In Advent, the church invites us to take some time to
reflect, to live with silence, and to ponder the mystery that in
Jesus, God has become our brother. This would not have
been possible without the surrender of Mary to Gods plan,
for us. Without Mary's yes, Jesus would not have come to
be with us as one of us.
One of the great Protestant Theologians of the 20th
century was Reinhold Niebuhr who, for years taught at Union
Theological Seminary in New York City. He is the author of
a prayer that in part is called the Serenity Prayer, but I
suspect many have not seen the full text of that prayer. For
me, it is a great Advent prayer preparing us to accept God's
will in all things. The full text reads as follows:
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, accepting hardship as the pathway
to peace, taking as he did, the sinful world as it is, not as I
would have it and trusting that He will make all things right if
I surrender to his will; that I may be reasonably happy in this
life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.