elders consulted him on all matters. A widower who lost his wife suddenly, he was notably devoted to his faith—to the rituals and rites of the Hebrews trained in the Levitical tradition. Ezekiel is thought to have been a cheerful man who embraced his calling as a prophet with a peacefulness of heart that enabled him to rise to its challenges with grace and good will. He ardently loved his people and he served them faithfully and well.

114

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 18 DAILY SCRIPTURE

EZEKIEL 10:1-5

Then I looked, and above the dome that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in form resembling a throne. He said to the man clothed in linen, “Go within the wheelwork underneath the cherubim; fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” He went in as I looked on. Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house when the man went in; and a cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the Lord rose up from the cherub to the threshold of the house; the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the glory of the Lord. The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

EZEKIEL 10:18-19

Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house and stopped above the cherubim. The cherubim lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight as they went out with the wheels beside them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord; and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

FOR FURTHER READING

EZEKIEL 1

EZEKIEL 44:1-3

JOHN 1:1-18

115

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 18 zekiel was a prophet in exile, far from his homeland. He Elived as a stranger in a foreign land, a refugee in Babylon. In Ezekiel’s lifetime, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed both Jerusalem and its Temple, the place where God’s glory dwelt. For the Jews, to see the destruction of the Temple was to witness the loss of the presence of God among them. Nothing could have been more devastating.

While in exile, Ezekiel was given a vision of God’s glorious throne—a vision of hope, one that promised that God’s presence wasn’t limited to the Jerusalem Temple. We know the fulfillment of this vision. It’s what we’re preparing to celebrate, that God is with us. According to Saint John’s Gospel, the true Temple of God is not a structure made of stone but a Body, one taken from a Virgin. To enter into this mystery is the purpose of Advent: to know and adore the real and everlasting Temple. This Temple was one not made by human hands, but through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the humble Virgin Mary. This season we prepare our hearts to enter into the eternal reality that God is with us. Emmanuel.

God made his dwelling among us. In his Gospel, St. John writes that he literally tabernacled among us. Jesus was born in a city named Bethlehem, meaning House of Bread. And he remains with us, in the tabernacles of our churches as the Bread of Life. He was born in a place that spoke of food and he perpetually makes himself our divine nourishment. He rests in the tabernacles of our hearts when we receive him in the Eucharist. God is with us.

Like Ezekiel, we too are exiled in this life, living far away from our homeland—Heaven. But the thing about the life of grace is that right here, in this material world and in our physical bodies, we can experience a foretaste of our homeland. Like Ezekiel, we are strangers in a foreign land and our longing for God bears witness to that. But we aren’t limited to visions as Ezekiel was. The Real Presence dwells among us. We live what

116 Ezekiel was offered as a hope. God began the work of redeeming the world when he entered it on that dark night in Bethlehem and he healed our bodies when he clothed himself in the flesh of the Virgin. Heaven begins now because God is with us and he remains with us.

Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry bears witness to the fact that God does not abandon his people even in the darkest of times. When his people found themselves suffering in exile, God promised them his salvation through his prophet, just as he promises his salvation to each of one of us.

Ironically, during these weeks of preparing, the pace of this world feels hectic and its focus is on materialism. If ever there was a season in which we are tempted to be anxious and troubled about many things, December in the modern world is it. This time of year, the world can sometimes feel to be more a place of exile that at any other time. It’s easy to become distracted. But there is one thing needful and he’s tabernacled among us. He’s waiting for us to adore him under the veil of his Eucharistic face. Perhaps the best way to prepare our hearts to receive him is to visit him dwelling among us, to stop and sit in recollected quiet athHis feet. God will not take that from us, for in so doing we are choosing the better part.

KATHERINE JOHNSON

117 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Ezekiel lived during the Babylonian Exile and was active from 593 to 571 B.C. A priest by profession, he preached a message of judgment What is the objective before the fall of Jerusalem. After, he was deported with his people to meaning of the text? Babylonia, where he was exiled for the rest of his life. Ezekiel exposes

LECTIO Israel’s moral depravity and infidelity, but he also foretells the eventual triumph of the Messiah.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Daniel

Daniel had heroic faith. He stands out as a sterling example of a life firmly rooted in faith. That Daniel was a man singularly focused on God was unequivocal. His life was well-watered with fervent prayer and that prayer life bore truly exceptional fruit. Everything Daniel did—from eating to interpreting dreams—had God at the center. Such a rich prayer life is sustained by a disciplined prayer habit, a strong boldness, and, when necessary, a counter-cultural defiance. No matter what, Daniel returned again and again to his source of strength: God. He lived his life ruled by prayer. When Daniel’s devotion to prayer was threatened, he knew that he would truly die without it, and he had faith that God would save him from whatever peril might threaten him if he only persevered in prayer. We almost certainly don’t face the fiery furnaces of Daniel’s friends or the menace of a lion’s den, but we will be tempted away from prayer and towards the worship of false idols. Scripture gives us the book of Daniel for times such as those.

120

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 19 DAILY SCRIPTURE

DANIEL 6:10-13

Although Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he continued to go to his house, which had windows in its upper room open toward Jerusalem, and to get down on his knees three times a day to pray to his God and praise him, just as he had done previously. The conspirators came and found Daniel praying and seeking mercy before his God. Then they approached the king and said concerning the interdict, “O king! Did you not sign an interdict, that anyone who prays to anyone, divine or human, within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be thrown into a den of lions?” The king answered, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Then they responded to the king, “Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the interdict you have signed, but he is saying his prayers three times a day.”

FOR FURTHER READING

ALL OF DANIEL 6

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ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 19 don’t have time. There are a million things on my to-do list, Iand even as I ponder that list, two more items have made themselves known. Cross out the scheduled routine doctor’s appointment for one child, and replace it with an emergency dental appointment for another, thereby moving the routine appointment to another day already crowded with its own items. If I’m going to make the dentist on time, I need to quicken the pace of this morning.

It’s obvious what is negotiable. Bump the prayer time to some vague “later” slot. No one is going to hold me accountable to that. No one else’s health and welfare are contingent on my prayer time. Prayer gets bumped in favor of breakfast, finding someone’s shoes, and getting to the dentist on time with a child who is appropriately groomed and has brushed her teeth. God will understand.

Of course he will. But maybe someone’s health and welfare actually are dependent on my prayer time. And maybe Daniel is the hero of this cause. Daniel is at once incredibly brave and utterly dependent. His entire life is a testimony to unwavering faith. Daniel was fueled by prayer. What I know—because I’ve tried it both ways—is that my health and welfare are very much dependent on my prayer time. Without it, I fall apart, and we all suffer.

In this passage, Daniel is an esteemed member of the king’s court, about to be promoted to be the ruler of Persia. He must have thought of all the ways he was doing God’s work. I wonder if he even said to himself that he could put off his prayers for thirty days because he was indispensable to the welfare of the people in his charge, and sacrificing prayer in order to survive to serve them just made prudent sense.

If that rationalization dawned on him, he dismissed it. Despite being threatened with his life, Daniel maintained his prayer routine. Unashamed and unafraid, he prayed with his faith on

122 his sleeve for all to see. He was diligent and forthright, and he made sure that everyone understood who was Lord of his life. Daniel’s life was built on prayer, and he was blessed with a clear and unwavering understanding that without God, he was nothing, and his life was not worth living.

Prayer was such a habit in Daniel’s life that when the time came to be tested in his faithfulness to it, his path was clear. He already prayed three times a day in a very specific way, so the mere keeping of this habit would also be a perfect public witness to his faith in the true God. He wasn’t performing for the sake of making his point; he was acting in faith just as he did on every ordinary day. In his discipline, Daniel finds the freedom to be authentic. This is the same prayer habit that yielded Daniel the extraordinary prophet. It is the same prayer habit that will sustain him in the lion’s den. For Daniel, prayer is more precious than life itself. Regular, intentional prayer is the discipline that is the most important to the health and welfare of Daniel.

And of me.

And probably of you, too.

Daniel knew that if he prayed, he’d end up in a lion’s den. And still he prayed. To him, being cut off from his life source—the God who animated him—was worse than not living at all. He was radically committed to a life of dialogue with his Lord. The entire book of Daniel is one precious, beautiful testimony of faith after another. God always shows up for Daniel.

And Daniel always, always shows up for God.

Do you? ELIZABETH FOSS

123 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Daniel was a young Jew of a noble family who was taken into the palace of Nebuchadnezzar and highly educated. A model of faith, What is the objective Daniel was disciplined in prayer and courageous even to the point of meaning of the text? defiance of authorities when that was what was necessary to obey the

LECTIO will of God. He was witness to and recorded examples of trusting God that resulted in miraculous deliverance.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

John the Baptist

John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, cousin of Mary, was the babe who leapt in his mother’s womb at the moment of his first encounter with the incarnate Lord in the Gospel story of Mary’s visitation with Elizabeth. John’s birth narrative is told in detail in Scripture— announced by an angel, like Jesus, the only and long-awaited son of holy parents. And then John disappears from Scripture and emerges years later as an adult, as the “voice crying out in the wilderness.”

He was a prophet with a clearly defined purpose. His message carries a tone of urgency: The Kingdom of God is coming. Prepare the way. Make straight the path. Repent. Be baptized as a mark of your faith. Believe. And, as the crowds that followed him grew both in number and zeal, John pointed them to Jesus, assuring they knew that John himself was only the entryway, but the salvation they sought came from another, came from Jesus. John was first prophet, preaching a message of preparation, and also evangelist, preaching a message of conversion to Christ. John is the voice that wakes hearts and opens eyes: Look, Jesus is here! follow him!

Will you listen? Will you respond?

126

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 20 DAILY SCRIPTURE

MARK 1:1-8

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

FOR FURTHER READING

2 PETER 3:8-14

ISAIAH 40:1-5, 9-11

127

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 20 ome days I stagger from the stove with that first cup of something Shot, and I wonder how I will do the day. I look at the tasks before me—the bullet points of this vocation—and I’m blown away by how impossible it all seems. My own sense of inadequacy bubbles up to a point that I am reduced to scrolling Instagram for a few moments, as if visual evidence of other people’s success in all parameters of life will somehow fuel my own. Do you ever do that? Look around the room, preoccupied with yourself, while at the same time measuring your worth against everyone else? Do you wander aimlessly through social media, exiled from your real life?

What a prophetic invitation Isaiah offers to us! The people of Israel had been wandering in exile and Isaiah invited them to return to their home. After the trials of exile, their time of salvation and hope had come. There was a tender gentleness in his tone as he gathered his flock and promised hope.

We wander, too. We drift from the freedom the Lord offers into the enslavement of our passions. We wander into sin, frankly, and we sense that we are exiled from God. There is a way back; there’s a tender mercy waiting for you this Advent. Confession brings us back to our homeland and expiates our guilt. Our humility and his forgiveness anchor us in our own lives and then fuel us to live out the vision God has for those lives. It’s better than anything we can see while we scroll. God waits to lead us from the sadness, to offer to us his consolation.

John the Baptist cries out in the wilderness, echoing the words of Isaiah. Their mission is the same. They both want their people to know the consolation of God. They both come to the mission as holy men who wholly know the friendship of the Lord. They know what joy intimacy with God is, and they come to that joy unencumbered by the things that weigh most of us down. They are not bound by the world’s chains.

John the Baptist leapt for joy in the presence of the Lord before he was born. From the very beginning, he was joyful before the Lord. In those small beginnings and then in the simple approach to even the most basic necessities of life—what he would eat and what he would wear—John the Baptist was humble.

128 Both prophets were effective communicators of the call to repentance and of the Lord’s consolation, because their lives were an expression of the joy of the Lord. They were humble, but they didn’t hide their gifts— they lived them joyfully out loud in the world. They understood that they were uniquely called to prophecy. They were confident in their roles, and they wasted no time trumpeting their own horns. Instead, they dedicated themselves to heralding the Savior. They were joyful because they were humble.

John knew he was not fit to loosen the thongs of his Savior’s sandals. He didn’t exalt himself. He didn’t worry about his platform. He focused on pointing his people to Jesus. He battled neither his own sense of inadequacy nor an inflated sense of self. He was uniquely called to proclaim God, and he lived that vocation with extraordinary joy. His humility burst forth in his joy.

He did not mince words when he called the people to repentance. John knew that humility and repentance would yield intimacy with Jesus. When we are humble, God consoles. When we recognize that he is the one who fuels our days—not the cup of something hot and certainly not the scroll through social media—we have enough. We are enough. We can do whatever it is God intends for us to do.

This Advent, put humility on your to-do list. Take some time from your busy-ness to make an honest accounting of your sins. Then, kneel before the throne of mercy. Confess your sins, and hear the words mercy. In what is only a few moments of painful awkwardness, you will be offered the grace of humble joy. You will be given everything you need to live your vocation as God intends you to live it.

ELIZABETH FOSS

129 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

A cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist was born to Elizabeth and Zechari- ah. He was the forerunner to Jesus, the last prophet before the Messiah. What is the objective John baptized those who came to him as a sign of repentance. He drew meaning of the text? great crowds who wanted to hear his preaching and to be baptized.

LECTIO John baptized Jesus in the Jordan. John the Baptist was martyred for this faith.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? SELAH + WEEKLY SCRIPTURE MEMORY

Memorizing Scripture makes it our own. When we commit it to our hearts, we always have it to carry wherever we go. This week, remember that the Lord will strengthen you to the end. It’s a journey, and he’s taking it with you. This week, we repeat with Mary the words of the Magnificat. Let us be fully aware of the great things he has done for us, and let us continue to glorify his name.

Spend a few moments looking carefully at our memory verses, to burn the image into your brain. Write them yourself, and post it where you can see it. Make them a screensaver on your phone.

One more thing: if there is a child in your life, teach these words to him or her and don’t be surprised when the child memorizes more easily than you do, even when the verses are longer! This memory work is a gift, a legacy. Hiding the Word of God in the heart of a child is stocking his soul with saving grace. Together, take on this joyful endeavor. We’re right there with you.

Luke 1:49-50

“For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.”

132 ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 21 LUKE 1:49-50 ROOTS + BRANCHES

Elizabeth

If her son John was the bold, booming voice from the wilderness, Elizabeth was the quiet voice of hope that bubbled up from a heart willing to throw itself wholeheartedly in line with a God of miracles. When the angel Gabriel announced to Elizabeth that she was going to bear a son, Elizabeth, long thought to be barren, embraced this unexpected gift of grace with admirable faith. In contrast to her husband, Zechariah, a priest, who could not seem to fathom all that God is capable of, Elizabeth knew that her God was a God of great things, and even after so many years of waiting, was willing to risk believing.

When Mary arrived at her doorstep carrying with her the hidden incarnate Savior in her womb, both Elizabeth and her own hidden miracle, John, erupted in a chorus of praise, recognizing the grace of salvation in their midst. Elizabeth was the mother prophet to the last prophet. She was a ready believer in the greatness of her God. She was hope alive. Can you let her hope be contagious? Will you, too, look to this newborn Savior and see the possibilities of what he can do for you and in you if you will let him?

134

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 22 DAILY SCRIPTURE

LUKE 1:31-45

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

FOR FURTHER READING MICAH 5:1-4

HEBREWS 10:5-10

PSALM 80

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ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 22 o you know that feeling? The inexpressible comfort that comes Dfrom being welcomed, enveloped into the care of another woman in her home? Isn’t it just the best to sink into someone else’s genuine hospitality? And it’s all the better when there is some mentoring from a wise older woman in the mix. That’s where we find ourselves with Mary and Elizabeth. In these passages, we are offered a beautiful example of spiritual mothering, of nurturing and encouragement, of holiness and wholeness.

So often, we think of Mary as going to minister to Elizabeth. Consider for a moment how Elizabeth reached out and drew Mary to her. She was approachable and available to a young woman who was facing unimaginable uncertainty. Not one to stand in the doorway, Elizabeth went out to greet her with wholehearted attention. And when she went, she went as a woman filled with the Holy Spirit.

Do you want to be a good friend, a good mom, a good teacher, a good wife, a good woman of God? Open yourself to the Lord; allow yourself to be filled spiritually and physically with the Holy Spirit.

Catholic women can predispose their souls to the kind of filling Elizabeth experienced. We read Elizabeth was a holy, righteous woman who was ready when Mary came to her. Her soul wasn’t full of gunk and garbage. There was room for the Holy Spirit. Confession makes room. Sin is ugly and nasty; it makes us hard and brittle. The grace of the sacrament softens us, allowing us to be inviting. So we begin with Confession, and we grab all the graces available to us.

Every principle of mentoring is meaningless unless we are women led by the Holy Spirit. First, we predispose ourselves to be filled by emptying our souls of the sinful garbage. Then, we train ourselves to hear him, to be attuned to the sound of his voice above all others. We need to know Scripture. Two readings, a psalm, and a gospel every Sunday aren’t enough to make his voice dear and familiar. Our souls need more. We need to quiet ourselves for at least a few moments every day and be immersed in his Word. The Lord waits for us to be intimate with him, to know his nuances, his intricacies, his intentions revealed to us in the quiet of a seeking heart paying close attention.

136 So filled with the words of God, we are better able to utter words of hope, and of grace. Elizabeth looks lovingly on Mary, and then she speaks life- giving words. She tells her that she is blessed and her baby is blessed. She looks at a teenage mother who is not sure exactly how the next months or years will play out and she reminds her that it is all good. These were personal words, and they were exactly the words Mary needed to hear.

Can we do that? Can we be so available and so approachable that we have the words someone else needs to hear? How many times have you reached the end of the day and had a litany of reproach running in your head: If I were a good mom, I would have caught that bad habit earlier. If I were a good homemaker, that mess would not be there. If I were a good friend, I would have known what she needed. And on and on and on. Those are words of our own making. That dialogue inside our heads that we have with ourselves is tearing us apart from within.

What happens when someone comes along, hears the wanton words, and presses pause on the whole sorry mess? It can turn the day around, can turn the season around, depending on the circumstances. But it doesn’t work if the words are just empty, reflexive phrases.

It’s more helpful when a friend thoughtfully articulates a thing or two that is measurable or observable. Words of affirmation are valuable when they are rooted in reality and when they are uttered thoughtfully and sincerely. It is a gift to be available and approachable and able to speak words of truth and hope into the life of another woman.

Clear out the sin that crowds your soul. Welcome the Word who can inspire your words. And give the gift of tender encouragement this season.

ELIZABETH FOSS

137 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Elizabeth was the wife of Zechariah, a temple priest, and the mother of John the Baptist. She was also a relative of Mary. She was barren into What is the objective her old age and then her prayers for a child were answered. The angel meaning of the text? Gabriel announced to Zechariah that his wife would give birth to a son LECTIO who would precede the Messiah. Elizabeth praised Mary with great joy when her young relative, also pregnant, came to visit her.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Joseph, Husband of Mary

Saint Joseph’s life did not follow along a predictable path. He was astonished by the pregnancy of his betrothed, married her, and led a very pregnant Mary on a grueling journey to Bethlehem that culminated in a birth in a barn. Then, there were nearly immediate threats on his baby’s life, two desert crossings with a nursing baby, life in a foreign land, and utter dependence on God for the next set of instructions and provision once he got there. All of the inconveniences and detours were planned by God in fulfillment of the Scriptures. We can be certain that they didn’t make much sense to Joseph at the time. But his life was very much about Jesus, and not at all about himself. He was the good and faithful shepherd—the wise protector of the Holy Family whose protection was ultimately God’s providence.

140

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 23 DAILY SCRIPTURE

MATTHEW 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

FOR FURTHER READING

MATTHEW 2

MATTHEW 13:55

MATTHEW 1:1-16

LUKE 3:23-38

141

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 23 y father married my mother after knowing her for only Mfour months. When asked why they moved so quickly Dad always said, “The first time I saw your mom, she was receiving Communion. I knew she was the one.”

My dad also wanted a large family, and my mother loved him enough to agree to eight children in ten years. Whenever my mother worried about providing for us, Dad reminded her of all God had done for them. “God is faithful,” my father used to say. “He will not allow us to languish.”

Despite struggling with his own issues, my Dad trusted in God’s timing for his relationship with my mother and provision for his family. This trust is a virtue I always wanted, but often felt I lacked. Even during the hardest days with my disabled daughter Courtney, after God provided miracle after miracle, I’m ashamed to admit I still struggled to trust him.

But trust isn’t a static thing. For it to grow deep roots, it must be tested. When I was in middle school, my father was laid off. For three months, he applied for job after job. Despite all the rejections, he relied on prayer and daily Mass to sustain him during his search. Our family prayed the rosary every night for Dad to find a job. Despite the financial strain, my parents showed us what faith looked like. I never saw tears or distress, just fidelity to God.

When the last severance check arrived, my father was still unemployed. That morning, he attended Mass while my mother went to the grocery store. Since she didn’t know when she’d be able to make another trip, she was discouraged and confused. She prayed through every aisle. She laid her family’s need at the foot of the Cross, yet was still waiting. My father had sent out over 100 resumes. What else did God want?

When my mother arrived home, she found my father inside speaking on the phone. When he hung up, he had a big smile

142 on his face. “God did it. He got me a job!” It wasn’t a perfect solution. Dad had to work out of state for an entire year, but my parents just praised God for his provision.

Even Saint Joseph grappled with discerning the right thing. He loved Mary and wanted to protect her, but he was confused. When the angel appeared in his dream, Joseph never questioned the instructions; he just did as God asked. Once Joseph knew God had spoken to him, he moved swiftly, despite not having a clue as to how it would all turn out.

I’m also amazed at Mary’s trust in Joseph. She told him the truth and trusted that he would do the right thing. Like my parents, Mary and Joseph agreed to the plan God set forth, not knowing how the story would end. They loved God and one another enough to just keep moving, allowing Him to work through all the details.

This level of trust has always been just beyond my reach. I’ve always struggled with fully relying upon God’s faithfulness. In return, he always brings me to the edge before proving that he’s not only listening, but also providing for me. It’s a game he and I play; I cry and whine about a problem, and God waits until I’m blubbered out long enough to listen and pray and believe him. That’s when he steps in and reminds me that, like Joseph and Mary, he holds me close to his heart. He hears my cries. And he will never forsake me.

As Catholic Christians, we face this struggle daily. Do we trust God with our problems without knowing how it’s all going to work out? Can we walk by faith and not by sight? During this Advent season, let us ask Saint Joseph and our Blessed Mother to intercede for us to trust God in the journey, regardless how difficult, regardless of where it leads.

MARY LENABURG

143 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Joseph was a member of the tribe of Judah, in the royal lineage of David (according to the Gospel of Matthew). He was the Blessed What is the objective Mother’s husband, the head of the Holy Family, and the protector of meaning of the text? Jesus and Mary. He was a skilled craftsman, and we know he was a LECTIO righteous man. He never speaks in the Scriptures. St. Joseph is a model of virtue and unwavering obedience to the Lord.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Gabriel

What do we know of angels, really? They are mysterious, celestial creatures whom we cannot see, yet who appear throughout salvation history in moments of greatest importance to do the holy work of making known the will of God. The angel Gabriel was messenger of great things. It was he who appeared to Zechariah to announce to birth of John the Baptist, and he again who appeared to Mary with the confounding news that God was coming to dwell among us, to save us in his great mercy, and offer us eternal life. Gabriel knows this life; he comes forth from eternity to bring us the news that eternal life can be ours once again.

Gabriel’s name is a Hebrew name meaning “God is my strength.” It is God’s word that called Gabriel forth from celestial mystery to tangible voice, that materialized him and injected him into the most powerful moments of our salvation history. Gabriel was the great messenger, carrying the greatest message ever forth into the world. What a holy privilege he bore, this messenger of light, carrier of grace! May we, like him, be people who, in the moments when it is most needed, become messengers of the goodness and glory of God.

146

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 24 DAILY SCRIPTURE

LUKE 1:26-38

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

FOR FURTHER READING

ROMANS 16:25-27

2 SAMUEL 7:1-5, 8B-12, 14A, 16

147

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 24 e arrive here with an urgent liturgical anticipation. Hurry! WRead and ponder the Annunciation because tonight it will be Christmas.

We sit with Mary in a room that is suddenly filled with the light of an angel. Gabriel tells the startled teenager that she is full of grace and has found favor with God. She doesn’t deserve the honor that God will bestow with her assent. He makes himself make a gift to her. Mary is the personification of perfect humility. She knows that she has not earned his favor.

Despite the assurance that God is fully with her, she is troubled by the angel’s words. A million thoughts collide in her mind: the impossibility of it all (naturally speaking); the trouble that is to come when she is found to be pregnant; the honest, human fear that pregnancy strikes in almost every woman’s heart. So many unknowns, so many opportunities to relinquish to the Lord those things over which mere humans have no control! Mary faces all of this in a split second with perfect humility. Because of grace, she understands that God is in control and that all things will work together for the good according to his perfect plan (Romans 8:28). She knows that it is God who has favored her and it is God who will equip her. Pride never stands between the Virgin and her “yes.”

Grace is not always a gentle breeze. Grace can be quite severe. For Mary, with this grace came certain and intense suffering. She embraced an unfathomably severe grace. She paused and pondered and allowed for the possibility that the pain was the path to his mercy. When Gabriel spoke to Mary, he spoke into our doubts. He told her to be assured that this really was the grace of God and to let that sure knowledge seep into her soul and take away her human fear.

Grace doesn’t transport us from suffering; indeed, it transported Mary directly into suffering, nearly immediately. Grace is not the intercession of a benevolent God who sweeps the heroine away from suffering. Grace isn’t the gentle breath that blows us past the pain to the promised happiness.

Instead, there is grace in the struggle itself. Grace changes us, and change

148 hurts. Marked by the stain of sin, handicapped by the imperfections of a fallen world, it is our nature to fight suffering instead of leaning into it. Our “yes” often sounds less like “Let it be done to me according to your word” than it does, “Okay, God, but please don’t let it hurt.” It hurts. Grace is not the anesthesia; it’s the incision.

Can you welcome the surgical strike and embrace the pain, knowing with the confidence of Mary that God will use the difficult circumstances to change you, to make you more like him?

You belong to the Lord. Grace will find you. Can you recognize it in the hard moments, the ones that don’t twinkle like lights on a Christmas tree, but instead reek of the dung in a stable at midnight in the piercing cold?

Can you see that God came in glory for the dirty, smelly, darkest moments of your life. Can you know grace in the pain?

We are hours from the jubilation of the Solemnity. We are hours from the church come to life with the voices singing “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” We are hours from the merrymaking and the gifts and the tables heaped with food. We are also a few short moments from short tempers and hurt feelings and tricky family dynamics. We are within a hair’s breadth of disappointments and loneliness and the emptiness of a holiday that doesn’t live up to the hype.

It’s holy day. A holy day. A sacred, consecrated, hallowed day.

Christmas is a day full of grace.

Can you recognize the grace Christmas holds for you this year?

ELIZABETH FOSS

149 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

In the Old Testament, Gabriel was the angel who appeared to Daniel. In the New Testament, he appeared to Zechariah and to Mary. Angels What is the objective are God’s messengers who mediate between God and man. About meaning of the text? angels, we read “are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, LECTIO for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14) Gabriel served uniquely in that capacity at the Annunciation.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

LUKE 2:15-20

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. FOR FURTHER READING

ISAIAH 62:11-12

TITUS 3:4-7

152

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 25 n those “rest and be grateful moments,” after a healthy birth Iof a healthy baby, there is a peace that comes with quiet joy. The worry and the work are past. Contentment settles, a thick sigh of relief blanketed over extraordinary happiness. These are the moments when praying mothers know to the core of our beings that God is near.

I cannot even imagine what that peace must feel like when the baby himself is God.

In the hushed stable, punctuated by animal grunting and the noises of the night, Mary accepted her visitors and heard their praises. No doubt, she smiled the weary smile of a mother who has labored well and then learned what unfathomable love it is to hold her newborn. She saw how all the pieces had fallen into place in most extraordinary ways, and she knew that God’s provision was nothing less than a carefully planned miracle.

As she pondered, Mary was grateful. One by one, looking around that dank stable, she took note of what was happening and what she was hearing. She made her gratitude list, tucking each item away in her heart.

Christmas is a time for being very grateful. What are the things you want to remember today? For what things are you so grateful that you want to be sure to ponder them in your heart? Pen your gratitude in the coming week on the following pages.

ELIZABETH FOSS

153 ROOTS + BRANCHES

Shepherds

Out in the Bethlehem fields in the darkness of night, the shepherds stood tending their flocks. These were hard-working, humble men of Bethlehem. And in one corner of Bethlehem that night, a tiny baby was born who become both the Lamb of greatest sacrifice and the Good Shepherd of his Father’s flock. In another, these men’s very ordinary night was broken open by the choir of heavenly angels peeling back the veil between heaven and earth to announce to them that the Savior had been born. They immediately followed the prompting of those angels and, unafraid, went to Bethlehem to look for the unlikely Messiah the angels had described, the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

The shepherds found the Holy Family in their Bethlehem cave, the newborn Jesus just as the angels described him. Humble men were confronted with the reality of an equally humble incarnate Savior. And yet, instead of walking away full of questions, they walk away telling the wondrous news of what they had seen, unsurprised in their own humility by a God who could save in surprisingly humble ways. Give us the eyes of the shepherds, to have faith that both the glimpses of glory and the ordinary surprises of a great God are news worth telling.

154

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 26 DAILY SCRIPTURE

LUKE 2:8-20

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. PHILIPPIANS 1:25-26 Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again. FOR FURTHER READING

LUKE 2:51

ACTS 5

JOHN 3:19

155

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 26 hepherds worked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a Sweek, protecting their flocks. They lived on the margins of society, a study in contradiction. Their job was critical to the way of life for everyone in agrarian society at the time of Christ. Sheep were essential to the economy, but shepherds were lowly and disparaged. Yet from the very beginning, Jesus recognizes their value and aligns himself with them. His public ministry is replete with references to the Good Shepherd. On this night— his very first night—it is the shepherds who are entrusted with the good news before anyone else.

The angel begins with “Fear not!” just as he did with Zechariah and with Mary and with Joseph. We are all naturally inclined towards fear, and Jesus meets us there first. Our fiercest fear is death, and that fear goes hand-in-hand with our fear of being unworthy, which was a fear that society reinforced for the shepherds. But Christ speaks into those fears.

Angels sing to the lowly shepherds and tell them that they should not fear because a Messiah has been born who will save them. From death. From fear itself. The prophecy that they would have known was bearing light right before their eyes: “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10) Now, and forever, the Lord has come. Do not be afraid. That’s the message heralded in a blaze of glorious light that first Christmas morning.

Instead of fear, there is good news of great joy. A great crowd of angels is singing the praises of God and rejoicing with the smelly shepherds in the previously cold, dark hills on the outskirts of Bethlehem, now shining with the glory of God. The life of a Christian is a life of joy. It is not without grief and sorrow, not without tears and suffering. The birth of the baby who lies in the manger means that we can always suffer with hope. Pain can be borne knowing that Jesus has come to save the world, and we live in joyful hope for his return, knowing that right now there awaits a place for us with him in heaven.

156 We weep with those who weep, and we also press on as children of God, scrambling down those hills as the shepherds did, eager to kneel beside the manger.

The angel’s message is also one of peace. We echo the hymn of peace every time we stand to sing the Gloria at Mass. This is the peace offered by Christ to everyone who is baptized and in communion with him; this is the peace of the mercy of God. We extend that peace to one another so that there is among us a good will, rooted in reconciliation with Christ.

There, bathed in the light of the glory of God, standing with the shepherds, we are offered a choice: take the gift of faith and with it, accept the grace Jesus offers so that we can live a life pleasing to God, or stay up on the hill and shiver in the dark when the light of glory fades. The shepherds know where God himself can be found. Wisely, they recognize the gift that has been given to them and they hurry to the Lord who has been made known to them.

He has been made known to you, too.

Will you go in haste to find him?

And then, with Mary, will you ponder the good news in your heart?

ELIZABETH FOSS

157 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

An angel shared the news of the Messiah’s birth with shepherds who were tending their flocks and then also gave them the sign by which What is the objective they would be able to recognize him. At the angels’ invitation, the shep- meaning of the text? herds went to Bethlehem to see the newborn Baby. The stable is filled

LECTIO with joy. Mary pondered in her heart how God tenderly reached out to those who were humble and poor in spirit.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Simeon

Described as a righteous and devout man who waited for the comfort of Israel, Simeon was a towering figure of faith in the infancy narrative of Jesus. He received Joseph, Mary, and Jesus in the temple for a ritual of purification and consecration required by the Jewish faith after the birth of a child. But Simeon, who had been watching and waiting with the eyes of faith for the dawn of something new for the people of Israel, was quick to realize that this was something altogether different. He was a man in tune to the Holy Spirit, a priest educated in Messianic prophecy, and Simeon was acutely aware when the two collided in that moment.

Simeon recognized the pain and the beauty that would be the salvation of Israel, and even so, rejoiced in its coming. Strong in his connection to the Spirit and long-sighted in his hope, he saw eternity playing out before him and was ready to play his part.

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ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 27 DAILY SCRIPTURE LUKE 2:22-35

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

FOR FURTHER READING

LEVITICUS 12:2-8

161

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 27 remember the universal protectiveness I felt when my Ichildren were newborns. I wanted to cradle the whole world in my arms and keep everything safe. When Jesus was forty days old, Mary and Joseph went to the temple to offer their sacrifice of two doves. They went as joyful new parents, presenting their baby boy in the holy tradition of their faith. I wonder if she felt a pang of anguish at the idea of bringing harm to the birds on her behalf. One of the first pangs she’d feel in a lifetime of sacrificing for the redemption of another, could that walk to the temple, birds fluttering inside a burlap bag, have been the beginning of knowing how this journey, with this extraordinary baby, would be one of gift and gratitude, sacrifice and sorrow?

“A sword will pierce through your own soul.”

God’s most benevolent, gracious gift to mankind was the sending of Jesus to the world. He offered us the baby, soft and sweet and new in a manger. And he offered us the man, hanging bloodied from a cross, suffering excruciating pain on our behalf. A sacrifice to save us. It was the most gracious gift ever, and it was a gift that caused Mary unimaginable pain.

The salvation of souls often entails pain.

Simeon had waited his entire life to lay eyes on the baby who would redeem the world. Mary seems to at once absorb his joy and take heed of his prophecy. He speaks into her soul, and he warns her that this will not be an easy motherhood. She will have the most perfect, beautiful, wholly loveable child ever, and she will experience a sword to her heart. Both and. The paradox of pain telegraphed in the old man’s eyes was left to linger in Mary’s soul and in our ours. Do we ponder with her?

Can we see that Simeon waited in faith all those years? Can we also be patient while Jesus comes to us and works in our lives? Jesus is worth the wait. Simeon didn’t get bitter in the waiting. He didn’t close his heart because the wait was long or think

162 his lifetime was spent in vain. Instead, he stayed close to God, and he believed in what was not yet seen. He endured the pain that is inevitable when one lives a long life, and he stayed in step with the Lord, so that he was prompted by the Spirit to be right where he needed to be to see God. Can we, too, predispose ourselves to encounter Jesus?

Further, can we see he is there in our pain?

Can we look from Simeon, eyes brimming with joy in knowing that he lived to see this beautiful day, to Mary, eyes puzzled at the dark warning, but still trusting in God’s plan? As God works in our lives to save our souls, we will encounter sometimes terrifying, agonizing pain. When we do, the Blessed Mother is there with us. If we let her, she reminds us that in the darkest, most painful moment of her life, when a sword pierced her heart, God brought salvation to the world. Heaven danced with joy!

The same God has the same plan for us. When the wait is long and his plan doesn’t seem obvious, we are tempted to falter in faith. When we are pierced by the swords God allows in our lives, all we feel is pain at first. Simeon reminds us that God is with us, always. In the wait and in the pain, as we walk with him, and with Mary, we learn that it is grace that flows through our wounds.

ELIZABETH FOSS

163 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Simeon was a “righteous and devout” old man. He’d awaited the coming of the Messiah all his life and was promised by God that he would What is the objective not die until he had seen him. On the day Jesus was presented in the meaning of the text? temple, God guided Simeon to him. Simeon took Jesus in his arms and LECTIO praised God for allowing him to see the Savior before his death. He also prophesied that a sword would pierce Mary’s heart.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? SELAH + WEEKLY SCRIPTURE MEMORY VERSE

This week, as we celebrate Christmas, and bask in its afterglow, we present ourselves again to the Lord as his handmaidens— ready, willing, and glad to serve.

Spend a few moments looking carefully at our memory verse, to burn the image into your brain. Write them yourself, and post it where you can see it. Make them a screensaver on your phone.

Luke 1:38

Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.

166 ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 28 LUKE 1:38 ROOTS + BRANCHES

Peter

Simon, a fisherman from Galilee, turned Peter, the “rock” upon whom Christ builds the Church. Peter was a man of great faith with exuberant spiritual strength. He also proved himself to be undoubtedly human, fraught with weakness, and frustrated by it. He was an impetuous and zealous follower, hungry to know all, and willing to give all for the sake of the man he had come to know and believe was the Messiah. Peter’s deep love for Jesus, while it was imperfect, was also undeniable. And his influence on the history of Christianity is immeasurable.

The Acts of the Apostles reveal a man who had been completely transformed by the love of a saving God. Can we be, like Peter, certain that in our own weakness, the love of Christ can transform us and use us for the salvation of many?

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ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 29 DAILY SCRIPTURE

LUKE 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

FOR FURTHER READING

MATTHEW 14:2-32, 16:19, 26:69-75

JOHN 1:42, 21:19

ACTS 9:36-43, 10, 11:18

169

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 29 Saint Peter is my very favorite knucklehead. I mean this in the most affectionate way possible. Saint Peter, the rock upon which Christ built his Church, was a humble man, a wonderful leader, according to tradition a brave martyr, and an inveterate knucklehead. We see time and again how his love for the Lord ebbed and flowed, how his zeal gave easily to cowardice. My affection for him stems from the fact that I see in Peter the same faults I often find in myself.

Simon Peter is the first apostle in the gospel of Matthew to proclaim that Christ is the Messiah and Son of God. (Matthew 16:16) A mere six verses later, however, Peter rebukes the Lord and Jesus responds “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Matthew 16:23)

Later in the same gospel, Peter proclaims his undying love for Jesus at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:33), and then hours later fulfills the prophecy of his thrice rejection of Christ before the cock crows. (Matthew 26:70-74)

I mean, what doesn’t Peter get? Why does he keep making the same mistakes over and over again?

Oh. Right.

Peter, like you and me, like all fallible human beings, has a faith that waxes and wanes. He goes from utter abandonment to Christ’s will, back to his own selfish desires. I don’t know about you, but I often find myself trying to convince God that he should really rely on my well-thought-out plan.

I’m guessing Peter was not unaware of his shortcomings and may have even wondered, after hearing the rooster crow that terrible morning, if he had finally pushed the Messiah too far.

And yet. Here comes Christ, having been crucified and then resurrected, building a fire on the beach and inviting his friends to eat. “When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea.” (John 21:7)

170 Can you imagine the joy in Peter’s heart? He had another chance! This time he wouldn’t fail to show the Lord his love and devotion. Swimming through that water, his heart was probably leaping, too impatient to reach Jesus even to wait for the other men in the boat.

And then Peter reaches the shore, dripping and out of breath, and Jesus asks him three times to declare his love. “Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’” (John 21:17)

Peter may have been grieved, but how beautiful is it that Jesus allows him to undo all the terrible things he had said before? Three times Peter had denied the Lord before a charcoal fire (John 18:18), but now he has three chances to overturn those rejections and affirm his devotion, again before a charcoal fire (John 21:9).

It strikes me as important that in response to Peter’s declaration of love, Jesus asks him to make an act of reparation, saying, “Feed my sheep.” He charges Peter, whose love Jesus surely knows, to show his love to the world by feeding, spiritually and physically, the lambs and sheep the Good Shepherd leaves in Peter’s care.

No matter how many times I strike out on my own way, how many times I stray from his divine will for me, God welcomes me back with a simple question: Do you love me? What can I answer but the same as Saint Peter, Knucklehead Extraordinaire: “Lord, you know that I love you.”

God’s plans were better for Peter and his plans for you and me are more beautiful than anything you or I could cook up on our own. Declare your love to Christ daily, hourly, every minute if you must, and then do as he charges us all: feed his sheep.

MICAELA DARR

171 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Peter was the brother of St. Andrew and was also a fisherman. Origi- nally named Simon, Jesus called him “Cephas,” designating him as first What is the objective among the apostles. Peter was entrusted with the “keys of the kingdom.” meaning of the text? (Matt 16:19) Peter worked tirelessly to spread the gospel as the leader

LECTIO of the early church. He was martyred in Rome on an upside-down cross around 67 A.D.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

The Holy Family

Together, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were a family. God brought them together under extraordinary circumstances to live and to learn as a family--and to teach us the wisdom of family. The Messiah came as a baby to redeem each of us individually, but also to redeem the family. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit exist together as a community of three infinite individuals, and the Holy Family mirrors that community. The Holy Family models for us a healthy community of faith.

Despite warnings to the contrary, Joseph stepped out in faith and committed himself to love and protect Mary and her baby. He took her as his wife, accepting a servant’s role, complete with the embarrassment that must have come with what looked like a scandal. Mary, with her assent, also believed and trusted and agreed to serve.

Our families become holier when we lean into the lives of the people God gives us and we believe and trust in his plan for us together. We become holier when we understand that our family is our vocation-- our primary school of love. It is in the family we learn compassion and trust. When Jesus was lost, Mary and Joseph knew the fear and the conflict and the stress that families experience. Together, they show us that compassionate love and growing trust in God’s plans and purposes can heal the wounds every family suffers.

174

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 30 DAILY SCRIPTURE

LUKE 2:41-52

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

FOR FURTHER READING

DEUTERONOMY 16:1-8

MARK 3:31-35

175

ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 30 t’s a chilling terror. One minute, your child is with you and Ithe next, you turn around and around and around and you don’t see him. You call his name. No answer. You call again, a little more loudly. Still nothing. You begin to draw the attention of other shoppers, and they call his name. Finally, there he is, chatting away at the superhero figurines one aisle from where you stood, so engrossed in his own world he was oblivious to the fact that you were living a nightmare. You want to tell him all the ways he was naughty, but you just hold on to him for dear life instead.

Jesus didn’t get in the caravan to go home. He knew they were leaving. He knew his parents would be gripped with fear and sorrow when he was discovered missing. Still, he stayed behind and let them go. Ever the son without sin, Jesus uses this moment when he is twelve to prepare his mother for his Passion and then, for Easter. Jesus effectively brings his dear parents into the mystery of suffering which leads to joy. And he teaches us about how much we need to learn.

When Mary and Joseph looked for Jesus among the relatives and acquaintances traveling with him and could not find him, they hurried back to Jerusalem. There, after seeking for three days, they discover their son in the temple, “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46). His parents are surprised and bewildered, no doubt.

Jesus has taken on the role of a competent and wise teacher, amazing everyone who hears him and foreshadowing the dialogue that will be his ministry two decades later. Mary is distraught and she asks Jesus, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” (Luke 2:48)

Anxiously.

Here, every mother of a child who has drifted from her plan for his good, can find refuge in the Blessed Mother’s words. We

176 can echo in prayer her plaintive question when we ask the Lord about the suffering we endure because we are parents, and with children come times of trial.

Jesus’ reply, offers the answer to everyone—parent or not—in a troubling situation. “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (see Luke 2:49).

His answer reveals to Mary and Joseph that he is the son of the Father in heaven and that it is God whom he obeys, and God alone who directs his will. Every person who has ever sought answers in a time of desperate fear and confusion is given the answer. Jesus meets his distraught parents in the temple where the boy has sought teachers and sat under their teaching, where he listened and then asked questions, and where he offered answers. If the Son of God did these things, he did them so that we would follow his example.

God wants us to ask questions, to study with great teachers, to understand him better.

Do we want to know more about God than we already comprehend? Are we eager to see how his story develops over the entire course of history, how he is at work in our midst, and what he intends for our future? Do we have the zeal to truly understand the revelation of Scripture?

Seek the Lord. Go to him in the Adoration chapel, and sit with the Word. Find him in scripture. Beseech him in prayer. Look for Jesus and know that he will be found in every place that is in keeping with the Father’s plan. The peace of Christ can be found in total dedication to the Father’s plan to live out the gospel. Know the gospel in order to live the gospel.

ELIZABETH FOSS

177 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

According to Mosaic Law, all the men in Israel were obliged to present themselves before the Lord at Passover. This wasn’t required of women, What is the objective nor of boys under thirteen. However, it was not uncommon for devout meaning of the text? families, like Joseph’s and Mary’s, to travel together to Jerusalem for the

LECTIO Passover. Scripture makes a point to record that Jesus was twelve (in his thirteenth year), so he was also bound by the precept.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

John the Beloved

John was a son of Zebedee, brother of James, one of the pair whom Jesus’ called the “sons of thunder” and who called himself the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” He was a trusted friend and follower of Jesus, present in all the gospels’ “inner circle” moments, when Jesus was accompanied by only a couple into some of his most intimate miracles, glorious visions, and deep human emotions. It is John who was the only friend and follower left at the foot of the cross at the moment of Christ’s death. And John again who, along with Peter, was a first witness to the resurrection.

It is no wonder then that John became the gospel writer who gave us the story of the incarnation filtered entirely through the poetic lens of love. John’s experience of Jesus was an intimate encounter with Love himself. The written record he left behind is a love letter of Good News for us.

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ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 31 DAILY SCRIPTURE

JOHN 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. JOHN 1:14-18

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. FOR FURTHER READING

GENESIS 1

REVELATION 19:11-16

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ROOTED IN HOPE | DECEMBER 31 The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels, denoting that they evolve in similar ways. That leaves John the odd man out—the asynoptic gospel writer—the one not like the others. Upon reading the first few lines of John’s gospel, it is obvious that he is not writing a narrative of Jesus’ life, but a poetic and prophetic thesis on our salvation.

What may not be so obvious at first is that John is a love poet, and his entire perspective on the life of our Savior is one of deep and abiding love. Throughout the gospel, John refers to himself as “the apostle whom Jesus loved” in his own stories. This is not a comparison with Jesus’ love for the other apostles, or anyone else for that matter, but instead reveals John’s complete conviction that Jesus loved him deeply and intimately.

John knows with all his being that Jesus is light and life to the world. He believes with all his being that Jesus makes known the heart of the Father for all humanity and that the Father sent Jesus into the world to pour out the grace of salvation on all of us.

And John is utterly smitten.

I remember the feeling I had each time one of my children was born. After the wildness and the adrenaline of delivery had worn off, there was always that first quiet moment between this incredible little human and me. The moment I got to examine every detail of him, smell him, rub his soft hair between my fingers, and be filled with ineffable gratitude. There was a sweetness to those moments that cannot be compared to anything else I have experienced in my life.

I was utterly smitten.

And then we’d get home and life with that little one would become a haze of sleep deprivation and breastfeeding struggles and a house that seemed to come more and more undone daily. While the depth of my love for that little one never changed

182 for a moment, that sweetness was far too often eclipsed by the business of caring for and integrating a tiny and totally dependent human into our lives.

Then I’d be caught off guard by a single moment when everything seemed to quiet and that little one slept peacefully in my arms, his mouth forming accidental smiles that I am sure are designed to melt a mother’s heart. And that ray of sweetness would pierce my soul again, giving me exactly what I needed to persevere through the next round of hard and holy love.

This is Christmas. Christmas is the quiet moment when we stop all the striving and working and sweating out our salvation to sit still with our vulnerable, precious Savior and fall in love all over again. These are the days to be overtaken with joy at the notion of a Father who loves us so deeply that he would offer us such a precious gift—the Word made flesh, who brings us light and life, grace upon grace.

John tells us that Jesus, so close to the Father’s heart that he literally embodies the Father’s love, is the way we who cannot see the Father can be assured of his love. It is the assurance of this great love that we find in the quiet reprieve of the chain of days we call Christmas. And that certainty is the grace we need to carry us through the days that will follow knowing that we can, without equivocation, also call ourselves the ones whom Jesus loved.

This is the moment we remember why we are so smitten with our precious Savior. And it is the moment that we hear, and once again take up the call, as did John, to go out as disciples of Love, and lead the world to the grace and truth that is Jesus.

COLLEEN CONNELL

183 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

John, the younger brother of James and the son of Zebedee, was from Capernaum, a town on the Sea of Galilee. John, who was present What is the objective at key events in Jesus’ life, was the only apostle who didn’t abandon meaning of the text? Christ at his crucifixion. From the cross, Jesus asked John to care for the LECTIO Blessed Mother. Tradition holds that John is the author of the Gospel of John, the three epistles of John, and the book of Revelation.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? ROOTS + BRANCHES

Mary

God has a plan for everything, and for his faithful, he is able to work everything to his plan. Such was the case of Mary, the Mother of God.

Nine months pregnant, she set out with her husband to Bethlehem, a trip she expected would take about four days. Mary didn’t have to go—only the head of household was required by law to go home for the census. But Joseph wouldn’t have wanted to leave her alone. Mostly, though, Mary’s travel to Bethlehem put her exactly where the prophecy said the Messiah would be born, exactly when the time was near. The decree by Caesar Augustus was a tool used by God to bring about the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

And our Lady found herself in a cave full of animals, bearing the Lord into the world. The King of the Universe—the Son of God—was born into poverty and humility. Mary tenderly cared for her infant the best way she knew how—wrapping him warm, holding him close. For a place to sleep, she offers him all she has available—a manger—and from that humble feeding trough, mankind will be fed the Bread of Life.

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ROOTED IN HOPE | JANUARY 1 DAILY SCRIPTURE

LUKE 1:46-55

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

FOR FURTHER READING

LUKE 2:19

LUKE 2:51

ACTS 1:13-15

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ROOTED IN HOPE | JANUARY 1 There is nothing in the Gospel that says she was sweeping, but in my mind, for as long as I can remember, I have imagined that she was sweeping. Most likely, it was an artistic rendering of the Annunciation that first put this idea in my head. Whatever its origin, nothing will shake my sure sense that Mary was sweeping when the angel Gabriel disturbed her work with his grand announcement. And so, every time I sweep (it seems like several dozen times a day), I think about Mary.

If an angel had come to visit me when I was Mary’s age, it is highly likely he’d have found me with my nose in a book. I burrowed away for hours most days, hiding from a traumatic childhood and lost in a world of literature where everything (mostly) turned out fine by the end of the story. That sense of narrative was well-imbued in me as I entered my adult years. I fully expected that I’d reached the “happily ever after” part as soon as I exchanged wedding vows. What I learned is that actually life is hard, and it tends to offer us one challenge after another—one invitation after another to cooperate with grace to live God’s plan, even when it all seems impossible.

Mary knew the story of the Israelites, and she knew all God’s promises of a king to come rescue the Hebrew people. She was deeply connected to the story of the God of Israel. But she could not have possibly known her part in the story. She did not know that she was the apex of femininity in God’s story of salvation. All she knew was she loved her Lord and he was asking the impossible of her and promising that it was possible.

She assented to carry the Messiah (Luke 1:31), not knowing at all how that could come to be, but definitely having some sense of the consequences of being found inexplicably pregnant while betrothed to an esteemed man. For all the Christmas songs and soft oil renderings of Madonna and Child, we know that from the moment she gave her fiat to the moment of sorrow at the foot of the cross, Mary lived an incredibly difficult life.

Leaning on a broom and looking in wonder at the angel, she didn’t entertain all the ifs, ands, and buts. She did ask how this could be, and when he answered cryptically, she gave her full assent to this astonishing plan, acknowledging only that she was the servant of the Lord. That was enough. Whether sweeping the floor or carrying God in her very person or standing at the foot of a horrific instrument of torture watching her beloved child suffer, she’s all in for God.

She was his handmaiden, there by her own assent to serve the Lord with her life.

As my children grow up, one of the most difficult truths I have to impart is the reality that life is hard, that I can’t promise that everything is going to be okay—ever—in this world. The hardest moment of parenting might be that moment when I look at a tear-stained face and acknowledge

188 that this is no longer a child who thinks life is a fairy tale, but a young adult with a dawning realization that life is actually a series of challenges that each demands an assent of will and an act of faith. They recognize that the world is broken and they are sons and daughters of Eve.

I can offer them the hope of heaven, but I can’t honestly tell them that once they hurdle whatever the present challenge is, life will be easy, or even easier than it is right now. I’ve lived too long, seen too many serious situations arise too often, one right after another, to allow myself to offer that false hope.

Instead, I offer to my children—to the children of Eve—Mary, a humble servant who received our Lord into herself and then spent her lifetime clinging to the promises of God, treasuring them in her heart. She did not know how this story would go; she could not skip to the back of the book and read the ending when the tension in the middle was building unbearably. Instead, she moved from one plot twist to the next, quietly contemplating at every turn (see Luke 2:19 and Luke 2:51).

Mary held the treasure our Lord offered her at the Annunciation in her heart. She was the keeper of the story of Jesus’ childhood. She was the one who knew the continuum of his life on earth from beginning to end. And so she stayed with the apostles after he died and she prayed with them, faithfully imparting the story entrusted to her.

In the nascent Church she passes on to the disciples her memories of the Incarnation, the infancy, the hidden life and the mission of her divine Son as a priceless treasure, thus helping to make him known and to strengthen the faith of believers.

We have no information about Mary’s activity in the early Church, but we may suppose that after Pentecost her life would have continued to be hidden and discreet, watchful and effective. Since she was enlightened and guided by the Spirit, she exercised a deep influence on the community of the Lord’s disciples. —St. John Paul II

And so, the girl with the broom becomes the mother of the Church—the mother of us all, the keeper of the story, the one who brushes the away the hair stuck to our tear-soaked cheeks and acknowledges that all is not a fairy tale here, but that there is more—so much more.

And our stories are just begun.

ELIZABETH FOSS

189 LECTIO DIVINA|ADVENT STUDY

Tradition holds that Mary grew up in Nazareth, the daughter of Joachim and Ann. When she was betrothed to Joseph, the angel What is the objective Gabriel appeared to her and asked her to bear the Son of God. With meaning of the text? her “yes,” Mary conceived by a miracle of the Holy Spirit. She acted LECTIO with obedience to the will of God and became for us an example of what it means to be authentically Christian.

How does this story prepare me for Christ’s birth? MEDITATIO

What “yes” is God asking of me? ORATIO

How has God conveyed his gift to me in this scripture? CONTEMPLATIO ACTIO|ADVENT PLANNER

How will I make my life a gift for others in charity? What does God want me to do today?

MEALS TO NOURISH TASKS & TO DOS

GIVING & PREPARING

KEEPING HOME

KINDNESS TO MYSELF

How did I progress in living the Word today? A NOTE FROM THE ARTIST

When I heard that the title of this Advent journal was Rooted In Hope, I thought of organic shapes, plants, and of course, roots. I tried to think about a steadfast plant whose roots take strong hold in the earth, that can weather environmental extremes and still produce fruit. I also thought about the word ‘hope’. Initially what sprang to mind was Noah’s dove, bringing an olive branch to the Ark and the hope that dry land was finally near. But a dove with an olive branch has historically been used to represent peace. Still, the olive branch, more specifically the olive tree, kept coming back to mind. I read about the nature of the olive tree; how during the life of Jesus, olive oil was used for both religious and medicinal purposes, for lighting lamps, the olive fruit for nourishing the body. I remembered that we use olive oil today in as a sacramental Holy Oil and Chrism, particularly to symbolize strength in our vocation as Christians. And then I read the multitude of biblical references regarding the sturdiness and ability of the olive tree to withstand harsh weather, living on for thousands (yes, thousands!) of years. I saw how we can compare the tree’s steadfastness to the covenant God makes with his chosen people, the Jews, I knew that it had to be the plant which should symbolize how we root ourselves in the hope of Christ’s birth this Advent. Life goes through similar extremes: when everything seems to be falling apart, our hope, so deeply rooted in God’s grace, and Christ’s redemption is the only thing that will keep us going. Throughout the journal, I’ve included the dove, who as God’s creation, did indeed bring Noah that hope— the hope of a new beginning, and yes, the hope of peace in a final resting place. For us today, that hope is rooted in the infant Jesus. I hope this translates in my work, and that you take joy in it.

CAROLYN SVELLINGER

192 THE WRITERS

Carly Buckholz is often next to a pile of books, spending most of her time trying to convince her friends to read more poetry and baking scones. She enjoys writing about her family, her faith, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. She studied poetry at the University of Virginia before earning a Master’s in Higher Education. After five years in Charlottesville, she has moved across the Atlantic for a teaching fellowship in southern England. There, she will teach literature and work in student affairs for the next year.

Colleen Connell is a bringer-upper-of-boys and wanna-be saint who packs a little Louisiana spice with her wherever she goes. She currently serves at-risk families in her job as a social worker in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and spends copious hours on football and soccer fields yelling more loudly than all the other moms. She finds joy in the Word, the world, and the wild wonder of everyday life.

Micaela Darr is a California girl, born and raised, with brief stints in Mexico, Spain, and South Korea. She’s extroverted by nature, but being a mom of seven kids has driven her to appreciate having quiet alone time, too. Her husband Kevin is the best in the world, especially because he’s exceedingly patient in regards to her harebrained schemes (see: living in South Korea). Micaela is disorganized by nature, but is also bound and determined to improve herself in that area and has done so with a modicum of success. She loves to read, watch good TV, and chat your ear off.

Elizabeth Foss is a morning person who relishes her time alone with the Word as much as she loves the inevitable interruption by the first child to wake. There is something so hopeful about every new day! A wife, mother, and grandmother, she’s happy curled up with a good book or tinkering with a turn of phrase. She alternates between giving up coffee and perfecting cold brew. Elizabeth would rather be outdoors than inside, and she especially loves long walks in the Virginia countryside that sometimes break into a run.

Katy Greiner thinks all mornings would be better if they started with the Dexys Midnight Runner’s classic “Come On, Eileen.” Her favorite way to waste time is by consuming quality long-form journalism that provokes Big Thoughts, and therefore good conversation. When she’s

193 THE WRITERS

not looking over her shoulder for the real adult in the room to take care of her high school freshmen, she’s planning her next trip or craving Chick-Fil-A. She loves a good sunset, talking over texting, tea over coffee, all kinds of music, and hearing God laugh.

Ana Hahn is a wife of nine years and mother of five. She enjoys educating her three school-aged daughters at home and playing planes with her two toddler boys. In her rare spare time she works on making her home bright and cheerful and sharing bits of that, as well as other motherhood musings on her blog, Time Flies When You’re Having Babies.

Mary Lenaburg relishes entertaining. Her door is always open and the coffee hot. When traveling to speak, she love to explore the local candy shops looking for the perfect dark chocolate fudge (with nuts is best). Mary spends her free time reading the latest best-selling murder mystery and baking her famous chocolate chip cookies, ensuring that the kitchen cookie jar is always full. Mary and her husband have been happily married for thirty years, finding joy among the ashes, having lost their disabled daughter Courtney in 2014. They live in Northern Virginia with their grown son Jonathan.

Allison McGinley recently moved to the Philly suburbs with her husband and two kids, and is living her dream with a church, library, and diner within walking distance. She returned to her faith during college, and nothing has been the same ever since, in the best way. Writing is the way she processes life and discovers the beauty all around her, and she’s been known to write in her closet in the middle of the night when the right words were suddenly found. She’s happiest when taking photos of beautiful things, worshipping God through song, drinking a cup of coffee, or standing by the ocean.

Heather Renshaw is a wife and mother of five living in the missionary territory of the Pacific Northwest. She rarely turns down an opportunity for deep conversation, loud singing, good eating, or silent Adoration. When she’s not tackling the myriad tasks of her domestic church, Heather enjoys speaking at events and connecting on social media. Heather’s new book Death by Minivan is a readers’ favorite.

Kathryn Whitaker, a native Texan, is a wife and mom to six kids, 194 teen to toddler. She shares her perspective on marriage, motherhood, THE WRITERS college football, Texas BBQ, and her Catholic faith with honesty and authenticity on her blog www.teamwhitaker.org. She’s a frequent guest on Sirius XM’s “The Jennifer Fulwiler Show” but all her kids really care about is what time dinner’s ready. In her spare time, she operates her own graphic design business, working primarily with Catholic campus ministry programs around the country.

Kate Wicker is a Catholic wife, mom of five, recovering perfectionist, speaker, and the author of Getting Past Perfect: How to Find Joy & Grace in the Messiness of Motherhood and Weightless: Making Peace with Your Body. Kate is a senior writer for Catholic Digest and a monthly guest on Relevant Radio’s Morning Air Show and Spirit in the Morning. She has written for numerous regional and national media, and she has appeared on television and radio outlets. She also has an “almost finished” novel in the works that’s been “almost finished” since her she was pregnant with her third baby nearly a decade ago. To learn more about her work and life, visit KateWicker.com.

195 THE ARTISTS

CAROLYN SVELLINGER is an artist/illustrator living in Cincinnati. She and her husband have 5 children— all boys! Carolyn is blessed with the ability to homeschool her children and run her own business selling prints of her artwork from her Etsy shop: Brass & Mint Co. She also enjoys knitting and photography. Instagram is her hangout.

KRISTIN FOSS is the Art Director for Take Up & Read. Kristin is a self-taught watercolor artist who focuses on bright, detailed florals. With a paint brush in her hand and fresh blooms in a vase, she finds peace in God’s Word while putting brush to paper. She enjoys creative cooking, thrift stores, and nature walks. You can find her at joyfulmornings.com

196 &READ

Take Up & Read is committed to creating printed journals that you can hold in your hands and touch with your pens. We collected our conversations with God. These volumes allow us to both commit at least a little time daily to honest conversation with God in His Word, and to dig more deeply and respond more carefully when we have the grace to do so.

We know that the Bible is God’s story for us. And we want to live in the center of that holy narrative every day. We want God’s Word to give us words for one another, a common language of love in Him.

God’s Word endures—across the seasons of a woman’s life it is the constant. He is faithful every day. In every restless night, in every joyous celebration, in all the ordinary days in between, we can and do seek the voice of our Lord in His Holy Scripture.

We take our name from the pages of Saint Augustine’s Confessions. Now a Doctor of the Church, Augustine was living a life of miserable debauchery when he was compelled by the Holy Spirit to take up his Bible and read it. His entire world changed in a moment of conversation with Word.

We believe that ours can, too—on an ordinary day, in an ordinary living room or coffee shop or college dorm, to ordinary women. We pray it is so every single day.

197 OUR BOOKS

Above All is a Lenten devotional journal that includes daily Scripture passages (set in context with enlightening historical notes to deepen your understanding), as well as devotional essays, room to journal, and space to organize your time. There is a simple prompt for the ancient prayer form of Lectio Divina each day, as well as a separate page for the fifth stage, Actio, where the reader is encouraged to examine her conscience and offer forgiveness to herself and to others. Above All is designed to help you reflect on all aspects of your life, particularly those that you may have pushed to the back burner. It’s filled with tools to help you discover which areas need greater care and tending, and is meant to inspire and motivate you to become your absolute truest self, so that come Easter, you can flourish as God intended.

Hosanna! is a Lenten walk with Jesus through the pages of the book of Matthew. From his birth to his resurrection, readers are in step with the true God who is our salvation. Scripture, devotional reading, thoughtful journaling prompts and inspiring art all come together to develop and deepen an intimate relationship between Jesus and you. This book will be available beginning February 2019.

Consider the Lilies: Maybe this is a difficult season in your life—you’re overwhelmed by the burdens weighing you down, the crosses the Lord has asked you to carry. This study is for you. It is full of the consolations of the Holy Spirit; he is encouraging you to lament, to pour out your grief and your fears and your anger. Or maybe you’re in a sweet spot. Life is really rather good right now. This study is for you, too. It makes you a better friend to the woman next to you, to the growing child who aches, to the spouse who despairs. And it buries words into your heart so that they are there, waiting, when the rain begins to fall. Because it will fall.

Stories of Grace: Here you will find thirty-one days of Jesus’ stories carefully collected for you. Along the way, we’ve provided meditation essays, journaling prompts, space for your notes and drawings, beautiful calligraphy pages, and prayers to

198 draw you deeper into the parables Jesus told. Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear our Lord’s stories of grace?

Ponder: An intimate encounter with the rosary, this lovely volume integrates Bible study, journaling, and thoughtful daily action prompts. You will grow in your appreciation and understanding of the beautiful, traditional rosary devotion, while deepening your love for Jesus in the gospel.

Ponder for Kids: Created especially for children, this book contains Bible stories for every mystery of the rosary. Full of interesting things to do, the journal is bursting with discussion questions, personal prayer prompts, puzzles, and coloring pages. There are also nature study pages to create a botanical rosary.

True Friend: Whether a woman is nineteen or forty-nine, friendship with other women can enrich our lives and can make us weep. How do we find friends who are kind and true? By becoming those friends ourselves. This beautiful book invites you to explore what God has to say about lasting friendships.

Flourish: To the people of Rome, the cultural center of the world at the time, St. Paul wrote the most comprehensive expression of the gospel. For us, the book of Romans is a study of sin and guilt, loss and rescue. It is the essential gospel. An in-depth look at the entire book of Romans, this study provides inspiration and structure to dig deeply into St. Paul’s guidebook for the early church—and for we who are the Church today.

All Available at Amazon.com

199 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hahn, Scott. Catholic Bible dictionary. Doubleday, 2009.

Sheridan, Mark. Genesis 12-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament, Volume II). IVP Academic, 2002.

Unger, Merrill, and R.K. Harrison. The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary. Moody Publishers, 2006.

“VERBUM DOMINI.” Verbum Domini: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church (30 September 2010) | BENEDICT XVI, w2.vatican.va/content/ benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ exh_20100930_verbum-domini.html.

Yee, Gale A., et al. The historical writings. Fortress Press, 2016.

200 COLOPHON

This book was printed by CreateSpace, on 55# paper with an interior black and white. Typefaces used include Freight Text Pro, Futura PT and Montserrat. The cover is printed in full color with a soft touch matte, full laminate. Finished size 7”x10”.

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