New Perspectives: The Last Week of Advent – by Rev. Heather McCarrel

photo by Jon Carlson

“You could more easily catch a hurricane in a shrimp net that you can understand the wild…pursuing love of God made present in the manger.” … Brennan Manning

Richard Francis Xavier Manning (April 27, 1934 – April 12, 2013), known as Brennan Manning, was a prolific American author, defrocked Priest and public speaker who summed up the Advent journey colourfully when he wrote, “You could more easily catch a hurricane in a shrimp net that you can understand the wild, relentless, passionate, uncompromising, pursuing love of God made present in the manger.”

The last sign post before arriving to the destination of the Advent Journey is the last blue candle, the candle of love.  We pass through the doors of love as we draw ever closer to God among us, in the form of a wee baby born in a feeding trough.

This love surrounds us from birth to the life beyond this life; a love so perfect we know not life without it and yet, so often fail to recognize its presence. As it is written, “In this life we have three great lasting qualities-faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love.”(1 Cor 13:13)

This last week of Advent I offer a poem by Margaret Matthews to accompany you on the journey: