Dhikr for 3rd Sunday of Advent (B)

Readings: Is. 61: 1-2. 10-11; 1Thes. 5: 16-24; Jn. 1: 6-8. 19-28

Text: He said: "I am 'the voice of one crying out in the desert, "Make straight the way of the Lord,"' * as Isaiah the prophet said." (John 1: 23)

Meditation:  The call is to ‘make straight the way of the Lord’.  Often, we miss the coming of the Lord into our lives, because of the ‘hardness’ of our hearts… TAKE HEED…!
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Third Sunday of Advent (B)

Is 61:1-2a, 10-11; 1 Thes 5:16-24; Jn 1:6-8, 19-28

Curiously, like the Synoptic gospel of Mark, the identity of John the Baptizer is established with an attribution to Isaiah. "'I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said" (v.23). Like Mark this appropriation shifts attention from place to person. The passage in Second Isaiah deals not with the identity of the voice but with the significance of the wilderness: "A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God'" (40:3). However in the fourth gospel John the Baptist claims for himself, in the first person, this role of herald in a manner that suggests fulfillment consistent with a more ancient provenance.

Dhikr Prayer Method…

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…