only you day and night, and always think of you. Inspire in us the depth of love that is fitting for you to receive as God. So may your love pervade our whole being, possess us completely, and fill all our senses, that we may know no other love but love for you who are everlasting. May our love be so great that the many waters of sky, land and sea cannot extinguish it in us: for ‘many waters cannot quench love.’
May this saying be fulfilled in us also, at least in part, by your gift, Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
The Second Sunday of Advent
A Reading from the Letter to Diognetus
With goodness and kindness, like a king who sends his son, who is also a king, God sent God, the Word, among us. He sent him to save us through persuasion rather than violence, for there is no violence in God. He sent him to call us rather than to accuse us; he sent him to love us rather than to judge us.
No one has either seen God or made him known; it is God himself who has revealed himself. And he has manifested himself through faith, to which alone it is given to behold God. For God, the Lord and Creator of the universe, who made all things and arranged them in orderly fashion, has shown himself to be not only filled with love for us but also to be long-suffering in his dealings with us. Yes, he has always been, is, and will remain the same: kind, good, free from wrath, true, and the only one who is good; and he formed in his mind a great and ineffable plan which he communicated to his Son alone.
As long as he held and preserved his own wise counsel in concealment, he appeared to neglect us and to have no concern for us. But after he revealed through his beloved Son and manifested what things he had prepared from the beginning, he conferred every blessing all at once upon us, so that we should both share in his benefits and see and be active in his service. Who of us would ever have expected these things? God had thus disposed everything on his part with his Son, but until these last times he has permitted us to be borne along by unruly impulses, drawn away by the desire of pleasure and various lusts. This does not mean that God took the slightest delight in our sins but that he simply endured them; nor did he approve this time of iniquity, but rather in no way consented to it. Instead he was preparing for the present time of righteousness so that, convinced of our unworthiness to obtain life during that time on account of our faults, we might now become worthy of it through the effect of the divine goodness; and so that, after we had been shown incapable of entering into the kingdom of God by our own efforts we might become capable of doing so by the divine power.
He took on himself the burden of our iniquities, and he gave his own Son as a ransom for us, the holy one for transgressors, the blameless one for the wicked, the just one for the unjust, the incorruptible one for the corruptible, the immortal one for the mortal. Where except in the justice of God could we find that with which to cover our sins? By whom could we be justified – we who are wicked and ungodly – except by the only Son of God? What a wondrous exchange, operation, and unexpected benefits! The crime of so large number is covered over by the justice of a single just one.
In the past, God first needed to convince our nature of its inability to obtain life for itself. Now God has shown us the Saviour capable of saving even what was impossible to save. In these two ways, he willed to lead us to trust in his goodness, to esteem him as our nourisher, Father, teacher, counsellor, healer, and our wisdom, light, honour, glory, power and life.
Monday after Advent 2
A Reading from a homily of Origen
We read these words in the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.’ The Lord wishes to find a way by which he might enter your hearts and walk therein. Prepare this way for him of whom it is said: ‘Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.’ The voice cries out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way.’ This voice first reaches our ears; and then following it, or rather with it, the Word penetrates our understanding. It is in this sense that Christ was announced by John.
Let us see, therefore, what the voice announces concerning the Word. ‘Prepare,’ says the voice, ‘the way of the Lord.’ What way are we to prepare for the Lord? Is it a material way? Can the Word of God take such a way? Ought we not rather to prepare an inner way for the Lord by making the paths of our heart straight and smooth? Indeed, this is the way by which the Word of God enters in order to take up his abode in the human heart made ready to receive him.
How great is the human heart! What width and capacity it possesses, provided it is pure! Do you wish to know its greatness and width? Look at the extent of the divine knowledge that it embraces. It tells us itself: ‘God gave me sound knowledge of existing things that I might know the organisation of the universe and the force of its elements, the beginning and the end and the mid-point of times, the changes in the sun’s course and the variations of the seasons. Cycles of years, positions of the stars, natures of animals, tempers of beasts, powers of the winds and thoughts of people, uses of plants and virtues of roots.’
Thus, you see that the human heart knows so many things and is of no small compass. But notice that its greatness is not one of size but of the power of thought by which it is capable of knowing so many truths.
In order to make everyone realise how great the human heart is, let us look at a few examples taken from everyday life. We still retain in our minds all the towns which we have ever visited. Their features, the location of their squares, walls, and buildings remain in our hearts. We keep the road which we have travelled painted and engraved in our memories; and the sea over which we have sailed is harboured in our silent thought. As I have just said, the human heart knows so many things and is of no small compass.
Now, if it is not small, and if it can grasp so much, we can prepare the way of the Lord there and make straight the way where the Word, the Wisdom of God, will walk. Let each of you, then, prepare the way of the Lord by a good conscience; make straight the way so that the Word of God may walk within you without stumbling and may give you knowledge of his mysteries and of his coming.
Tuesday after Advent 2
A Reading from a sermon of Bernard of Clairvaux
‘Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar.’ Who could doubt these words of the Prophet? Something superlative was needed in the beginning if the majesty of God was to deign to come down from such a height, for a dwelling so unworthy of it.
And there was, indeed, something superlative about it; great mercy, immense compassion, and abundant charity. Why did Christ come to earth? We shall find the answer without difficulty, since his words and actions clearly reveal to us the reason for his coming.
It is to search for the hundredth lost sheep that came down hurriedly from the hillside. He came because of us, so that the mercies of the Lord might be revealed with greater clarity, and his wonderful works for humankind. What amazing condescension on the part of God, who searches for us, and what great dignity bestowed on the one thus sought!
If we want to glory in it, we can quite reasonably do so, not because we can be anything in ourselves, but because the God who created us has made us of such great worth. Indeed, all the riches and glory of this world, and all that one could wish for in it, is a very small thing and even nothing, in comparison with this glory. ‘What are we that you make much of us, or pay us any heed?’
But then again, I should like to know why Christ determined to come among us himself and why it was not, rather, we who went to him. Surely, it was for our benefit. What is more, it is not the custom of the rich to go to the poor, even if it is their intention to do something for them.
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