Second Sunday of Advent
December 9, 2024
Sr. Gertrude, OSCO, offers the following reflections for the Second Sunday in the link below. She also suggests some helpful practices to deepen our Advent preparation. Advent Chapter Talk
Advent draws us into an experience of a contrasting reality: the reign of God is the “already” and it is still “the not yet”. The ‘God who is’, who is with us right now and the ‘God who is to come’, that which we long for. The already, you are with us…you are with us […]
Advent means ‘coming’…the God who is to come. The Latin word for Advent is ‘Adventus’ and the Greek word ‘Parousia’. Building on the early Patristic Fathers, the Cistercians of the twelfth century spoke of ‘three comings’: the first, the birth of Jesus in history; the second the coming or birth of Christ in the human […]
Chapter Talk – Fourth Sunday of Advent – December 19, 2021 “If you wish to meet God, go as far as your own heart”. Dear Sisters, these words of St. Bernard were appropriate at the beginning of Advent, and they are as appropriate right now. Our gospel reading for this fourth Sunday of Advent is […]
Chapter Talk – Third Sunday of Advent – December 12, 2021, cycle-C Listen to these excerpts from the first reading for this Third Sunday of Advent: “Be glad and exult with all your heart” (Zeph 3:14-18a). “Fear not…be not discouraged…”. “God will renew you in his love…”. And now listen to similar words from the […]
Chapter Talk – Second Sunday of Advent – December 5, 2021, cycle-C There is a ‘voice’…do you hear it? A voice that is crying out in the center of our longing. What is that voice saying that cries out, that yearns for our attention, that yearns for us to open our hearts even more now […]
Chapter Talk – First Sunday of Advent – November 28, 2021, cycle-C Both Bernard of Clairvaux (12th century) and Thomas Merton (20th century) describe Advent as the ‘sacrament of the presence of God in the world’. God is with us and still God will come again, God will once more be born within the human […]
Advent is a rich liturgical season celebrated in the church and especially among monastics, as a preparation for the coming of the Lord. Advent offer a critique of our consumer approach to Christmas. It is a time to go inward, to open our hearts to the birth of Christ. Advent invites us to discover those […]
Chapter Talk – First Sunday of Advent – November 29, 2020, cycle-B “Is longing not a voice? It is indeed, and a very powerful one” (Song of Songs, #74, p.87). With these words from St. Bernard, we enter Advent, a time when the veil covering our longing falls away, and we hold this longing as […]
Chapter Talk – Third Sunday of Advent – December 15, 2019, cycle-A ‘Be patient’, ‘Make your hearts firm’, ‘Do not complain about one another, so that you may not be judged’…. ‘the prophets knew of hardship and patience’…These are exhortative words from the epistle for this Third Sunday of Advent…And added to them is the […]
At monasteries, the week before Christmas is marked by the singing of the O Antiphons at Vespers. This tradition goes back to at least the 9th century. By the twelfth century, the O Antiphons appeared in the popular Christmas hymn we know today as O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The Antiphons were originally written in […]
Chapter Talk – First Sunday of Advent – December 1, 2019, cycle-A Vigilant and ready…to receive. God comes: “God is underway toward us” (Hans Urs von Balthasar, Light of the Word, p.13). Images, words straining to open our hearts to receive what awaits us during this Advent-Christmas season. “We wait for the fullness. We watch […]
Praying the O Antiphons Listen to Sr Kathy’s Reflections on the O Antiphons or read it here.
Chapter Talk – Fourth Sunday of Advent – December 23, 2018, cycle-C Who Is Coming… O Wisdom, your gentle power extends from one end of the earth to the other…it teaches us knowledge of self and of God, revealing the truth wherever deceptions appear. Your Wisdom Word emerges out of the silent depths. O come, […]
Take a break from all the busyness of the season and go a little deeper into the meaning of Christmas. Just out our Winter 2019 Newsletter. This issue features an article on contemplative prayer by our Abbess, Sr. Kathy. Also see pictures of our new, almost completed, Welcome Center. Check out Sr. Gertrude’s Daily Lectio […]
Chapter Talk – Third Sunday of Advent – December 16, 2018, Cycle-C We have a beautiful lyrical movement from the Second Sunday of Advent to this Third Sunday: Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday to rejoice and give praise. Like a musical composition, the composer’s main theme is building towards its climax, always with its immediate goal present […]
The Second Sunday of Advent opens with the cry of John the Baptist out of the wilderness: ‘Prepare the Way’. This cry is intended to pierce our hearts so that we may be ready for the new unfolding life of ‘the God who is to come’. As we live into the hope of God’s gift […]
In our relation to the ‘God who is to come’ how do we wait? What is the interior demeanor that is asked of each of us if we are to receive this new manifestation of God’s life within us and in our midst? With our liturgy we have taken the first step into Advent; we […]
This is Gaudete Sunday, which means in one word: Rejoice! I think as we delve a little into the readings we will see how apropos this title is for describing the Third Sunday of Advent! The first reading from Isaiah opens with this announcement: ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me’. It follows […]
‘Prepare the way of the Lord’: this is the proclamation for the Second Sunday of Advent. Jean Danielou wrote over 40 years ago these words that so aptly describe our present day reality: “The Baptist’s message is addressed to a world held captive by sin and death, powerless to free itself, a world destined for […]
‘Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not’? This is how Advent opens with the first reading from Isaiah (63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7). Left to our selves we wander from the ways of God, our hearts become hardened almost unnoticed because we are […]
“Her willingness was her magnificence. This we know and marvel at when we recall how You first came to us,” (Upon A Luminous Night, Christine Rogers, p.9). Mary’s willingness was echoed in her ‘yes’…her ‘yes’, says the poem further on, “to a thing she only partly understood” (p.9). This ‘yes’, which was encircled with mystery, […]
“O dark dark dark…I said to my soul be still and let the dark come upon you, which shall be the darkness of God” (“East Coker”). As we reflect on these poetic and familiar words of T.S. Eliot I am sure they conjure up many things for each of us. As we begin Advent, could […]
Sr. Gertrude, OSCO, offers the following reflections for the Second Sunday in the link below. She also suggests some helpful practices to deepen our Advent preparation. Advent Chapter Talk
Monastery Lentils A popular Guest House recipe that is vegan, easy to make and packed with flavor. Recipe calls for dry herbs – but use fresh for extra flavor. Serve
A lot goes on in the world, but little changes in a monastery. The life is regular and is set by defined intervals of prayer, work, and study. We are
