Thought for the Day – 22 December – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
Meditations for Advent
From “The Devout Year”
By Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
“O Adonai”
“O Lord and Leader of the house of Israel,
Who didst appear to Moses in a flame of fire in the bush
and didst give to him the law on Mount Sinai,
Come to Redeem us with Thine outstretched Arm.”
+1. The Saviour for Whom we look, is also Our Lord (Adonai), the Leader and Chief to Whom we have sworn fealty.
We speak of Him continually under the familiar Name of Our Lord and, each time we do so, we reassert our acknowledgment of the obligation to follow where He leads and, to be subject to Him, in all things.
O happy followers of such a Leader!
If we tread in His Footsteps and obey His Voice, He will set our feet in green pastures and lead us to the fountains of the water of life.
+2. The flame of fire in the burning bush, was a figure of Jesus in Mary’s Sacred womb.
Holy indeed was the place where God was present and whence He promised to His people their deliverance from Egypt. So He still speaks, as if concealed in Mary’s womb and reminds us that He has made her holy with a holiness second only to His own and, when we draw nigh to her, we hear His Voice announcing to us that He has heard our prayers offered through her and will come to deliver us from our enemies .
+3. What shall be our prayer to Him, when He inspires us to make our request with boldness, at the throne of grace? Come to redeem us with Thine outstretched Arm Come to deliver us from the effects of our past sins. Come to deliver us from the attachment to some sin which still lurks within us. Come to deliver us from all our countless negligences and imperfections.
Come with Thine Arm outstretched toward us; from the foe, O Lord and Lover of our souls!
AnaStpaul 