We at Friendship and Justice wish to share these reflections and ponderings with the various parishes and all who welcome us. As Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Catholics, we, too, love these liturgies, readings, prayers, and devotions. In our journeys, we have been able to discover and name the God - who waits for us, who seeks us, and who has promised to be with us - as Emmanuel. In Advent and Christmas, God wishes to use prayer to widen our desires, to make us more spacious in our capacity for experiencing God. God does this by making Advent/Christmas into a school for deepening and intensifying our longings. Prayer is the place where we let go of barriers by becoming focused on how delightful God is and relishing God in deep satisfaction. Advent is a time to bring to awareness how God is the hidden manna that feeds us. Our longings and hungers for God are really mirrors of God’s even more relentless longing for us. Advent/Christmas prayer is resting in God’s longing for us. The readings from the lectionary become the teacher that helps us learn about God’s longing and desire for us.

First Sunday of Advent (Readings)
God is so anxious to get our attention. In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus tells us to keep vigilant. The old is passing away. The Befriending Spirit is moving over our lives to birth a new creation in us and in our community based on justice and affectionate inclusion. We need to be alert so we can see and name the God who is transforming us; who is waiting upon us. This is the time of the year to ponder: What are our images of God? Do we need new images for God that will let us experience and recognize the Divine Presence in ways we have not noticed before? Listen to all the images the opening prayers and readings today provide. Who is the God calling you to come close? What is your Advent name for God this year? “The Lord will shower … gifts” - Communion Antiphon.

Second Sunday of Advent (Readings)
What the readings tell us this Sunday is that God waits for us in our dreams and visions. Our deepest longings are in our hopes and dreams. What are they? It is through our dreams and hopes that God brings us comfort. It is in our visions that God speaks tenderly to our heart. In our dreams, God imagines with us a different world where all are included and loved and cared for. Let God dilate your dreams, and hopes, and visions till they become like God’s. Prayer is taking the time to let God dream with us. Prayer is a place where we let our dreams nourish our hope. As Baruch reminds us, we as a community will be called “the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.”

Third Sunday of Advent (Readings)
This liturgy is filled with Joy. We are reminded that God waits for us in our joys. God is the source and giver of the joy in our lives. Our Eucharist is a thanks offering for the gift of the Joyful One. Zephaniah can hardly contain himself in describing God’s intense delight in us. Listen and open your heart to God’s intense joy in you: “The Lord our God is in our midst, God will rejoice over you with gladness…sing joyfully because of you, as one sings at festivals.” Today, you are God’s festival!

Fourth Sunday of Advent (Readings)
This Sunday we are reminded we are tenderly shepherded by God. Micah immerses us into the awareness that we are watched and lovingly tended by God. The Responsorial Psalm then ushers us into prayer and provides us words and images to savor God our shepherd. We cry out with the Psalmist “give us new life and we will call upon your name." Such love cannot be contained, but must be shared. Mary comes to be a tender shepherd for Elizabeth, to attend to her in the last stages of her pregnancy. Together, they discover the Lord in their midst. To whom is the Lord sending you to reveal the Incarnate, the Good Shepherd?

Christmas Day  (Vigil Readings, Dawn Readings, Day Readings)
Today, you can never look down on yourself ever again. What we celebrate today is God’s marriage with all of humanity in the birth of Christ. God in Christ has sought and found us, and refuses to let us go. God will never let us out of the Divine embrace in Christ. How beautiful you are today on your wedding day. Take time to let God relish you, for you are the delight of the Lord’s heart.

Feast of the Holy Family (Readings)
Not just our families, but our communities, are called to be modeled after the Holy Family. Look at how they treat one another in today’s readings. Even when one of them does something the family does not understand, no one resorts to accusations. Their response is to ask questions and then ponder in their hearts the answers that are given. The holy family models relationships like the letter of John describes: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.” That is the only name we are called to use for one another in our family – child of God. This will transform us into a holy family.

New Year’s Day, Solemnity of the Mother of God (Readings)
Usually each Sunday has a three-year cycle of readings. However, this feast has the same readings every year. That is a good thing for us. When the first reading is proclaimed, God stands in our midst and blesses the coming year. God blesses every event, every moment, and every experience that will occur for the year. God precedes us all year with the divine blessing. Our role is to discover all the blessings God has already placed in each new day.

Epiphany (Readings)                                                                                           Epiphanies are a way of life for God. The Divine Presence is always manifesting in our lives and our world. We need to see as Jesus did – marveling at the way God appears to us though human experience, in nature, in history, and  in our community. This feast invites us to open our eyes and develop our faith vision so we do not miss even one epiphany of God in our lives. As the first reading says, ”Then you shall be radiant at what you see…”

Baptism of the Lord (Readings)
Our baptism is an immersion into the experience Jesus had at his baptism. We, too, hear the Voice singing in our hearts those wonderful words –“You are my beloved... with you I am well pleased.” This Sunday sends us forth to live our lives as God’s beloved and to see everyone else in our lives as God’s beloved. And, we can live this way because we have been drenched with the Holy Spirit. This way of looking is the path to Peace.