Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

The Gospel for today's Daily Office plants us on the ground with the early disciples and those gathered around him wondering if this could really be the Messiah, even John the Baptist wanted some confirmation - "could he really be the one? How will we know?" Jesus sends back a message that John would understand immediately, prophecies being fulfilled from the times of the Prophet Isaiah.

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’

Speeding toward this evening's prayers we would traditionally pray the Great O Antiphons surrounding the Magnificat - with tonight's antiphons referring to the Root of Jesse, "O Root of Jesse, who standest for an ensign to the peoples, at whom kings shall shut their mouths, and to whom the Gentiles shall pray: Come and deliver us, and do not delay."

Today, as we get ever so much closer to Christmas we are invited into a time of noticing and reckoning with prophecies really coming true, with God really coming to be with us, and God really promising to come again to renew all things. Come and deliver us, and do not delay, we pray in this Advent. The root of Jesse refers to a new creation out of a broken place - referring to Jesse, King David's Father, who is an important part of Jesus' ancestry we see again and again in scripture. A new way out of all that has been, out of a surprising genealogy and into the world as it is with the ultimate gift, Emmanuel.

In Christ,
Mtr Taylor