Green Patches

One of our wise men is missing!

Horrors! I dropped into our creche earlier  - to move the magi to the alcove window ready for the Epiphany House Blessings tomorrow evening and ...Wise Man Number Three was nowhere to be found. He's gorn, scarpered, gone AWOL, taken the long and winding road back to Persian Lands afar... Oh Where oh Where Can He Be? Was he left abandoned in the nativity shoe box all Christmastime, with only a Provencal lavender bag and a pile of wood shavings for company? Or was he ever there to begin with?

This is worrying. Not the best way to begin the New Year methinks. Thank goodness not all creches are as disorganised as the Greenpatch one: Over on Spiritually Directed, the magi have at last reached the stable.Thanks to the wise words of their landlady, they've escaped the scarey prospect of remaining stuck in a Permanent Advent. Thank you, miniature Magi; I've loved  following your journeyings along the bathroom shelf.  It's helping me process my own sense of Advent discombobulation. If you should come across my missing Wise Man, speak kindly to him and point him back across the Atlantic.

Advent Blog of The Week - Introverted Church/The Modern Mrs Darcy and Mind Journeys

I've a double offering this time round,  to make up for the absence of anything last week: the first A Modern Mrs Darcy features as guest writer on Adam McHugh's Introverted Church with her Christmas snapshot  My second blogger, Franciscan Ted Witham tells us about living with  chronic pain. No extracts here; I'll leave you to read their reflections for yourself.

Why did I choose these particular blogs? Well, I guess you could say they chose me, tying in as they do with this strand of prayer I wrote about at the beginning of Advent  which has come about from my experiences on retreat. More recently, I've blogged about a sense of 'spiritual discombobulation', even rather facetiously spoken about feeling out of sync with the whole thing. Which last isn't strictly true when I pause to look at it. 

What's been going on can be better described in terms of an artist choosing colours. Last Advent for me was a swirl of gold, rich jewel-like shades, strong, set against a deep, dark yet ultimately rich darkness. "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it." This year the colours are far more thinly spread, there, but often only faintly etched against an altogether more stark, chill shade of blackness.  The darkness is more fragile, brittle. It seems to chime in with a growing awareness of the world's pain: of a never-ending procession of hurting folk that I keep encountering.  So many people who  are ill or who've lost loved ones at this time of year. In amongst my tertiary circle alone for instance, or in church -  we've had several  sudden, unexpected deaths, and a number of folk  who've lost parents in the last couple of days or weeks.

So to our bloggers - waiting, hoping and, aware of the impermanance yet preciousness of this world. Pointing to what it's  ultimately all about; a stark contrast to the ever-increasing razmatazz comercially as the world careers its way towards the final countdown to Christmas.  Thank you for helping  clarify matters for me. 

 

 

 

 

 

Advent - Waiting and hoping

Given my grumblings yesterday, the arrival, not long afterwards, in my feedreader of this Advent sermon by Maggi Dawn was pretty apposite.  God is to be found in the darkness as well as in the light - and :

If we confidently depend upon the knowledge that God's gifts, unlike Santa's, are not delivered to deadlines, then we can live within the seasons knowing that the gifts they represent will come to us eventually - not necessarily on time, and probably when we least expect them.

 - for the rest of the reflection, go here. 

Thanks for the reminder. It speaks very much into where I've been and from time to time  continue to be on my own journey. 

The artwork above comes from my recent retreat at St Beunos, from a grey, grey period halfway through the week when I was struggling with this  sense of 'spiritual  discombobulation.' 

[p.s And for once, the Linkwithin widget's choice of post is entirely appropriate!]

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday...

Now, I"ve not caved in under the pressure of the pre-Christmas razmatazz.  It's simply that I just had one of those pround 'thunks,' (as one does) as I came out from under a heavy duty card writing session just now with burgeoning RSI and that ambivalent sense of weariness and (mild) guilt: (Why can't I be better organised and write them sufficiently early enough that I've time to give some proper news instead of the falsely cheery "Must write/email in the New Year?!"). 

Much as I love the dulcet tones of Wizzard (Hey, I"m a teenager of the Seventies, after all), the thought of it being Christmas Everyday is, to be frank, my idea of hell. However, in an odd way, the Hairy One has a point, (albeit maybe not exactly the point he'd intended to make). If we were to try and live each day as if it were Christmas, that is, with our focus away from all the tinsel, turkey and stuffing and focussed outwards on true peace and love of neighbour, we'd not be forced into cranking it all up artificially - and cramming it into the space of a month or less.

Advent Blog of The Week - The Mercy Blog and Weeble's Wonderings

 

Advent Prayer

 

Lord, still us this today and in this Advent Season – keep us wide awake in these days of waiting. Take from us our anxieties and our preoccupations, our distractions and our despair. Let us be empty in this time before, awaiting your coming with empty hands, and open hearts…

 

Lord, prepare us for your coming. Fill us with the hope of your judgement, and a longing for your justice. Let our hope and our prayer be always for this broken creation of which we are part. Have mercy on all who suffer, human or animal. Help us to bring the good news of your coming, the comfort of hope, the joy of this new kind of waiting…

 

Amen

 - with thanks to Mike F of The Mercy Blog

One evening last week, I was  in  our contemplative prayer group at church, when, towards the end of the session, I was suddenly, as I've described it to myself 'hi-jacked' by a memory  of an item which I'd read in the paper earlier in the day: a particularly horrible example of  pure, gratuitous violence towards a poor, helpless animal, the which defies all belief and about which I simply can't bring myself to give any more details here.  There followed  a  fraught few minutes whilst I  tried alternately to a) push the distraction aside, or b) give  it to God, which last unfortunately and again without giving any details (shudders) seemed unavoidably to involve 're-living it.'  All clever theological explanations seemed pretty irrelevant  just then, and to be honest, pretty feeble, too. We're back to that evergreen topic of theodicy 'How could you, God?'

I've since re-commbobulated myself, so to speak...just, and can see, I think, that this struggle was likely the latest in a series of 'answers,' to a prayer I made leading on from what I brought out of retreat. Why I should be surprised, I don't know. I do think prayer should come with a health warning, though.  Do Not Be Surprised If You Get What You Ask For. 

So the petitions in the prayer "Have mercy on all who suffer, human or animal..." resonates with me as we begin Advent.

 

 

Over on A Weeble's Wonderings Avila reflects on the ever-present struggle with life-work balance and the need to know when and to press those 'recharge' buttons. I chose it for personal reasons; thanks be to God their situation is not my own although some of the issues mentioned do touch several loved ones close to home. It was the final paragraph that spoke to  me however. The 'Who Am I? What Am I?' question and my tendency to define myself solely in relation to the role (I perceive) other people see me in and to whether I shape up to that perception,  has been around now as long as I can remember. We Are Improving slowly....which is good...yet still very much a Work In Progress...

I started with the title 'Who am I? What am I?' - when we can no longer answer these about ourselves, rather than just in relation to other people or roles, then it is a sign we need to find respite, and to find ourselves again.

 - A Weeble's Wonderings - Who Am I? What Am I?

 

  

 

 

Ignatian Advent Resources

And here are an assortment of resources to use with an Ignatian flavour.  I followed  their online 'retreat' a couple of years ago; ( for those of us who'd prefer not to be glued to our computers over Advent, it's possible to print off the readings beforehand) and found it a challenging yet ultimately worthwhile way to journey through Advent, Christmas and beyond. 

Franciscan Advent Resources - Peace Made Flesh

From the Franciscan Friars of The Holy Name -  this was published  in 2008; I gave it a mention last Advent , but could easily be used again each year.

Christmas Eve- Waiting

O Come, O Come, thou unicorn,

appearing in our dreams, lovelorn,

expectant, quiv'ring, innocent,

wild messenger with God's intent,

Rejoice! Rejoice! The Spirit shy

shall come this night with new-born cry.

- From 'Expectant - Verses for Advent,' by Jim Cotter

 

Franciscan Advent - Peace Made Flesh

Members of The Third Order fight against all injustice in the name of Christ, in whom there can be neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female; for in him all are one. Our chief object is to reflect that openness to all which was characteristic of Jesus. This can only be achieved in a spirit of chastity, which sees others as belonging to God and not as a means of self-fulfilment.

As Tertiaries, we are prepared not only to speak out for social justice and international peace, but to put these principles into practice in our own lives, cheerfully facing any scorn or persecution to which this may lead.

 - From the Principles, Third Order Society of St Francis, European Province

 

Advent certainly is a time when we are invited to consider what the coming of the Prince of Peace means for our world, how in the Incarnation "event," Peace is Made Flesh. Today's world is ravaged by war, ethnic violence, gang violence, crime, and the destruction of nature. With the rising economic crisis, we also are struck by the growing gap between rich and poor. All of these challenges require us to turn to prayer...

  - From The Franciscan Friars of the Holy Name, as part of their Peace Made Flesh, Advent Reflections series. 

 

 

 

Christ Child's Lullaby - Franciscan Advent and Christmas

 

 

 - With thanks to mapollo, travel back to Greccio and learn about the first Christmas nativity crib, set up by Francis.