DECEMBER 5, 2023

TUESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

A YES TO THE GOODNESS OF GOD

OPENING PRAYER:

COME, HOLY SPIRIT. I welcome you into my heart as Mary did. Come with power. Help me to offer my own yes to God the Father, saying with trust: “May it be done unto me according to your word.”

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Our yes to the Lord, like Mary’s, only makes sense when it is a yes to something greater and more beautiful than the world could ever offer. His beauty and love are the great motivation for our yes. I say yes to him as a response to the love, mercy, and life he first gave me. I say yes to him in order to receive more of him.

To fuel our yes to God, we must be convinced, like Mary, of his utter goodness. When our hearts believe that and have tasted of his goodness, our yes will follow.

St. Augustine wrote: “You, Lord, created heaven and earth. They are beautiful because You are beauty. They are good because You are goodness. They exist because You are existence.” (1) Augustine spent years trying to find beauty and goodness in the world, apart from God, and it left him empty and restless. Only later did he discover that everything he was looking for was found in the One who made him:

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you… You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.” (2)

Once Augustine tasted the Lord's goodness, he went all in and gave his yes to the Lord.

This Advent, let's pray that with Mary and Augustine and so many others, we may taste the goodness of the Lord in such a deep and satisfying way that we will want to give the most generous yes to him that we can. May our turning to the Lord this Advent be with a purpose: “To gaze upon his beauty.” (Cf. Psalm 27:4) Let our prayer be motivated by this purpose so that we set aside time to be with him not out of obligation but out of our heart's desire to encounter true beauty and goodness. And may that encounter lead us to offer the most generous yes to the Lord that we can offer.

TODAY’S PRAYER:

Psalm 34:9-16
Taste and see that the LORD is good.
Blessed the man who seeks refuge in him.

Fear the LORD, you his holy ones.
They lack nothing, those who fear him.
The rich suffer want and go hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no blessing.

Come, children, and hear me,
that I may teach you the fear of the LORD.
Who is it that desires life
and longs to see prosperous days?

Guard your tongue from evil,
and your lips from speaking deceit.
Turn aside from evil and do good.
Seek after peace, and pursue it.

The LORD turns his eyes to the just,
and his ears are open to their cry.

FOR YOUR REFLECTION:

*Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation, 1898, Philadelphia Museum of Art*

Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Annunciation is a relatively contemporary (1898) work of art. There is a simplicity to it: Tanner uses a column of light to depict Gabriel and paints Mary in peasant clothing with no halo or other traditional symbols depicting her holiness. What stands out is Mary’s upward and open gaze toward the angel Gabriel. Mary’s posture is one of humility and littleness: her hands joined together in her lap, her body slightly leaning forward. But her face conveys her openness to the Lord as her head and eyes are raised, coming outside of herself. This is the spiritual posture we aim for in our prayer: to be drawn outside of ourselves toward the beauty, goodness, and love of the Lord.

When you pray, are your eyes more focused on yourself or the Lord? Sometimes, our prayer can become the proverbial “navel-gazing” that is more self-focused. Notice how, in Tanner’s Annunciation, Mary is pulled outside herself into an experience of God’s love. Through the Holy Spirit, the Lord wants to pull us outside ourselves into an experience of his love. It may take a number of baby steps, but trust that the Lord wants you to experience the depth of his love for you.

For your continued prayer today, go back to Psalm 34 above or offer one of the "Prayers of Surrender and Abandonment.”

The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book 11, Chapter 4
The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book 10, Chapter 27

The Gospel of Yes Daily Reflection for Dec. 5, 2023