Prayer for Inauguration Day

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The Benedictine Sisters of Virginia sent the above. I have thought many times over the course of the pandemic that I think the world continues to turn due to the hidden prayers of women living in religious communities.

I have several updates for you, including a new article and the audio of three of my most recent radio interviews, and will share that in the next post.

For now, let’s pray about the next four years, and for our nation, and for God’s mercy, always.

Reflections on waiting at the end of Advent

Today is the 23rd, which means we’ve got just a couple days of Advent left. How has yours been?

This year in particular I thought about waiting. In the past I have focused more on the mystery of Jesus’s coming, or Mary as and Advent “figure,” but this year it just came to the surface that it was time to look at my own relationship with waiting.

Some thoughts:

High-level - the entirety of the Christian life is about waiting. To me, that is one of those things Catholics say and you kind of have to think, “Uh-huh,” and not really get what it means (similarly, to me, as the phrase that suffering can be “offered up” - took me a long time to get what that means).

But it’s about waiting because, well, Jesus will return one day. So we wait.

However, waiting is hard, if you’re an impatient person.

So over the past few weeks I have used that as an opportunity to prayerfully ask myself a few questions:

How do I experience waiting?

Do I see that time as a gift? Or a punishment?

Do I believe patience is a virtue, or an excuse?

This entire year has been one of waiting, as I have reflected before. Yes, in some instances it was more about outright cancellation; your child’s graduation will never happen, properly, in the real world; the vacation you had to cancel is a goner; your favorite bluegrass and barbecue festival may not even happen next year. And so we wait for life to return to “normal,” for politicians to lift restrictions, for other politicians to determine whether Americans are worth a bailout, to see whether one will be evicted and the lights turned off. My goodness.

So, waiting - it becomes about trust. God’s time, as I was reminded by a friend recently, is massive - it is cosmic, universal, and expansive. Sometimes in the old Testament, the prophecies the prophets made didn’t come true for hundreds or thousands of years. We aren’t used to that; time happens rapidly now. Yesterday’s news may as well be last month’s news. There is always something else.

While our culture may have changed, and our own, personal relationship to time has sped up, God’s has not. If he will deliver us, he will do it - but it will be on his time. And that does not mean it counts any less; it just means we have to - you guessed it - wait.

God makes us promises. He does not forget or abandon those promises. So we see waiting is about trust. That is the season we are in; at another time it will be something else.

Has this Advent helped me learn to wait a little better? It is possible. It has certainly helped me let go a bit more.

Which leads me to my last thought: patience is a virtue, but so is hope. It is one thing to wait, and it is another to wait in hope.

The Star of Bethlehem reappears

Today, Dec. 21, is the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year!

It is also the day of “the great conjunction of 2020,” when Jupiter and Saturn pass one another, so close they are only 6 arc minutes apart (this is very close). From Space.com:

How often do these two planets come as close as that? Some websites say it has been nearly 400 years, while others say it's been almost 800 years. Indeed, the last time these two planets appeared so close was on July 16, 1623, when they were only 5 arc minutes apart — that's actually 397 years ago…But the last time most of the world's population had a favorable view of these two planets coming so close to each other was on March 5, 1226, when they were even closer together (just 2 arc minutes) compared to what we will see on Dec. 21.

To that end, some are wondering if the original Star of Bethlehem was a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. Could it be true? Per that same Space.com article:

Some have suggested this holiday season that these two planets might be a replica of the legendary Star of Bethlehem. Actually, one of the more popular theories for the "Christmas Star" was a series of conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC.  For in that year Jupiter and Saturn met not once but three times that year (in May, September and December).  

The first conjunction (on May 29 — visible "in the east" before sunrise) presumably started the Magi on their way to Bethlehem from the Far East.  The middle conjunction (September 30) may have strengthened their resolve in the purpose of their journey, while the third and final conjunction (Dec. 5) occurred just as they arrived in Judea to meet with King Herod, who sent them on to Bethlehem to "go and search diligently for the young child." 

The article goes on with more facts and speculation, and it’s a really cool idea!

While we’re talking about the Star of Bethlehem, let me recommend, as I always do, and episode of Jimmy Aiken’s Mysterious World about the magi: The Mysteries of the Magi

p.s. I’ll be on Morning Air Wednesday, December 23 at 7 am eastern talking about the Octave of Christmas, and the holy days leading up to the Baptism of the Lord on January 10, 2021 (and thus the end of the Christmas season). Mark your calendars! You can listen here.