For weeks, I have thought about blogging during Advent. But what? Then one night, at 2:45 A.M. I woke up singing the refrain from Psalm 72, “Every nation on earth will adore you, Lord. Every nation on earth will adore you, Lord.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt17jakIs5I

I lay in my bed, wondering what is this all about? I finally went back to sleep with the music still dancing in my head. The next night, once again, I woke up at 2:45 A.M. with Psalm 72 whirling and twirling in my head. I whispered, “Lord, what are you trying to tell me?” That afternoon, at Saturday night Mass, I spoke with the pianist and song leader about the refrain. They thought that my dream was suggesting I join them singing at Mass! I thanked them but quickly declined.

For the next week, I found myself humming “Every nation on earth… while doing dishes, I sang it out loud in the shower and listened to it play on the radio. Finally, it dawned on me, maybe, just maybe this is what the Lord was trying to tell me to blog about during Advent. I love it when a story idea comes to me out of the blue. I must admit when an idea comes to me by way of a dream, I am not as fast on the up take as St. Joseph must have been.

In the past, I have worried or fretted about who or what am I going to write about. Without fail, an idea always presents itself in God’s perfect timing. This Advent is proving to be no different. During the first week of Advent one of the reading was:

The first Reading: Isaiah 2 vs 2-3 In days to come,
the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it;
many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths.”

The Responsorial Psalm: Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

I thought about the words, Every, Nation, Earth, Adore, Your, Name, Lord. Every means all of each of us, us in a family, a group, a community, a nation, we can all join together and come to worship the Lord. You/me can be a single nation coming to worship the Name of the Lord. In our parish, we have a preschooler with Down’s, this child as a single nation worshiping the Name of the Lord every Mass with no comparison. This child sat in his pew watching and listening to the choir singing a prelude to Mass. He suddenly raised his arms, directing the choir, his body swayed, his arms waved. Down to the very tips of his wiggling fingers, he was worshiping the Lord. He was happy, joyful, boundless in His adoration of the Lord. I suddenly felt overwhelmed imagining how God must be overjoyed his preschooler showing his unharness adoration for the Lord.

Jesus as you journey with me, ever by my side,

teach me to see ways to adore God

from the small dew drops of life,

to the grandeur mountains of life,

that I pass by every day.

I pray I can adore God with unharness freedom.