Monday Advent Talks @ St George’s

With Fr Walter

during Advent at 7:00pm preceded by

Refreshments at 6:30pm in the Church hall

ALL WELCOME

1st Talk on Monday 2nd of December:

The Trinity and Creation

The first Advent talks was about the Trinity.  God is love, goodness, truth and beauty. Love can’t help but bubble over and grow and fizz, goodness is self-diffusive.  The Trinity has always been, everything else, creation, is temporal.  The Trinity is self-sufficient, a relationship of three with one nature.  Everything outside comes from the overflowing love and goodness of God. God’s love pours out like a fountain that never stops flowing.

            As human persons, we only encounter a physical human being in God the Son made man.  We have Scripture and tradition to enable us to relate to Jesus, the Word.   We can have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.  Although the Spirit did not become flesh, we experience and relate to the Spirit in our lives. We have different signs and symbols  - fire, water, the dove, ruah (air/breath)  to help, and words such as paraclete, comforter, counsellor, but there is also a range of experiences of the Spirit at work in individual lives.  Our relationship with our Creator the Father is indirect, sometimes experienced in awe and wonder, sometimes through the life of Jesus, addressing his Father and teaching us to believe God is also our father. 

            The talk included discussion and singing. 

2nd Talk on Monday 9th of December:

The Word made Flesh - Jesus reveals the Love of God

“What kind of God becomes Incarnate?”

As this talk is about the Word Incarnate, there will be carols. 

            This talk is about why the Son of God became a man sharing our lives. In Jesus we have a model or exemplar who reveals God to us, from whom we learn how God wants us to live and love on earth.  We appreciate the humility, graciousness and love of God and seek to apply these characteristics to all creatures.The beauty and wonder we experience in creation can lead us to love, praise and thank God. God desires the love of the human heart and that we come to be with Him in his Kingdom.

A few quotes from the presentation

  1. From within the Trinity Jesus became man so that persons would come to know God as Good and Loving.

  2. A God who freely invites others to share that divine communion, the Trinity.

  3. The humble God, the one who gives away all (His only beloved Son)and holds back nothing.

  4. The Eternal God who humbly bent down and lifted the dust of our nature into unity with his own person.

  5. A Creator God Who planned to create human life and wanted humans to have a perfect model to follow, Who would reveal God to all those who accept and believe.

Other points for consideration and contemplation

  • Humility in the life of the Word incarnate the beloved Son, gift of the Father, whose life was lived for love of us -The poverty and humility of Jesus is demonstrated especially in the Incarnation, the Passion and the Eucharist. As St Francis reminded us “God and the Son of God so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under an ordinary piece of bread!”

  • God desires the love of the human heart. It seems impossible but the Eternal God, in the self-sufficiency of God’s Triune blessedness, wants the love of the human heart.

  • Since God did not have to create anything, all is gift and grace. Christ is the perfect divine-human communion who exemplifies the meaning and purpose of all creation, namely the praise and glory of God in a communion of love. Each created thing tells us something about God and each created thing radiates the light of God. Beauty is revealed when human beings strive to make the right choices that correspond to a God who is infinite love.

3rd Talk on Monday 16th of December:

Respect for all Creation, The Dignity of the Human Person.   What is our response to God's extravagant love?