miniZibaldone

   From 12-20-2023 Audience But where did this Christmas joy come from? [O]ne characteristic of the Nativity scene is that it was conceived as a school of sobriety. And this has a great deal to say to us. Today, in fact, the risk of losing sight of what counts in life is great and paradoxically increases precisely at Christmas—the mentality of Christmas is changed—immersed in a consumerism that corrodes its meaning. The consumerism of Christmas. It's true, that you want to give presents, that’s fine, that’s one way, but that frenzy to go shopping that draws attention elsewhere and there is not that sobriety of Christmas. Let us look at the crib: that awe before the crib. Sometimes there is no inner space for astonishment, but only to organise the parties, to have the parties. And the Nativity scene was created to bring us back to what matters: to God Who comes to dwell among us.  [full text]

  The Third Sunday of Advent has traditionally been marked by the note of joy. As we shall see, the joy has two causes: the proximate coming of the Lord in the incarnation and his return at the end of time. The collect for this Sunday speaks of God’s people, who “faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity,” while the collect for Wednesday of this week asks: “that the coming solemnity of your Son may bestow healing upon us in this present life and bring us the rewards of life eternal.” In fact, the prayers on the whole are clearly inspired by joyful expectation of the Nativity. Moreover, this week thinks of the kingdom as already present. ( Adrien Nocent Paul Turner,  The Liturgical Year Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, vol. 1 )

  But “the Lord does not delay in keeping his promise.” He is on his way, constantly, and, like a fisherman, he hauls the giant net of world history to shore. Viewed from within the world, whether the world’s end will be catastrophic disturbs neither God’s plan nor the Christian’s confidence. Christians simply need to strive to be “unblemished” and “to be at peace in his sight” at the homecoming. This peace prepares the way for Advent.  (Hans Urs von Balthasar,  Light of the Word: Brief Reflections on the Sunday Readings)

Maria Immaculata by Carlo Maratta Towards the end of the novel [ The Diary of the Country Priest by Georges Bernanos] (and of the priest ’ s life), the connection is made with childhood, with youthfulness. The country priest had been obsessed with his apparent failure to bring about spiritual results in his ministry. The meeting with the countess had been the first time, a meeting centered on a discussion for which he had not prepared intellectually. He had entered into it with all the innocence of his youth. Thinking back on this, he writes:  “ And I know now that youth is a gift from God, and like all his gifts, carries no regret....There was no old man in me....This awareness is sweet. For the first time in years—perhaps for the first time ever—I seem to stand before my youth and look upon it without mistrust....And my youth looks back at me, forgives me. Disheartened by the sheer clumsiness in me which always kept me back, I demanded of my youth what youth alone can't give, an...

[I]n Advent, in that day, we all become – as it has been said – Jews once more. We relearn the lessons of the first covenant: that we cannot make God, however we long for him; that we must be surprised, ambushed and carried off by God if we are to be kept from idols. [...] The Christian in Advent needs to listen to that, listen to such a degree that this season becomes both a season of joyful expectancy and a season of ‘poverty’ – of the knowledge that we cannot talk and touch ourselves into life; of that deep poverty of the imagination which can only stand helplessly before the outrages and miseries of our world, utterly at a loss for a word of meaning or hope to speak. We are here at all, celebrating Advent (as the Jew celebrates the Passover) because there has been a word spoken, a word of unexpected interruption, a word that establishes for good the difference between the God we expect and the God who comes, a word that shows us once and for all what an idol looks like in face of t...

  From 9-15-2023 Audience A Heart Expanded by the Unspeakable Sweetness of Love [B]y contemplating creation, by letting yourselves be challenged by daily events, by experiencing work as prayer, to the point of transforming the very means of your work into instruments of blessing, and finally through people, in those brothers and sisters whom divine Providence leads you to encounter. In all this, you are called to be seekers of God . [...] Indeed, nowadays, in a globalized but fragmented and fast-paced world devoted to consumerism, in settings where family and social roots sometimes almost seem to disappear, there is no need for Christians who point fingers, but for enthusiastic witnesses who radiate the Gospel “in life through life.” This is always a temptation: go from being “Christian witnesses” to “Christian accusers.” There is only one accuser, the devil. We should not assume the role of the devil but of Jesus. We are students of the school of Jesus, of the Beatitudes. [...] [Y...