Advent Study

This year I decided to do an Advent study following a book by one of my spiritual teachers, Richard Rohr. He’s a Franciscan priest in the Latin Rite (Roman) Catholic Church. His order offers an “alternate orthodoxy” that has never been rejected by the Church, and helped me stay Catholic for as long as I did because I like how he thinks and speaks (and writes).

Today I read this: “The price for real transformation is high. It means that we have to change our loyalties from power, success, money, and control (read: “our kingdoms”) to the Lordship of Jesus and the kingdom of God. Henceforth there is only one thing that Absolute and, in relationship to that, everything else is relative – everything – even the church (Don’t think I am being disloyal because the failure to understand this is what got many of our leaders into trouble recently), even our nation, even national security, even our wealth and our possessions, even our identity and our reputation. All of our safety nets must now be of secondary or even tertiary importance, or even let go of, because Jesus is Lord! Whatever you trust to validate you and secure you is your real god, and the Gospel is saying, “Will the real God please stand up?” 

 

With a careful re-wording this could apply to different belief systems, and anyone who knows me knows I embrace that.  But to get through to my fundamentalist brothers and sisters….this would be a cool study to do…..I wish …… I study alone and apply to myself which is all we can do, really…..But, oh my, these are some powerful words.

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December 6, 2024

I too am attempting an Advent study. It’s from the Abiding Together podcaster Heather Khym, and it’s called Encountering Emmanuel. It has Gospel readings and reflections for each day, but I’m behind so I’m going to do several in one day. I like it thus far. I appreciate doing something extra at Advent.