Advent – December 15, 2023

December 15, 2023

The Thirteenth Day of Advent

Today slipped away without anything happening to catch my eye, or ear, to share with you.  It was more quiet, than is usual, uneventful.  Perhaps this type of day is most familiar to each of us, more similar between each of us.  That is it!  I felt as if I had proclaimed it aloud.  Eureka!  I was in the midst of celebrating ordinary days. Most of our days, upon Earth, are spent moving from one thing to another, no extraordinary occurrences interrupting the flow.  And that is how it has been for centuries.  All of us doing whatever was ours to do from sunrise to sunset, then falling asleep, ending the ordinary day.  So, as I sang the songs and read the verse, lighting two candles on the Advent wreath, I repeated the prayer, “Thank you God, for this extraordinary ordinary day.”  While these are not the days we often remember in stories, or commemorate in a poem, they are of such comfort.  These are the days which comprise most of our lifetime on Earth.  And it is in their quiet presence we find tender repose.   

          On this thirteenth day of Advent, 2023, the reading I have chosen is from Isaiah 32:2.

The Reading

December 15, 2023

“Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.”  Isaiah 32:2