Hello my friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood Monk-in-Docs,
Welcoming you to Day 2,
Towards the Light,
An Advent Journey.
And today we're going to reflect on the idea of Hope Renewed.
Have you ever noticed that hope isn't the loudest voice in the room?
It doesn't shout and it doesn't demand attention.
Instead,
Hope is quiet.
Hope is steady,
Like a single flame burning in the middle of a dark night.
Hope is persistent,
Not because it ignores the darkness,
But because it chooses to shine in spite of the darkness.
The psalmist writes in Psalm 33,
We wait in hope for the Lord.
God is our help and our shield.
In God our hearts rejoice,
For we trust in God's holy name.
May your unfailing love be with us,
Lord,
Even as we put our hope in you.
Handelberry once wrote,
It gets darker and darker,
And then Jesus is born,
End quote.
And that is the paradox of Advent Hope.
Advent Hope doesn't wait for everything to be perfect.
Advent Hope doesn't need proof.
Rather,
Advent Hope grows in the tension of what is and what could be.
Think too about Mary.
Long before she held Jesus in her arms,
She sang with joy,
My soul magnifies the Lord.
Mary's song wasn't about certainty.
It was about trust.
In many ways,
Mary literally sang hope into being.
What about you?
What sustains your hope right now?
Maybe it's something small,
A word from a friend,
A quiet promise whispered in prayer,
Or a memory of grace when you need it at most.
Sometimes hope is less about what we feel and more about what we choose to carry.
Advent Hope calls us to be present in the waiting,
To let those small embers burn in our hearts steady and sure.
It doesn't ask us to fix everything or even to know how the story's going to end.
It just asks us to trust the light we see,
No matter how faint that light is right now.
And so as we move into day two of our season of waiting,
May today you find courage in the quiet persistence of hope.
May you trust the small light that flickers in the distance,
Even when the night feels long.
May you remember that God's promises are not bound by time.
They grow slowly and surely like a seed beneath the soil.
May hope take root in your heart today,
Steady as the flame of a candle and as you wait.
May you become a light bearer to those around you,
Even if all you carry is a small spark.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with you every step of the way.
And as this time of reflection ends,
I invite you to take a moment just to reflect a bit longer on the quiet persistence of hope.
May me read through Psalm 33 verses 18 to 22 again or have a look at Hebrews 11 and verse 1 and think about what they might reveal about the kind of hope that sustains us.
And until tomorrow,
My friends,
Grace and peace be with you.
Bye for now.
