Advent: Med kjærlighet å vente på hans komme
Idet vi går inn i advent, ønsker søstrene alle en velsignet tid, og minner om at kapellet alltid er åpent til bruk for personlig bønn, samt at alle er velkomne til å delta i messer og tidebønner. Se tidspunkter under aktuelle messetider og tidebønnene.
Annen søndag i advent, 9. desember 2018 kl. 17.00, inviterer vi til meditativ adventskonsert, «advent i Norden», med Ingerid Birkeland, Vegar Sandholt og Jan Schumacher. Den finner sted i klostrets kapell.
Konserten etterfølges av kirkekaffe og vesper – og det vil også bli anledning til å kikke etter julepresanger i klosterets lille butikk. Butikken er forøvrig åpen hver dag hele adventstiden, se mer info på denne linken.
Forøvrig anbefaler vi NUKs adventsaksjon «Støtt jenters rettigheter», til inntekt likestillingsprosjekter i DR Kongo og Uganda. NUK distrikt Oslo inviterer blant annet til veldedighetskonsert 4. desember til inntekt for aksjonen i samarbeid med Caritas: https://www.caritas.no/adventskonsert-for-jenters-rettigheter/
Les mer om aksjonen på NUKs hjemmesider:
https://nuk.no/2018/11/12/adventsaksjonen-2018-stott-jenters-rettigheter/
Desember måned og adventstiden er også en tid hvor dominikanerordenen ber spesielt for fred. Årets fokus er på DR Kongo, og vi inviterer alle til be i fellesskap med oss.
De som ønsker mer informasjon, kan lese på denne linken: fraternitiesop.com/ eller følge med på opdacia.org.
Waiting for the Lord allows us to open our heart outward to encompass and express the longing of all of creation
“As we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus Christ, until you come in glory.” These words at the heart of the Eucharistic celebration remind Christians of a central aspect of their identity and life of faith: waiting for the coming of the Lord. “The Christian,” wrote Cardinal Newman, “is one who waits for Christ.” Of course, in a society that wants to have everything immediately, that values speed and productivity, and in which even Christians can often be identified by their frenetic activity, anyone who talks about waiting is not likely to be popular and may very well encounter total incomprehension. For many, waiting is a synonym for passivity, inertia, and the evasion of responsibility. But Christians, who do not let themselves be defined simply by what they do but by their relationship with Christ, know that the Christ they love and in whom they place their trust is the Christ who has come, who comes today, and who will come in glory. They have before them not nothingness or emptiness but a hope that is certain, an expection, a future whose meaning is centered on the Lord’s promise, “Yes, I am coming soon” (Revelation 22:20). The verb ‘to wait,’ from the Latin ad-tendere, suggests a “stretching toward,” an “attention directed toward,” a motion of the spirit in the direction of an Other, a future. We can even call waiting an action – not an action contained within the present, but one that will bring about a future outcome. The second letter of Peter expresses this dimension of waiting when it tells us that the expectation of Christians hastens the coming of the day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:12).
As human beings we are expectation. If this basic anthropological dimension of waiting, which reminds us that we ourselves are ‘unfinished,’ is not recognized, we come face to face with the risk of idolatry – in other words, the risk of seeing the present moment as sufficient in itself. The expectation of the Lord’s coming, on the other hand, requires Christians to wait for what is about to come and to wait with patience for what will come at a moment they do not expect. Patience is the art of living within the incompleteness and fragmentary nature of the present moment without giving in to despair. It is the ability to respect time, to live within its limits and to persevere, and it is also the ability to respect others in their weaknesses and limitations and to carry them. The expectation of and ardent desire for the Lord’s coming makes us men and women capable of patience, with regard to time and in our relationships with each other.
(Fra Enzo Bianchi, Words of Spirituality: Waiting for the Lord)
