Turn your face to Him, Believe! Praying with Scripture, part 4 – Advent 2024

Summary

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We should change our interior posture to prepare for the coming of Christ. We may not always understand God’s plan, but we can imitate Mary and bring Christ into the world.

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Reflective Study Guide Questions

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“Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.” (Psalm 80:4)

You can find the readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent here at usccb.org.

Reflective Questions

1. Have you, like Sarah, wondered what it means that Jesus will come to us at Christmas – or how you will recognize him when he does? What insight did you gain from the Holy Land images she shared (the “door of humility” in Bethlehem and the painting of Mary approaching the home of Elizabeth)?

1. Drawing on the readings, Sarah pointed out that Jesus doesn’t always come as we expect. Looking for the baby in the manger, we may miss the reason that he took on flesh. She explained how Mary’s pondering the words of Gabriel and Simeon over time, wrestling with them and giving them her “yes,” may have enabled her to stand at the Cross. Where in your life is it hard to see Jesus with you, today? Pray with the Responsorial Psalm, and ask Mary to show you his face.

1. Luke’s description of the Visitation suggests that Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant, bearing in her womb what was prefigured by the contents of the original Ark: the living Word of God; the Bread of Life; and the great High Priest himself. Sarah asked you to consider that this is who Mary gives birth to, who you will approach in the manger by the altar at the Christmas Mass. He will come to you in the Liturgy of the Word and in the Eucharist. How can you prepare this week to receive him … allow his word and life to grow within you … and give him flesh in the world?

Lectio Divina: Psalm 80:2–3, 15–16, 18–19

Continue praying with the Responsorial Psalm, with which Sarah closed her talk (or choose another 4^th Sunday reading, found here), using this guide: 

• PRAY
• Come Holy Spirit, speak to me as I read your Word.

• READ (reading—lectio)

Read the passage several times. What does it say? What word or words stand out to you? Write them here and pause a moment with them. Receive them in your heart, listening closely for the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

• REFLECT (meditation—meditatio)

What does the passage mean? What do you hear the Lord saying to you?

• RESPOND (prayer—oratio)

What is the Lord asking of you? Talk to the Lord about what you hear.

• REST (contemplation: contemplatio)

Remain quiet for a moment in his loving embrace.

• PRAY (The Salve Regina)

+ Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,our life, our sweetness and our hope.To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.To thee do we send up our sighs,mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.Turn then, most gracious advocate,thine eyes of mercy toward us,and after this our exileshow unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.O clement, O loving,O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us O holy mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

Mary, Mother of the Word Incarnate: show us the face of your Son.

For a way to more deeply meditate on the readings throughout the week either leading up to or following Sunday, download Receive the Word! A Bible Reading Plan for Advent – Year C. 

Text: Turn your face to Him, Believe! Praying with Scripture, part 4

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Hi, I’m Sarah Christmyer, so glad to be with you again. We are coming to the end of our advent journey. Christmas is just a few days away, and for a month now we have been preparing our hearts to receive Jesus in a new way at Christmas by lifting our souls to him, by repenting of sin and rejoicing, whatever our circumstances, knowing that he is near. So let us draw once again from the well of the Word that we’re given in the Sunday readings and let them guide us along these final steps to him. Let’s pray.

Opening Prayer

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, Your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by his passion and cross be brought to the glory of his resurrection. Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever, amen. Mary, mother of the Word incarnate, show us the face of your Son.

We Need To Slow Down

Maybe you’re thinking as we approach Christmas, like I find myself doing, I’ve been asking this question, what does it mean that Jesus will come to us? How do I come to him? What is this journey that we’re on, actually, practically speaking? And how do I recognize him when he comes? And maybe the biggest question, how can I possibly focus through all this noisy activity that’s going on all around me? I want to share two images that may help, both of them from the Holy Land.

And the first one is from Bethlehem, which as you might remember was not exactly a quiet, peaceful place when Joseph and Mary went there in order to have the Christ child. It was just bustling with activity and noise and distractions. So maybe like our houses right now. Well today, if you want to visit that place in Bethlehem where Jesus was born, you have to get down on your knees and go through this tiny little door that’s called the door of humility. That’s the only way to get into the basilica there. And then as you approach the crypt, the actual location down below ground where Jesus was born, you have to pause, take your time and sort of carefully descend a set of very steep steps that go down into the small cave below. So you have to stop.

Our posture matters in this approach to Christmas. As we get ready for these last few days, we need to stop. We need to slow down somehow and stoop. We may not have a physical door, small door to go through or physical steps that we have to go down, but we can escape to a quiet place and we can pray. We can ask Mary, maybe actually pray with her, her Magnificat, and ask her help to obtain for us the grace to be humble, to be quiet and receptive as we approach the major on Christmas amid all those distractions.

Jesus is With Us

The second picture that I want to share with you comes from the chapel of the visitation in a place called Ein Karem. It’s up in the hill country of Judah and it is the home of Zacharia and Elizabeth that Mary came to visit at the visitation. And when you go into the chapel there, the space above the altar is filled with this big beautiful painting of Mary just coming in from the mountains to visit her cousin. And she stands facing you in an attitude of prayer. Her arms are out like this in Orans prayer position, totally receptive to God. Her elbows close to her body, her palms outstretched up toward God. And not only her arms, but every line in the painting it seems is pointing toward this central focal point, which is her womb. Her womb is the center.

And here’s the thing. All right, Mary has been pregnant for what, a week, maybe two weeks? She doesn’t have a baby bump yet. There’s nothing about her then or in this painting that is suggesting that she’s pregnant. And yet Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice and what happens? The child in her womb leaps for joy. The child in her womb leaps. So here’s this boy who was created by God especially to announce that the Messiah is coming and to prepare people for his coming, He has just made his first announcement. Here he comes. And Elizabeth, because she’s inspired by the Holy Spirit gets the picture. She knows what’s happening. I take comfort from this thought because Jesus comes to us in really hidden ways sometimes. Sometimes it doesn’t look anything like what we expect and sometimes we can’t even believe He’s there. Just we can’t see it. Just like he was hidden in Mary’s flat belly when she came to visit Elizabeth.

How does he come to us? He comes in our neighbors, some of them whom we don’t like even. He comes in the poor, the unlovable, the rejected. He comes in his word. He came as a crucified, what looked like a criminal. He comes in a tiny little wafer, the Eucharist. He comes in hidden ways. So how do we know when he comes when we can’t see him?

One of the ways that we know that it’s him is because he sent those Old Testament prophets to tell us. And because he sent John the Baptist to point the way and tell us how to walk in it. And because he sends the Holy Spirit to quicken our hearts as he did to Elizabeth.

The Prophet Micah

But we need to ask his help sometime. Just thinking about Christmas coming, I know that Christmas is, it’s a time of joy, but it’s a very difficult time for a lot of people. Maybe your family doesn’t go to church anymore. Maybe they’ve totally turned their back on God. That can make it very difficult. Maybe you don’t get along, it’s not a happy family time. Maybe you wonder as this week is approaching, where’s Jesus who’s supposed to be near, where is he? I think if that is you right now, you can let the prophet speak to you. And I turn now to today’s prophet that we hear from in the Old Testament. His name is Micah because he had that exact same situation in spades, really. God initially made his family out of 12 tribes of Israel, they’re all cousins, they’re all family. And almost all of them turned away from him. They turned their back on him. They started a whole other kingdom after he brought them to the promised land, they started a whole new religion practically, turning their back on God, worshiping other gods. And now Micah, who’s from the remaining tribe that did stay with God down in Judah, he starts witnessing the terrible results of that because these apostate tribes are ravaged by Assyria and carried off, kidnapped, carried off into captivity.

And then after that much of the promised land where they were carried off from, it gets resettled by pagans from various different countries. So it’s really a deeply horrible time for them. And I can imagine that he and others are just thinking, God, where are you? Where are you in all of this mess? So God comes to Micah and he gives him a beautiful message and that’s what we hear this morning. God will raise a great ruler from a tiny, insignificant town in that tribe of Judah who remains the town of Bethlehem. And he says, when she who is to give birth has born, that will mark the true return of God’s people. And their ruler will be strong and he will be a great shepherd and he’ll bring peace to the earth.

So beautiful, beautiful prophecy that comes to Micah during this difficult time. And today, you know, we know that that actually happened, right? It’s what we’re celebrating in a couple days. And while we wait for his second coming, when those promises are fully going to be realized, we also know that in between he comes to us, he comes to us in our lives, he doesn’t just leave us and this passage can give us hope.

Ask For Mary’s Help

The second reading we get from Hebrews chapter 10, it jumps ahead kind of oddly, maybe, to the reason that Christ died. It almost feels like an advent, I mean like a lent reading, not an advent one. But it’s good for us to remember Jesus didn’t just come as a baby, he didn’t just come to take our flesh so that he could be near us, he came, he took flesh so that he could die, so that he could die for us. And this reading reminds us that that wasn’t a mistake, it was God’s will from the beginning, that Jesus was carrying out his will when he did it. So not only the manger, but the cross, part of God’s plan. And if we don’t keep this in mind when we’re celebrating Christmas or looking forward to doing it, it can be hard to see or to recognize Jesus when he comes to us in our lives because he doesn’t always come to us the way we expect. Sometimes it looks more like he did on the cross.

I think that Mary can really help us here. She may not have understood fully what it was going to mean for her to bear the Messiah. She probably thought here would be this king who would be reigning. She probably didn’t know what it meant ahead of time that a sword would pierce her soul, as Simeon said would happen. But by pondering these words over time, by taking the words of the prophet into her heart, pondering them, praying with them, allowing the Lord to speak to her through them and by humbly giving them her yes, even without understanding, she was able to stand at the cross. Just let that sink in for a minute because I think that’s true for us as well.

God is good all the time. All the time God is good, right? And it’s at the cross, the cross that he hung on, but also the cross, crosses that we are on in our lives that we carry. It’s the cross that leads to life, as hard as it may seem to understand that or to realize it, especially when we’re going through it. So if you can’t see Jesus in whatever it is that you’re going through right now, ask Mary to help you to see his face. She can.

The Visitation

Given all of this kind of heavy stuff, I think the responsorial psalm is really important because it gives us words in order to respond to all of this, to the Lord from our hearts. So in this case, what is the response? Lord, make us turn to you. Let us see your face and we shall be saved. We can pray that when everything’s going beautifully and we can see his face, but I think more importantly if we can’t see his face, if things look dark, if we’re still in that place of exile, we can pray this with our heart and it can give us hope. Lord, make us turn to you. Sometimes I forget to turn to him and I just look at the problem. Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved.

So if you can’t see Jesus in that season, in this season right now, make that your prayer. And listen, if you read the whole Psalm, I love the ending, it says, “Give us new life and we will call on your name.” “Give us new life and we will call on your name.” And I love that because I don’t always have it in me to turn to God and call on his name. And you know what? That’s okay because his initiative goes before ours and he can help us to do this. Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved. We will pray that in the responsorial psalm at mass and then that in turn will prepare us to hear the gospel, which is the visitation.

When Luke describes the way that Jesus came to Elizabeth in the visitation, he wants to make sure that we know who exactly this child really is. So interestingly, he pulls language from Second Samuel chapter six. It says, at a time when King David is taking the arc of the covenant into Jerusalem for the first time. And if you don’t know what the arc of the covenant is, it was this sacred gold covered chest, I guess, where God was enthroned upon the mercy seat. them over top of it and they said God was enthroned sitting on that mercy seat. So it’s really the place of his presence in the tabernacle in the temple. It was in the Holy of Holies. And inside the Ark of the Covenant were the 10 Commandments. What is that? That’s God’s word, right? There was a jar of manna, that miraculous bread that the Israelites got in the desert when they were making their way across and needed food. And then Aaron’s rod that actually butted, which represented the high priesthood that God gave to him. So the jar of manna, the 10 Commandments, and Aaron’s rod.

In Second Samuel Six, David takes that arc, which has been in the tabernacle all this time and he goes up into the hill country of Judah. He dances for joy before the ark. And then he asks, “How is it that the ark has come to me?” Does that language remind you of anything in the gospel today, the visitation? Mary travels to the hill country of Judah. John the Baptist, leaps for joy in his mother’s womb. And Elizabeth asks, how does this happen to me that the arc of my Lord… I’m sorry. How does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Very, very similar language, in fact. Scholars tell us that in the original is very much the same.

So what is Luke suggesting? He is saying that Mary is the new arc of the covenant, the new seat of the presence of God, the presence of God in our midst. Why? Because she bears in her womb, pretty much the same things that are in the Ark of the Covenant, or at least what they point to. So for the 10 Commandments, the word of God, who is Jesus? But the word, Jesus is the word, right? There was manna in the Ark of the Covenant. And who is Jesus? He is the true bread that comes down from heaven.

And then the third thing, the sign of Aaron’s high priesthood, who is Jesus but the great high priest who Aaron only prefigured. So Mary has in her womb and she gives birth to this, to the word made flesh, to the bread from heaven, to the great high priest. She’s giving birth to him. And that is who you approach when you approach the major on Christmas morning, and that is who you will receive on your tongue, in your mouth when you go to mass, that child she gave birth to.

So approach him humbly on Christmas when you go to mass, go through that door of humility that I talked about earlier. We say that in the mass. We say, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Maybe that’s the roof of your mouth, right? Think about that. I’m not worthy that you should enter into me. Maybe we can add in our hearts, as Mary said, I am the handmade of the Lord. May it be done unto me, according to your word. Your word that I’m receiving in words and in flesh today. Allow the Lord to plant his word and his flesh into your heart. Ponder, nurture it, allow it to grow, carry him with you into the world, like Mary did, and pray that he will be formed in you and that he will live through you. May you, like Mary, be fruitful and give him flesh in the world.

PSALM 80

Now, let’s pray with that responsorial psalm and make it our own. As we’ve done each week, I’m going to pray with the Psalm three times. The first time, simply listen to what is said. Allow it to pierce your heart like the word pierced Mary’s heart. Allow it to enter in and take root. The second time, I’ll give you a little bit more time to ponder it and also to respond as you see fit. And then the third time, simply listen and rest in his love. Now, put yourself in God’s presence. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, come, Holy Spirit, speak to us as we hear your word.

Lord, make us turn to you. Let us see your face and we shall be saved. Oh, shepherd of Israel, harken, from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth, rouse your power and come to save us. Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved. Once again, oh Lord of hosts, look down from heaven and see, take care of this vine, protect what your right hand has planted, the son of man whom you yourself made strong. Lord, make us turn to you. Let us see your face and we shall be saved. May your help be with the man of your right hand, with the son of man whom you yourself made strong. Then we will no more withdraw from you. Give us new life and we will call upon your name. Lord, make us turn to you. Let us see your face and we shall be saved.

I hope you were listening with your heart. What word or phrase stood out to you? What did you hear? Thank you, Lord, for this word to us. I am going to read the word again. Listen to it and reflect on it in the silence that I give you and begin to respond to him.

Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved. Especially this Christmas, we pray. Quicken our hearts like you did Elizabeth’s, give us eyes to truly see you. Oh, shepherd of Israel, harken, from your throne upon the cherubim shine forth. That throne upon the cherubim, that’s the mercy seat on the arc. Rouse your power and come to save us. Does that word speak to you? Do you need a shepherd right now, a savior? Let it speak into your life. Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved. Once again, oh Lord of hosts, look down from heaven and see, take care of this vine and protect what your right hand has planted, the son of man whom you yourself made strong. That son of man in this psalm is His people, Israel. But you can pray it for yourself as well. You are part of his people, part of his vineyard. What has God planted in you that might be in danger? Once again, ask for his help.

Lord of hosts, that is the God of the armies of heaven, call on his care. Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved. May your help be with the man of your right hand, with the son of man whom you yourself made strong. Then we will no more withdraw from you. Give us new life and we will call upon your name. May your help be with us, then we will know more withdraw from you. Give us new life and we will call upon your name. Lord, make us turn to you. Let us see your face and we shall be saved.

I’m going to read the passage one last time. You can close your eyes. Just be with the Lord. Listen with your heart again or pray it aloud with me and let these words become your own. Lord, make us turn to you. Let us see your face and we shall be saved. Oh, shepherd of Israel, harken, from your throne upon the cherubim shine forth, rouse your power and come to save us. Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved. Once again, oh Lord of hosts, look down from heaven and see, take care of this vine, protect what your right hand has planted, the son of man whom you yourself made strong. Lord, make us turn to you. Let us see your face and we shall be saved. May your help be with the man of your right hand, with the son of man whom you yourself made strong. Then we will no more withdraw from you. Give us new life and we will call upon your name. Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved.

Stay a minute with the Lord. Feel his presence with you. Let his peace fill your heart. I hope that you have been enriched by these scriptures that we’ve been given by the church for advent. May the seed of the Word be planted richly within you. Please practice Lectio Divina. Take the word deep into your heart. Ponder it, respond to it, talk to the Lord about it. Reflect, make your resolution of acting it out in your life and rest in his love, the very deep love that he has for you. I wish you a blessed wonderful advent and Christmas.

Closing Prayer

Let’s close in prayer. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Hail, holy queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope, to thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then most gracious advocate thine eyes of mercy towards us. And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus. O Clement, o loving, o sweet virgin Mary, pray for us, o holy mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen. God bless you and give you a wonderful Christmas.

About Sarah Christmyer 

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