Advent Prayer for December 21

Come, Come, Jesus, I Await You
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (20^th century)

I am a poor shepherd; I have only a wretched stable,

a small manger, some wisps of straw.

I offer all these to you, be pleased to come into my poor hovel.

I offer you my heart; my soul is poor and bare of virtues,

the straws of so many imperfections will prick you and make you weep—

but oh, my Lord, what can you expect?

This little is all I have. . . .

I have nothing better to offer you, Jesus,

 honour my soul with your presence, adorn it with your graces.

Burn this straw and change it into a soft couch

for your most holy body.

This prayer, excerpted from the words of a man who would one day be Pope John XXIII, is a mirror into the soul of the young Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli.  “The straws of so many imperfections will prick you and make you weep.”  Ah, that is a man who  is seeking the heart of God, who knows his own heart’s failings and the pain those imperfections will bring to God.

The image is powerful – we’ve felt the pricks and stabs of the straw on a hayride, and cringe at the thought of a baby pillowed in a bed of straw – especially the straw of our own making. 

It is an encouragement to our hearts that the offerings of that poor shepherd, the 4^th-born child of a sharecropper with his wisps of straw, were so adorned with the grace of God that he became a beloved pope as well as a courageous leader. 

So it can be for us as well, when we name the straw that brings tears to the eyes of Jesus, and then bring that straw in repentance, offering what little we have to God.    

 

Prayer Focus:  our wisps of straw