The Divine Beloved arriving in human form, made fully incarnate, fully human to walk with us and as us in this world.
Wake up! A reflection and lectio divina for advent
The word advent means arrival, the coming of something new into our lives.
The Divine Beloved arriving in human form, made fully incarnate, fully human to walk with us and as us in this world.
Do we still wait for an arrival?
If God has already come and become incarnate what are we waiting for?
Perhaps this advent we’re invited to wake up to what’s already in our midst, to wake up to a new consciousness of God loving us into something new, something more whole.
May-be Divine Love is waiting for us to wake up whilst we peer into the manger wanting Jesus to wake up!
Do you feel as if you’re in slumber and God is inviting you to awaken?
We’re made for deep relationality, deep community and deep love. We greatly enjoy, at this time of year, to give gifts, the joy of giving is embedded within us.
Is this joy of giving an inkling that we have the capacity to awaken to a new sense of love and to give this love away, to awaken to the joy of giving something more than a present wrapped in paper?
Jesus is here. Jesus invites us to move from levels of unconsciousness to new levels of awareness and attentiveness.
From our wakefulness, how are we invited to move onward?
Are we invited to be The Christ in this world more fully?
What could that mean for us individually and as community?
We are The Christ incarnated in the world.
Jesus is alive in our midst and we are the expression of the Divine reality of love. God can’t come to the world without us.
May be this advent season we can slow down in order to to awaken in deeper ways.
Perhaps we can pause at some point along the way and ask where God is inviting us to wake up. Perhaps we can turn inward and as we connect to our own longing, discover where we want to wake up.
We don’t need to look around at where others are awake, we’re invited to walk our own path. As we take a deeper breath of stillness may we receive the grace to notice and welcome the gentle shaking of The Spirit to awaken us where we slumber…
As we move towards the lectio divina, it may speak to you about awakening.
Notice what words or phrases stand out to you. Notice what these words bring to you and what response they cause within. I will read the passage three times…
The Angel Gabriel visits Mary
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favoured woman! The Lord is with you!”
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favour with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For the word of God will never fail.”
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.