Advent and Christmas 2012
We cannot take a single step toward him.
We do not walk vertically. We
can only turn our eyes toward him…
It is for him to search for us.
Simone Weil, Concerning the Our Father
Once again this year, we implore our God at Mass and in liturgies and prayers to rend the heavens and come down, the mountains quaking before him, to make himself known in this, our ‘treacherous and indescribable world.’
The God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, who in former times liberated his people from exile and bondage, from forced labor and the lash by means of ‘trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, by terrifying displays of power’, who manifested himself at Sinai, ‘in cloud and majesty and awe’, makes himself known in an entirely new and unexpected light.
The God of the ancestors who freed his people from harsh duress and violent oppression, who spoke from the midst of fire, now takes on our limited, contingent nature, so that we might freely approach him on the level of our own humanity.
Jesus is born of a woman chosen by God and visited by the Angel. The abyss separating God from women and men is overcome in the new-born Jesus, in his weakness and vulnerability.
Time and eternity meet in an infant begotten of God, and Light enters the world.
On behalf of everyone at Unity Acres, may you all enjoy a very blessed Christmas, and may his coming bring you Light, and his blessing bring you peace.
Prayer for the Blessing of Labor
“We praise You, O Lord, for all Your works are wonderful! We praise You, O Lord, forever is Your love! Your wisdom made the heavens and the earth, O Lord. You formed the land, then set the lights, and, like Your love, the sun will rule the day, the stars will grace the night.” – Damean Singers, God’s Work of Creation. (Based on Genesis 1&2)
Creator God, by Your works of creation, You give our works on earth an added dignity. But our world is in dire need of work that sustains all people. Work that is just, creative, life-giving and healing. Work that enables all people to live, not a life of numbing luxury and idleness, but a life that is truly human.
We beg you to gently pull us out of the pit of poverty and the quicksand of hunger, despair and all the evils that chronic unemployment brings. Help us, O God, to work against the ‘works’ that bring death. Fraud, stealing, inhuman conditions of the workplace, the insane build-up of weapons designed to kill.
Saint Joseph the Worker, intercede for us, that God will remove all greed, envy and laziness from our hearts. Amen.
Wonderful and great are Your works!
Father Robert Jones
Prayer: Pentecost & Summer
Come , Holy Spirit!
“Jesus told them another parable. ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like this: a man takes a mustard seed and sows it in his field. It is the smallest of seeds, but it grows into the biggest of all plants. It becomes a tree, so that birds come and make their nests in its branches.’
–Matthew 13: 32
“…when he saw the large crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them, and He healed their sick. ‘All we have here are five loaves and two fish.’ … ‘Bring them to me.’ He took the loaves and fishes, looked up to heaven and gave thanks to God. He gave them to the disciples and they gave them to the people. Everyone ate and had enough, and the disciples took up twelve baskets left over.” –Matthew 14: 13-20
Spirit of God, we thank You for the many miracles recorded in the Gospels. You have inspired the growth of our Unity Acres too in many miraculous ways. Like the mustard seed, it started very small, but You breathed on it, and made it grow. Even as the birds nested in the tree’s branches, so men have found in the Acres a home where peace and caring sustain them. Spirit of God, You have inspired the growth of the Acres to be a place where miracles of ‘loaves and fishes’ continue, Jesus still sees the hungry crowd and has pity on them, and through the disciples, feeds them. We pray that the Spirit continues to inspire the multitude. May we grow in all good things. May we grow in love. May Unity Acres ever be a home, where ‘Mind, Body and Spirit’ are renewed. Amen.
Father Robert Jones