2024 Advent Week Two - Finding Joy: Receive the Extraordinary
RECEIVE THE EXTRAORDINARY
…but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
JOHN 16:22
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Advent. What a sacred time of the year! The Christian faith invites us to embrace this season as an experience of expectant waiting – to open ourselves to a spiritual kind of pregnancy while we rely on patient hope for the dawning of new life… new life for our broken world and for our less than perfect selves. We are asked to allow ourselves to experience the darkness, and to open ourselves to a radical trust that new life WILL emerge. From this faith perspective, we are called inward to listen deeply and to let go of anything that gets in the way of hearing God’s gentle, loving voice within us. Without distraction, we are fully awake, fully present, fully open to recognize the light and to share it in all that we say and do. The power of light penetrates and dispels all darkness.
The tone of our dominant culture is quite different. All things Christmas are ready for purchase even before Halloween. “Are you ready for Christmas?” is the conversation of the day. Thrown into a time of busyness, the hype and the glitz of a storybook Christmas strip us of the fullness of the power of Advent.
For those of us with a desire to engage in the season of Advent, there is inner tension. The Spirit draws us inward while the world forces us outward toward a frenzied pursuit of something that rarely satisfies. How do we reconcile this tension? We don’t have to only acknowledge the way the Spirit is moving us inwardly. We don’t have to rebuke the sentimentality of the holiday rush. The invitation of the season is to allow our inner longings to emerge and to be patient with them. Perhaps we can be intentional about practicing Advent again this year and, instead of resenting the tension, embrace it with joy?
This week, we consider the joy offered in the ordinary…
As you consider the essence of joy, where to find it, and how we experience it amidst the pressures of the world, open your heart to let God’s love flow.
Mary
Anne Sladich-Lantz
Mary Anne has dedicated the majority of her career to ensuring that health care leaders have all that they need to remain faithful to the Catholic Mission while
responding to the signs of the times. Through her leadership, Providence has developed a ministry leadership formation program that has been highly regarded as best in class.
Only have a minute? Start here.
Choose just one piece of content gathered here and dig deep: What does it say to you about joy? Can you point to an example in your own life?
We become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being. Here we find the source of joy and inspiration of all efforts at evangelization.
POPE FRANCIS
There is nothing outside you that will help in any kind of lasting way. You can’t buy, achieve or date joy. Joy is an inside job, unrelated to fame or fortunate. Joy is always a surprise, and often a decision. Joy is portable. Joy is a habit, and these days, it can be a radical act.
ANNE LAMOTT
John went through the whole region of Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God
LUKE 3:3-6
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How can you be open, willing to listen, and engage with a heart that’s fully alive this week?
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Where and when have you experienced joy this week?
Receive the Extraordinary
A reflection courtesy of Mary Anne Sladich-Lantz. The Catholic Health Association extends its thanks to Providence St. Joseph Health for the use of its recording studio and to David Solheim for his on-site direction.
Filmed at Providence Studios, Renton, Wa.
CLICK TO PLAY VIDEO
“... it is in the ordinary that the extraordinary is made manifest.”
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How do you understand joy as a “radical act”?
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How might you create room in your life to take the pressures of ordinary life and find glimmers of joy?
How can you open your heart and life to let God’s love flow through you?
God of surprises, help me to keep my eyes wide open this week to see your presence revealed in the ordinary and mundane experiences of every day. Pique my awareness. Unplug my ears. Stretch my mind so that I may experience your divine hand in every aspect of my life, especially in the simple and the ordinary. Then, open my heart and let your love flow through me offering compassion to a wounded world.
Amen.
Readings for the Second Sunday in Advent
READING ONE Bar 5:1–19
READING TWO Phil 1:4-6, 8–11
GOSPEL Lk 3:1-6
Easy Listening
Songs, podcast episodes, and more to incorporate into your Advent reflections and accompany your daily routine.
PODCAST EPISODE: On Being: “On the Insistence of Joy”
A POEM:
ADVENT PLAYLIST:
Read On
A BOOK: The Book of Delights by Ross Gay Algonquin
“The Patience of Ordinary Things” by Pat Schneider found in The Weight of Love
A POEM:
“Welcome Morning” by Anne Sexton found in The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton
