Sharing in the Action of the Centurion
- MOTHER MARY FRANCIS, P.C.C.
We say to our Lord in this first week of Advent, "Show me your ways; teach me your paths."
This doesn't mean to point them out as to a tourist, who might say, "Isn't that lovely?" but to show me your ways that I may walk on them, and teach me your paths that I may follow them. This is the itineracy for Advent. Don't sit at the window and rock and wait for the Redeemer to come. Walk down these ways, and follow these paths. It is a time of action.
A homily of Saint Gregory the Great speaks of our Lord's desire to find us prepared. This is a very poignant thought. We know our desire to bring him forth, our desire to meet him in the Parousia, our desire to be with him for ever. He has desires, too. He desires our perfection. He desires to find us prepared. He will be very disappointed if we are not prepared. If we meet him at Midnight Mass with our little works of darkness still around us as snugly as a shawl, then he will be disappointed, because he is desiring to find us ready; he is desiring to find those hearts emptied of our pet affections, our worldliness; he is desiring to find us stripped of our works of darkness; he is desiring to find us full of love and gentleness and eagerness to be his. So let us not disappoint him; let us not meet him with hearts full of our own little desires.
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Acknowledgement
Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. "Sharing in the Action of the Centurion." excerpt from Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting (San Francisco, Ca: Ignatius Press, 2010).
Reprinted with permission from Ignatius Press. This excerpt appeared in Magnificat in December 2014.
The Author
Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. (1921-2006) was the abbess of the Poor Clare Monastery in Roswell, New Mexico. She was an accomplished author and writer of thirteen books, seven plays, and numerous poems. Among her books are: Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Art of Waiting, But I Have Called You Friends: Reflections on the Art of Christian Friendship, A Right to Be Merry, Anima Christi, and Forth and Abroad. During her life she helped found four new Poor Clare monasteries, including one in Holland, and led the restoration of two others.
