Dear Everyone,
A theme for the first week in Advent was Waiting. The theme for the second week is Mystery. At first glance, these two ideas don’t seem to connect with one another. But when one is faced with mystery, one must be patient. When one is faced with mystery, one must be silent. Again, I am moved by Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s wisdom in affirming the mystery of God, the Incarnation, and Advent.
Advent brings endless questions – why not now? Why not sooner? Why there? Why then? Why? I look forward to the day when the questions are answered and the mysteries are solved, but now I wait and I embrace the mystery, while looking forward.
Faith, hope, and charity; in Advent, we see the commingling of these three theological virtues, but Advent certainly is the season of hope. While we continue our reading this week, and we look toward Christmas, I’d like us to take some time each day in silence to reflect on the joy of what is to come. O come, o come Emmanuel, God with us …
I welcome your comments and I hope that you continue to have a blessed Advent. Thank you for reading along with me,
SR
I am honoured to have had all three of my novels appear on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists. I was a Semifinalist for Best Author in the 2011 and 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards. {
It is true, try to live through virtue and its manifesto. Live with hope, faith and joy, feel it and practice it.
If you look carefully as the author states, the benefits are perceived by clarifying our thoughts and maintaining reflective silence.
Be blessed
Thank you so much, Karen.
SR
I love Bonhoeffer’s Advent reflections. At times they’re beyond my small, ADHD brain, but how fitting when considering the Mystery! I was raised Catholic, but I’m not sure what I believe. I only know there must be Something.
Two reflections in particular stand out for me. In writing about the mystery of love, Bonhoeffer says, “The greatest mystery is not the most distant star.” What a beautiful, almost poetic line. He goes on to say, “Knowledge about each other does not remove the mystery, but rather makes it more profound. The very fact that the other person is so near to me is the greatest mystery.” I appreciate this metaphor. The divine is so close to us; we can see it in everything if we slow down and pay attention. And the more we pay attention, the more profound life itself seems. It’s all beyond me, but I keep thinking about it. That people love each other, that we feel anything at all, that we are good in someone else’s eyes. That someone can know our secrets and still look at us with love and wonder. It’s all so beautiful.
And then this passage: “[God] does not comply with the views and opinions of people. God does not go the way that people want to prescribe for Him; rather, His way is beyond all comprehension, free and self-determined beyond all proof.” So many people claim to know the mind of God. It’s one reason I’m torn when it comes to organized religion. How can anyone presume to know that God wants us to hate this group or that? I can’t imagine our creator wants us to hate anyone. I feel this reflection is very timely. I struggle a lot with social media at the moment, with fighting over politics, and this reflection comforts me. Anyone who claims to speak for God does not. Even if it’s something I agree with. None of us know, and there is no way to know. Not yet, or perhaps ever? It’s all faith and a desire to do right by people.
Like you, now I wait and embrace the mystery. 🙂
Thanks, Larissa, for sharing your reflections and thank you for joining me, SR
One of my favorite Bible verses from Isaiah.
“The ways of the Lord are higher than our ways.His thoughts are not our thoughts. “
Thank you, Lorraine.
SR