Perhaps you feel a sense of real longing this Advent, longing for justice in a world of injustice, yearning for hope and deliverance. This might be a good time to spend the four weeks of Advent reflecting and journaling on Mary’s words in the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). Notice that after Mary has been affirmed by her cousin Elizabeth in her knowledge of carrying the Divine within her body, she breaks into a song of exultation and a declaration of God’s concern for justice. Justice will be established. And it will be done in a radical way: through God’s love in sending Jesus.
Spend time thinking about what a revolutionary message Mary proclaimed. No passive, sweet young thing, this Mary. No, she was courageous, strong and insightful! And the baby she carried within her body brought reconciliation to the world. This baby brought a radical message of love to a world more interested in power, prestige and who’s in and who’s out, who’s up and who’s down (a state of being we still see today).
This message is excerpted from “A different kind of journey” by Sonia Solomonson, a 2011 resource of the Women of the ELCA.
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