Fr. Joel Sember - Oriens: A Pilgrimage Through Advent and Christmas 2021

A Pilgrimage Through Advent and Christmas

November 28, 2021 February 2, 2022

Fr. Joel Sember

Nihil Obstat

Msgr. Michael Heintz, Ph.D.

Censor Librorum

Imprimatur

Kevin C. Rhoades

Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend

June 8, 2021

The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a book is free from doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed.

Except where noted, the Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC, and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL); All rights reserved.

Excerpts from the Book of Blessings, 1988, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC.

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Copyright 2021 by Father Joel Sember

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P RINTED IN THE U NITED S TATES OF A MERICA

Dedicated to Saint Joseph,
foster father of Jesus
and father of spiritual fatherhood

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and to James and Marion Sember
and family who keep me humble

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and to all my fellow pilgrims
who walked with me on
Oriens 2020 last year

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Buen Camino!

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to pray, and you feed him for a lifetime.

There are many wonderful Advent books full of moving meditations for you to choose from. This isnt one of them. Instead of giving you meditations I came up with, Oriens will teach you how to meditate for yourself. If you dont really know how to pray with Scripture, this book will teach you. If you already know how to pray, then it will help you to pray better. I left space each day for you to journal your prayer experiences. When you get to the end of the book, you will find it is full of moving meditations, but they wont be my meditations; theyll be yours. I hope that, as you learn to go deeper in your conversations with God, prayer becomes your favorite part of each day, and this season takes on a whole new meaning.

It was my third year of Theology at the North American College in Rome. We had two weeks of Easter vacation to go experience Europe. A classmate and I decided to walk the Camino Portugus, a shorter version of the famous medieval pilgrimage route across Spain. (Its so famous that its called simply El Camino, which means The Way in Spanish.) I bought some shoes and borrowed a backpack, and we flew to Lisbon. We took a train to the Portuguese border and spent a week walking to the burial place of Saint James the apostle. Something special happened on the way. I started to see myself, and the ordinary world, in a whole new way. I discovered the magic of walking pilgrimages.

Three years later I was back in America as a newly ordained priest. We dont have to fly to Europe to walk down the road, I thought. I scoped out a walking route to a local shrine, lined up places to stay every twelve miles or so, and found people to bring us food each night. Twenty-two people joined me on that pilgrimage. Their lives were changed, and I realized that the magic of walking pilgrimages isnt limited to the plains of Spain. Every year for the past ten years, Ive led a five-day walking pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin. I never cease to come away with some new gift, blessing, or lesson learned on the way.

Walking pilgrimages are a much different experience from a bus pilgrimage. When you ride a bus to a shrine, its mostly about the destination. Pilgrims look forward to a big Aha moment waiting for them when they arrive. Walking pilgrims, on the other hand, learn the joy of the journey. They see familiar roads in a whole new way. They appreciate the beauty around them. They enter into the ebb and flow of nature. They draw closer to the people they walk with. They learn to keep their eyes open for encounters with God along the way. Most of all, they learn to put one foot in front of the other and keep walking no matter what. A walking pilgrimage is about more than the destination; its a journey of the heart. It changes you in ways you never expected.

So, what does this have to do with Advent and Christmas? We all struggle with Advent. The Church is telling us to slow down, but the world is telling us, Hurry up. We rush around preparing for the birth of Jesus. We look forward to the big Aha moment waiting for us at Christmas. And we always seem to miss out somehow. How is it that every year Christmas seems less merry and bright than we were hoping it would be? Too often, Christmas seems to fly by even more quickly than Advent does!

The problem is that we keep treating Advent like the bus on the way to Christmas. We expect to step off at Bethlehem and have some kind of amazing experience. Yet Holy Mother Church designed Advent to be more like a walking pilgrimage. You take a little step every day. You learn to enjoy the journey instead of rushing to Christmas and then youre better prepared to enjoy the full Christmas season, rather than rushing to get the celebration over with. You connect with the people around you. You enter into a new rhythm. The ordinary things of life start to take on a new meaning. God meets you on the road. Think of this book as a Camino guidebook. It will show you how to step off the busy Christmas bus and walk the Advent road one day at a time. You will learn that Advent and Christmas are more than a destination; they involve a journey of the heart.