Daily Meditations for Advent 2025

We’ve come to the final Sunday of Advent in the Year of our Lord 2025.   I doubt that any of those first witnesses to Jesus’ birth, or any of those who first conceived that he was the Christ of God, or even any of those from the generations who carried Easter’s resurrection proclamation would have imagined that there would be people like us, two millennia in the future still telling this story.  How could they have conceived such a thing.  It is nothing short of miraculous in my mind.

But here we are in a time and place that couldn’t be more different than the world as these first believers, followers, and gospel witnesses. But are we that much different? Technologically, intellectually, socially we seem to have almost nothing in common, even with those who preceded us by just a few decades. But has human nature really changed in the years since Jesus was born, or even since we uttered our first awakening cries? I think not, and therein lies the great value of leaning about those who have preceded us in navigating the three or four score years we might be blessed with life. That is why reading the w0rds left to us in the Bible, in great literature, poetry and philosophy is nothing less than a window into who we really are and what it really means to live life to the fullest.

The lyrics and sounds of music provide us with one of the most important channels by which we can both see into the past of our species and look deeply into the present of our very being. The blessing of another year to celebrate Christmas provides all of us a most important gift that may renew the faith we once innocently embraced when we first were drawn into this story of angels and magi, fearful parents and frightened despots.  My prayer is that we will receive God’s gift in the birth of the Christ child and not only ponder what it means, as did his mother Mary, but  share that gift in the spirit of compassion, forgiveness, and love that bear witness to Emmanuel, that God is truly with us and among us.

The four reflections I’ve written for this last week of Advent,  as well as those posted for previous weeks, can be read in full by clicking the drop-down menu under “All Posts” at the top of this website’s home page.  Please accept my gratitude for reading these spiritual ruminations based on the poetry and music that the birth of Jesus has, and continues to inspire among those to whom he was, is and always will be Emmanuel.