Daily Reading for December 1
Advent offers all of us a chance to be born again. We might well ask with Nicodemus, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus tells us that if we want to be part of the people of God we must be born “from above”: “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (John 3:4–7). In truth, all of life is an ongoing opportunity for us to find new life and to get in touch with God’s ongoing work of co-creating the world with us.
In the beginning God created everything. Created by God, we are called to be stewards of all that we have and receive from God. The mystery of the incarnation, Christmas, and Christ’s coming invites us to enter fully into God’s ongoing acts of creation and to participate joyfully in the reign of God.
Advent calls us to remember that God is our Creator. Remembering God’s acts of creation, as well as God’s acts of redemption, liberation, salvation, and grace, we grow in anticipation of the Child’s coming at Christmas and on the last day. The first step in Advent is to remember that we are created by God and loved by God.
From The Womb of Advent by Mark Bozutti-Jones. Copyright © 2007. Seabury Books, an imprint of Church Publishing. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY. www.churchpublishing.org