Lectio Divina: Mark 1:3

 Silence: Candles are loud

• matches struck
• sulfuric odor
• wick crackling
• pupils adjusting
• darkness shoved
• two second delay
• wax hissing
• soft glow

My eyes, ears and hands absorb the candle's silence.  Eyes see loud colors.  Ears hear loud noises.  A nose detects boisterous odors.  Hands feel the heat of flames: match and wick.  A heart feels the hope...candles are loud.

Meditation:  The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. 

Prayer: Please shine in my darkness; please God.

Lectio: I am a voice shouting in the wilderness. ~ Mark 1:3

Contemplation: Courage is action in the face of fear.

Oration: Fear, like darkness, obscures vision.  I don't think clearly, see clearly, speak clearly when afraid; when in the dark.  Courage is a candle burning brightest in the darkness of fear.  

What is needed to fully appreciate a candle?  Darkness.  What is needed to fully appreciate courage?  Fear.  Enter the wilderness.

A wilderness is a place of obscurity, filled with things that will eat you.  You want to keep quiet in the wilderness!  Yet the voice shouts, but why?  A voice shouts in the wilderness, not because there is no fear but because there is action in the face of fear.  I act for Christ, though scared.

Incarnation: Act for Christ, even when scared.