DAY 16: Ponder the Mystery: A Contemplative Advent Journey

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.” Luke 2:8-9

PONDER: As we draw closer to the birth of Jesus, we live at peace in our ordinary days and the tasks at hand. But that peace at times is broken with an intrusion, sometimes even a holy intrusion, of the unexpected. Our “normal” is disrupted. The ground we thought was stable shudders beneath our feet, and we are “terrified” in varying degrees as we adjust our bearings.

RESPOND: Today enter your stillness, mindful and grateful for the daily routines that create the “liturgy of days” in your own life. Bless the normalcy that keeps you grounded in this time and place. Now, shift your thoughts to all that has felt like disruptions to life in recent days or months or over the years, and acknowledge how it has affected you physically, mentally, financially, spiritually, and simply sit with this reality before the glory of God. Invite the Spirit to bring holy wisdom, insight, and awakening to the ways God has used these disruptions for Divine purposes, and for the formation of your soul. Listen to the angel saying, “Do not be afraid.”

A BLESSING: May the glory of God break through the veil of your ordinary life and draw you to eternal love. May the light of this glory evoke peace in the midst of any turmoil past or present. May you always recognize such disruption as holy invitation to know the living God at work in you, coming with Good News.  Amen.