Collect for 2nd Sunday Advent.

COLLECT SERIES

THE MASS: COLLECT SERIES ICON.

COLLECT

The Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent reads as follows:

Almighty and merciful God,

may no earthly understanding hinder those who set out in haste to meet Your Son, 

but may our learning of heaven wisdom gain us admittance to His company. 

Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, 

who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 

one God for ever and ever.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

In making this prayer tangible during the week the following reflection questions emerged.

1. What are the earthly hindrances which prevent us from my relationship with Jesus?

2.What one hindrance might I choose to eradicate with God's grace this Advent?

3. What does heaven's wisdom want to say to me this Advent?

4. How will I incorporate this wisdom into my life this coming week?

5. How is my spiritual goal for Advent progressing after the first week?  Does it need tweaking or do I need to choose a different goal?

PERSONAL NOTE

I am still in rehab after my mini stroke but the good news is that I will be coming home this week.  I am so looking forward to going home after 5 weeks since the stroke.  I have been fortunate in how the stroke has affected me and over time, there will be a full recovery. Unfortunately this does not happen immediately.  I have to wait.

So my advent is very much about waiting for full recovery and being patient with myself. Both of these are not my forte normally.  I can wait for others patiently and I can be incredibly patient with other people. However, waiting and being patient with myself is whole different story.  I have normally so much energy and i make things happen.   I am very much goal driven and motivated. So, waiting patiently and not seeing any/much improvement is frustrating and very difficult to accept.

Still we can learn something when we need to and gradually, I can still learn new skills- new attitudes or hone old ones in a new way.

Missing daily Mass has been a huge blow over these last 5 weeks. Still I have had communion on some days and have watched Mass on TV and I also found Mass streamed from St James The Great Pettswood in UK.  Obviously, it does not replace Mass for those physically able to be at Mass.  However, for the sick and house bound, it is an amazing service.  It is also helpful because I am able to watch it at night in Australia whilst of course the UK is in northern hemisphere.

Not that I wish any of you to be ill, however it is good to know how you can still access Mass should this occur. This is one option   .http://www.stjamespettswood.org/

If you wish to buy my CD for Advent and Christmastide, it is available on www.talkingmusic.online in my onlinestore.  There are the accompanying ebooks as well.  Have a look.  The advent psalms are accompanied on piano whilst the Christmastide Psalms are accompanied on the organ.  I did this to create variety and choice for a wide audience.

I composed the music, played, sung and recorded   Singable  Sunday Psalms for Advent and Singable Sunday Psalms for Christmastide.  It would make a great gift.

Looking for some reflections on Advent?  I have written extensively on this topic over 10 years so why not check out some of these past posts/series.