ADVENT First Monday Reading

Cloister corner

On the first Advent Monday, even early for November, finds us snowed in.
The only access has been by the Milkman and found the milk buried in snow at the front door.

Trees cluster from Refectory

The Night Office began with a power break and had light restored promptly.
It made us all in the spirit of Advent of AWAKE.
The Reading from Blessed John Henry Newman bid us to "Prepare to meet your God".

Weather Monk

FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT  MONDAY

Year I   First Reading

Isaiah 8:1-18   

Second Reading

From a sermon by Cardinal John Henry Newman (Parochial and Plain Sermons V, 4-9)     

Prepare to meet your God

Christ says to his disciples, Look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near; and to his enemies, Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. And it is said generally of everyone, on the one hand, Behold he comes with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him. And on the other, When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Now, when this state of the case, the prospect which lies before us, is brought home to our thoughts, surely it is one which will lead us anxiously to ask, Is this all that we are told, all that is allowed to us, or done for us? Do we know only this, that all is dark now, and all will be light then; that now God is hidden, and one day will be revealed; that we are in a world of sense, and are to be in a world of spirits? For surely it is our plain wisdom, our bounden duty, to prepare for this great change; and if so, are any directions, hints, or rules given us how we are to prepare? Prepare to meet your God, go out to meet him, is the dictate of natural reason, as well as of inspiration. But how is this to be?

Now observe that it is scarcely a sufficient answer to this question to say that we must strive to obey him, and so to approve ourselves to him. This indeed might be enough, were reward and punishment to follow in the mere way of nature, as they do in this world. But, when we come steadily to consider the matter, appearing before God, and dwelling in his presence, is a very different thing from being merely subjected to a system of moral laws, and would seem to require another preparation, a special preparation of thought and affection, such as will enable us to endure his countenance, and to hold communion with him as we ought.

This indeed is the most momentous reason for religious worship. It is going out to meet the Bridegroom, who, if not seen in his beauty, will appear in consuming fire. It is a preparation for an awful event, which shall one day be. When we kneel down in prayer in private let us think to ourselves, Thus shall lone day kneel down before his very footstool, in this flesh and this blood of mine; and he will be seated over against me, in flesh and blood also, though divine. I come, with the thought of that awful hour before me, I come to confess my sin to him now, that he may pardon it then, and I say, "O Lord, holy God, holy and strong, holy and immortal, in the hour of death and in the day of judgment, deliver us, 0 Lord!"

Again, when we come to church, then let us say: The day will be when I shall see Christ surrounded by his holy angels. I shall be brought into that blessed company, in which all will be pure, all bright. I come then to learn to endure the sight of the holy One and his servants; to nerve myself for a vision which is fearful before it is ecstatic, and which they only enjoy whom it does not consume.