{"id":2131,"date":"2016-12-17T00:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-12-17T05:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:47:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:47:28","slug":"dec-17-advent-and-the-3-strange-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2016\/12\/17\/dec-17-advent-and-the-3-strange-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"Dec 17 Advent and the 3 Strange Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, December 17<\/strong><\/p>\n

Campuses are quiet, winter chilly, and slushy. \u00a0Last final exams went down this morning. \u00a0We are beginning to button up for the heart and soul of Advent, \u00a0then the feast of Jesus\u2019 birth, then the New Year until it\u2019s time to stir the many fires of this place of teaching and research and learning. \u00a0 But today is the 17th day of Advent, which also means the 1st of the seven days when the ancient and beautiful \u00a0\u201cO Antiphons\u201d create a context of stillness and wonder.<\/p>\n

Advent hope, as D H Lawrence suggests, wants to stir our imaginations and our courage to wait for amazing grace[s]. \u00a0That was on my mind 2 Decembers ago when I wrote these thoughts about the early returns of an astonishing breakthrough success of Detroit\u2019s bankruptcy. \u00a0Now 2 years later, city investments turn up 3-5 times a week. \u00a0Still lots to do, \u00a0still sufferings, but \u00a0across the nation .<\/p>\n

The notes from 2014? \u00a0are they a poem? \u00a0Not exactly. \u00a0But worth reading and remembering before you turn to the Lawrence poem and the Antiphon for the \u00a0 day, \u00a0\u201cO Wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

early evening, have a blest night. \u00a0Tomorrow \u201cO Adonai”<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About December 17, 2014<\/u><\/p>\n

“Late December two years ago the Detroit bankruptcy had matured into grinding uncertainties; \u00a0surely for the c. 32,000 Detroit citizens whose futures looked harrowing \u2014 would their pensions, the magnitude of their underfunded status\u00a0becoming obvious by then, be chopped down to $0.75 on the dollar? \u00a0Surely for the Detroit Institute of Arts \u2014 would their world class collection of treasures be gutted by hungry creditors? \u00a0Surely for the city \u2014 would Detroit lose any shot at a turn toward fiscal integrity if the bankruptcy went sour \u2014 any shot at rebuilding its bus system, its computer system, its water system, its neighborhoods, because the creditor process stripped the city clean until it resembled a carcass instead of a vital place in which people love to live?<\/p>\n

I noticed in yesterday’s Crain\u2019s Detroit Business (Dec 16, 2014), an article observing that Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Rhodes and, doubtless, Mediation Judge Gerald Rosen, had jawboned down the city\u2019s legal bills from the most complex city bankruptcy in US history and freed up another $25 million that could go to pressing needs \u2014 like buses or computer systems or the neighborhoods, to go with the $1.7 billion fund already set aside as part of the Grand Bargain for those same rebuilding purposes. \u00a0No mistake about it, \u00a0Detroit still packs wounds and has a long list of rebuilding projects \u2014> \u00a0but they are projects, which, like the rebuilding of Livernois just outside our McNichols Campus, are starting points with believable futures. \u00a0Last year\u2019s knocking on our doors in the night of fiscal threat begin to look like D.H. Lawrence\u2019s three strange angels. \u00a0It is a very Advent emotion to risk some rejoicing of a future reborn in a still demanding world.<\/p>\n

Yes, gun-wielding violent people can still slaughter innocent children in place after place, country after country, just as some Taliban tried to murder Malala, Nobel Laureate champion of girls who risk their lives to attend school. \u00a0 Yes, Detroit\u2019s neighborhoods require daily courage to build on a miracle of cross-race and cross-politics mutual risk-taking through all this year of 2014. \u00a0Like the birth of every child, the birth of hope emerges into the world bloody and exhausted . . . \u00a0but pulsing with life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have a blest day,<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

p.s.\u00a0So the O Antiphons sing to us. \u00a0 I hope you enjoy them each day until Christmas Eve and recognize as you listen to their centuries-old Gregorian Chant that millions of women and men and children have listened before us.<\/p>\n

Thursday December 17 \u00a0\u2014 \u201cIt is the 3 strange angels . .\u00a0. \u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

D. H. Lawrence, of Lady Chatterley fame, wrote poetry as well.<\/p>\n

Here is an Advent prayer if there ever was one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the knocking?
\nWhat is the knocking at the door in the night?
\nIt is somebody who wants to do us harm.
\nNo, no, it is the three strange angels. Admit them, admit them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post \u00a0December 17 \u00a0\u2014 \u201cO Sapientia\u201d \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cO wisdom, coming forth from the Most High, filling all creation and reigning to the ends of the earth; come and teach us the way\u00a0of truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

“O Sapientia, \u00a0quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,\u00a0attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter,suaviterque disponens omnia:\u00a0veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.’<\/p>\n

\"Dec17\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To listen to the Antiphon sung in Gregorian Chant<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=S6zaiZxJIpU<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, December 17 Campuses are quiet, winter chilly, and slushy. \u00a0Last final exams went down this morning. \u00a0We are beginning to button up for the heart and soul of Advent, \u00a0then the feast of Jesus\u2019 birth, then the New Year … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2132,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions\/2132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}