Advent 2A (Matthew 3:1-12)

​Self-examination is at the heart of spiritual health, and during Advent, its importance comes into clearer focus. The call of John the Baptist—“Prepare the way of the Lord”—does not begin with outward action but with inward attention. The wilderness he cries from is not only the desert of Judea but the interior wilderness of our own hearts. To make straight the Lord’s paths is to clear what has become crooked within us. In this sense, the voice crying in the wilderness is not only John’s—it is our own. The summons to prepare, to make ready, echoes from within the quiet chambers of the soul.

Breath is the source of all voice. To sing, one must first learn to breathe with awareness—drawing air deeply, releasing it with intention, engaging the body’s hidden strength. Singing depends not on shallow, unconscious breaths but on a mindful rhythm of inhalation and exhalation, a harmony between control and surrender. Breath becomes the living current that gives rise to sound, the invisible force that animates voice.

So too in the spiritual life, breath gives rise to presence. Our task is not simply to train the voice, but to let the whole body become a voice of God’s indwelling. Imagine your breath as prayer—steady, patient, alive. Imagine that breath giving energy to the embodied Word, becoming flesh in you. In each breath, God draws near; in each exhalation, Christ becomes present.

This Advent, breathe with awareness. Let your breath prepare the way of the Lord. Let it voice, through your very being, the presence of Christ—embodied, tender, and alive in the world.


The Breathing by ​​Denise Levertov

An absolute
patience.
Trees stand
up to their knees in
fog. The fog
slowly flows
uphill.
White
cobwebs, the grass
leaning where deer
have looked for apples.
The woods
from brook to where
the top of the hill looks
over the fog, send up
not one bird.
So absolute, it is
no other than
happiness itself, a breathing
too quiet to hear.