This Sunday, 12/21/14, is the 4th Sunday of Advent.  We light our final candle this week and Jesus arrives just 7 days later!
Great readings this week!  The focus is God’s faithful love and His promises fulfilled!

In the first reading, 2 Samuel 7:8-16 God makes a promise to King David that one day He will make a member of David’s family “…a great king.” We know who he speaks of…it is Jesus.  And God kept that promise.  But God didn’t choose someone who was already “special” to bring Jesus into the world, He chose Mary, who was an ordinary young Jewish girl.  What makes Mary so special is the fact that she is ordinary.  What Mary DOES is special…she says yes to God.  She loves God and she trusts Him and has faith in Him so that when He asks her to give birth to Jesus who will be the Son of God she says yes…though she is scared and doesn’t understand all that God is saying.  She knows that God keeps His promises and that is why she trusts in God and is willing to serve Him in any way that he asks.  Mary KNOWS that God will take care of her.

We can admire Mary’s great faith in God and wish we too had that kind of faith! We do have that kind of faith because of the grace God has given us. Mary was full of “grace” not “faith”. We, too, can say yes to God and bring Jesus to the world although we are not special in any particular way.  We can imitate Mary’s trust and love of God and we can freely CHOOSE to do God’s will.  In this way we bring ourselves into the grace of God through Jesus and be truly loving, faithful servants of the Lord like Mary.

The Psalm this week is Psalm 89: Forever I Will Sing you can listen to he demo and also print the lead sheet for the Psalm.

Reflect again on the meaning and symbolism of the Advent wreath this week!

“The symbolism of the Advent wreath is beautiful. The wreath is made of various evergreens, signifying continuous life. Even these evergreens have a traditional meaning which can be adapted to our faith: The laurel signifies victory over persecution and suffering; pine, holly, and yew, immortality; and cedar, strength and healing. Holly also has a special Christian symbolism: The prickly leaves remind us of the crown of thorns, and one English legend tells of how the cross was made of holly. The circle of the wreath, which has no beginning or end, symbolizes the eternity of God, the immortality of the soul, and the everlasting life found in Christ. Any pine cones, nuts, or seedpods used to decorate the wreath also symbolize life and resurrection. All together, the wreath of evergreens depicts the immortality of our soul and the new, everlasting life promised to us through Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, who entered our world becoming true man and who was victorious over sin and death through His own passion, death, and resurrection.
The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent. A tradition is that each week represents one thousand years, to sum to the 4,000 years from Adam and Eve until the Birth of the Savior. Three candles are purple and one is rose. The purple candles in particular symbolize the prayer, penance, and preparatory sacrifices and goods works undertaken at this time. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, when the priest also wears rose vestments at Mass; Gaudete Sunday is the Sunday of rejoicing, because the faithful have arrived at the midpoint of Advent, when their preparation is now half over and they are close to Christmas. The progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord’s first coming into the world and the anticipation of His second coming to judge the living and the dead.” http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0132.html

The light again signifies Christ, the Light of the world. Some modern day adaptions include a white candle placed in the middle of the wreath, which represents Christ and is lit on Christmas Eve. Another tradition is to replace the three purple and one rose candles with four white candles, which will be lit throughout Christmas season.
Remember this is a time for rejoicing, it’s a time of preparation, it’s a time of waiting and what we are waiting for is not only the birth of the infant Jesus but also the other promise made to us that Jesus would COME AGAIN! 

I hope you are enjoying a blessed Christmas season!  God bless you!

In Christ,
Elaine