Advent 2 

Bible Readings

First reading: Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm: Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
Second reading: 2 Peter 3:8-15a
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8

Some thoughts on today's scripture - Mark 1:1-8

• Imagine yourself witnessing the scene, perhaps standing in the shallows, the water flowing around your ankles. Picture the scene and allow it to unfold. What is it like? The young man from Nazareth joins the queue waiting for John’s baptism: a symbol of purifying but also of birth – coming up out of the waters of the womb into a new life as God’s beloved child.
• Lord, when I realise that you love me, and are well pleased with me, it is like the start of a new life. As I hear your voice, I know that I have a purpose and a destiny.

https://www.sacredspace.ie/scripture/mark-1-1-8

Prayer for Finding God’s Will

from Thomas Merton’s book Thoughts in Solitude. He prays:

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust you always though

I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Quoted in Richard Rohr’s meditation of 28 November 2020