~Father Vincent, December 2019
O God, in the days ahead, in a time of doubt and uncertainty,
In a year when so much around us seems dark and unfamiliar,
may we, like the Magi, pilgrim toward an inner epiphany of Christ
carrying the gifts of an open heart,
a welcoming heart,
a consenting heart –
To you, O God, whose heart is restless until you rest in us.
Overshadow us now with the same Spirit that hovered over Mary
by whose consent you poured yourself into Creation;
a self-emptying which human minds could not imagine nor hearts conceive.
We pray that in the silence of your Word-Made-Flesh,
we may conceive in ourselves the inconceivable.
That we may, with Mary, offer our “yes,” our “fiat,”
that we may never cease to birth Christ in the world;
never cease to embody Christ in ourselves, as words-made-flesh.
O! Break upon the muck of human history in the Bethlehem of our own hearts.
Where amidst our doubts and fears
we may discover yet again the breaking of a new dawn.
Where we may discover yet again eternity birthed in time,
and hope born in the most unexpected of places!
For Alas! A new dawn breaks upon us – indeed within us!
Not with the ferocity of a divine warrior
but with the vulnerability of an infant messiah;
In him, may we discover at last our pilgrimage to God
is but God’s pilgrimage into every living soul.