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God of Light, Love and Peace - Emmanuel!

 

“Light looked down and saw darkness.  “I will go there,” said light.

Peace looked down and saw war.  “I will go there,” said peace.

Love looked down and saw hatred.  “I will go there,” said love.

So the God of Light, The Prince of Peace,

The King of Love, came down and crept in beside us.”   

(Rev. John Bell)

Child of the Song!

 

When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child. They recognize that every soul has its own vibration that expresses its unique flavor and purpose. When the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud. Then they return to the tribe and teach it to everyone else. When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the child's song to him or her.

Later, when the child enters education, the village gathers and chants the child's song. When the child passes through the initiation to adulthood, the people again come together and sing. At the time of marriage, the person hears his or her song. Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the family and friends gather at the person's bed, just as they did at their birth, and they sing the person to the next life. (Internet)

This is the season of lessons and carols, hymns, chants, songs, and silences. Today we celebrate the incarnation of our God as the Child of the Song. We all have sung his song throughout our lives walking from darkness to light, from doubt to faith, from fear to courage, from resistance to surrender.

John sings that Jesus is the Word of God become flesh who from all eternity was with God and is God. Jesus is God’s love incarnate. He is God’s love song, singing life into the world with compassion, mercy, healing, forgiveness, inclusivity, and liberation. 

Our God has put on human flesh and has pitched his tent among us.  One author writes: “It is the day God disappears into our flesh, sinking deep inside our human nature and beginning the transformation of each and all of us and all creation by his intimate presence among us.” (M. Mekenna)

John begins his Gospel with “the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” The Light was to be incarnate and dwelling among humanity. Truly, we remember, we celebrate, and we believe that our God has moved in with us!  God is present in Jesus and God’s face is revealed to us and to all creation through, with, and in Jesus.  He is to be understood as the “revealed” of God . . . all that Jesus says and does in the Gospels reveals something of the Mystery and the glory of God, and this Mystery challenges us to believe in the One whom God has sent.

In Jesus, God’s song of love is sung to those who need healing, who need  forgiveness; he sings to the outcasts so as to welcome them into God’s embrace, and sings to those who suffer pain and loss that they may be restored to hope.

We are invited to stand still; to be still and to listen deep within our hearts to the song that God has always been softly singing within us. Then within our spirits we will be awakened and free so that we can become -

a singer to the songless,


a befriender of the friendless;


an assurance for the doubting,


a reconciler for the separated;


a comforter for the sorrowing,


a friend for the forgotten;


a sweetness for the soured,


a gentleness for the angry,


wholeness for the broken,


and peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.


So today, with the choir of angels, we too, can sing and proclaim God’s love song, Jesus incarnate! For how can we keep from singing that our God is committed to companion us in all the joyful and sorrowful mysteries of our lives.  Christmas is the feast of the God who loves us so much as to take upon our human nature so that God might in the human nature impart to us God-self and thus a share in unending life.

I close with a few verses from the writings of John Shea who poetically creates the image of the child embracing his humanity . . .

 

“Then

At a homeless time of forced travel

In a stable on the edge of the world

A child who has nowhere to lay his head

Is swaddled in the rags of the poor

And warmed with the straw of beasts.

Shepherds coaxed by a night of voices

And wise men dragged by as dancing star

Watch newborn arms beat the air,

Conducting angels only children see.

Beneath the skies that sing

The virgin mother holds the child of the song.”

From: Stories of Faith

 

 

 

December 24, 2023: Karen Sue Smith Preaches for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Amy Grant - Breath of Heaven Mary's song

Peace Poem . . .

 

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem
By Dr. Maya Angelou

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.

Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.

We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?

Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.

It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.

Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.

In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.

We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.

On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth’s tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.

We, Angels and Mortal’s, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.

Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.

A Window Surprise!

 

According to a story reportedly written by Leo Buscaglia, "On a cold day in December, some years ago: A little boy, about  10 years old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.

"A lady approached the young boy and said, 'My, but you're in such deep thought staring in that window!'

"'I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,' was the boy's reply.

"The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her.

"She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel.

"By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she then purchased a pair of shoes for him.

"She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, 'No doubt, you will be more comfortable now.'

"As she turned to go, the astonished child caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked, 'Are you God's wife?'"

 

Hope in the sacred teaching of the light!

 

A Winter Solstice Prayer

The dark shadow of space leans over us. . . . .
We are mindful that the darkness of greed, exploitation, and hatred
also lengthens its shadow over our small planet Earth.
As our ancestors feared death and evil and all the dark powers of winter,
we fear that the darkness of war, discrimination, and selfishness
may doom us and our planet to an eternal winter.

May we find hope in the lights we have kindled on this sacred night,
hope in one another and in all who form the web-work of peace and justice
that spans the world.

In the heart of every person on this Earth
burns the spark of luminous goodness;
in no heart is there total darkness.
May we who have celebrated this winter solstice,
by our lives and service, by our prayers and love,
call forth from one another the light and the love
that is hidden in every heart.
Amen.

• – By Edward Hays

 

In the Silence . . .

 

God is the Friend of Silence
We Need to Find God,
God Cannot Be Found in Noise and Restlessness.

God Is the Friend of Silence.
See How Nature . . .
Trees, Flowers, Grass
Grow in Silence.

See the Stars, the Moon and Sun . . .
How They Move in Silence.
The More We Receive in Silent Prayer,
The More We Can Give in Our Active Life.

We Need Silence to Be Able to Touch Souls.
The Essential Thing Is Not What We Say,
But What God Says . . .
To us and Through us.

All Our Words Will Be Useless
Unless They Come from Within.
Words Which Do Not Give the Light of Christ . . .
Increase the Darkness.
-Blessed Mother Teresa

December 17, 2023: Bridget McDermott Flood Preaches for the Third Sunday...

O come, O come, Emmanuel - (Piano/Cello) - The Piano Guys

Advent: A Waiting Adventure!

 

 

 

“We need patience with each other;

with the old, the young, the sick, the slow,

and with God!

 

Psalm 36 speaks of this last need,

 the need to wait on God: 'Be still before the Lord and wait in patience.'

 We must learn how to sit still, to stop being in a hurry,

and wait for God to move within our lives.

 

We still ourselves in prayer,

aware that the graces we need,

the special gifts we desire,

will come to us when we are ready.

Whatever is necessary for our spiritual journeys

will come when the time is ready.

Until that time we simply sit in stillness,

waiting, and even seeing pleasure, finding fun, in waiting!”

Edward Hays ~ Pray All Ways

Advent Examen . . .Waiting in Gratitude!

 

Ignatian Examen for Advent

The Grace of Gratitude
I speak from my heart telling God why I am grateful,
being very particular and naming specific things:
gifts, people, events, blessings
How do I wait with gratitude?

The Grace to See
I walk with God through the experiences of my day
(or past year) giving thanks where I have grown,
and noticing where I have stumbled.
Where do I need the gift of light?
How do I wait with a discerning heart?

The Grace of Freedom
I ask for the grace to awaken my memory to anything from
my day (or past year) where God is inviting me to greater
freedom and peace.
I spend some time listening to my heart.
How do I wait in peace… in silence… listening?

The Grace of Mercy
I ask to feel hope, knowing that God will always give me
forgiveness. I ask God’s mercy in personal words that come
from my heart.
How do I wait in hope and with trust this
Advent Season?

The Grace of Transformation
I listen to my heart for invitations to change the way I pray,
live, work, love, play, relate, serve, or define success.
What deep desire within me is waiting to be
uncovered, discovered, or recovered this
Advent Season?

I pray the Our Father that God’s Kingdom reign in my life.

Examen adapted by William Watson, S.J.
Advent Reflections

A Blessing Befriending Darkness . . .

 

A Blessing for Traveling in the Dark

Jan Richardson

 

Go slow

if you can.

Slower.

More slowly still.

Friendly dark

or fearsome,

This is no place

to break your neck

by rushing,

by running,

by crashing into

what you cannot see.

 

Then again,

it is true:

different darks

have different tasks,

and if you

have arrived here unawares,

if you have come

in peril

or in pain,

this might be no place

you should dawdle.

 

I do not know

what these shadows

ask of you,

what they might hold

that means you good

or ill.

It is not for me

to reckon

whether you should linger

or you should leave

 

But this is what

I can ask for you:

That in the darkness

there be a blessing.

That in the shadows

there be a welcome.

That in the night

you be encompassed

by the Love that knows

your name.

 http://www.janrichardson.com/index.htmlichardson.com 
©Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com

 

God of the Seasons . . .

 

O God of all seasons and senses, grant us the sense
of your timing                                                                  
to submit gracefully and rejoice quietly in the turn of the seasons.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of endings;
children growing, friends leaving, loved ones dying,
grieving over,
grudges over,
blaming over,
excuses over.

O God, grant us a sense of your timing.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of beginnings;
that such waitings and endings may be the starting place,
a planting of seeds which bring to birth what is ready to be born—
something right and just and different,
a new song, a deeper relationship, a fuller love—
in the fullness of your time.
O God, grant us the sense of your timing.
From Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder

An Advent Practice . . .

 Advent ~ by Lucy Rose Johns

“We are waiting for these aches and pains to be healed. 

We are waiting for the hunger within to be satisfied. 

We are waiting for love to touch us.
We are waiting to be understood and really listed to. 

We are waiting for decisions to be easy. 

We are waiting to be inspired to love unlovable people. 

We are waiting for financial cares to be resolved.
We are waiting for serenity to accept the things we cannot change. 

We are waiting for courage to change the things we can. 

We are waiting for wisdom to know the difference. We are waiting to be appreciated.
We are waiting for justice. 

We are waiting for the answers. 

We are waiting for the dawn of a new day. 

We are waiting for things to get easier. 

We are waiting for a time of rest, peace, quiet.

We are waiting for patience. 

We are waiting and waiting. 

We are waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our God!”

December 3, 2023: Ma. Marilou S. Ibita Preaches for the First Sunday of ...

David Brooks | How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and...

Living Gratitude . . .

 

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melody Beattie

https://melodybeattie.com/

A Thanksgiving story . . .

 

Have you ever been robbed or cheated out of something that belongs to you?  One day a secretary in a large office building took a coffee break.  She stopped at a vending machine, selected a small bag of chocolate chip cookies, plopped them on a table and sat down to sip coffee while browsing the newspaper.  When she reached out and took a cookie from the package, to her astonishment, a man sitting across the table also reached out and took one.  She was a little upset by this, but didn't say anything.  After all, it was only one cookie. 

A few minutes later she took another one.  Again, her table companion did the same.  Now she was getting bent out of shape. Soon there was only one cookie left.  He broke it, took half for himself and left the other half for her.  Then he smiled, rose from the table and walked away. 

Now she was really mad!  How could he dare help himself to her cookies?  She had no problem sharing, but he wasn't polite enough to ask and he didn't even say, "Thank you."  His nerve and disrespect were insulting.  That's what really hurt.  She stood up, grabbed the newspaper and then saw her bag of cookies.  It had been hidden out of sight by the newspaper.  All this time, she had been helping herself to his small bag of cookies.  She had robbed, cheated and disrespected him!  

Source/author unknown  

November 26, 2023: Carol Zinn, SSJ Preaches for the Solemnity of Christ ...

Our Sacred Connection with Earth: A Reflection by Carol Braun

A Blessing Prayer

 

 

+Breathing in: Generous God 

Breathing out: Thank you

Prayer:
Generous God, you have poured so much into our blessing cups.  You have offered us many graced moments filled with wonders of your goodness.  You have been bountiful in sharing your presence of un-conditional love with us.  You call us to bless others with our cup of life.  Stir up within us a desire to offer our gifts to those who need them.  We pray this in gratitude for your continued belief in us - for you are always ready to fill our cup with your generous love. In hope and trust we pray. Amen.

+ + +

Quiet Reflection:
• Reflect on some of the blessings in your life.
• Which one means the most to you?
• What helps you to be aware of the daily blessings in your life?
• How have you prayed with these blessings?
• Speak a prayer of thanksgiving in your heart for a blessing you have received this week.

+ + +

   A Blessing for Our World

• May the God of strength be with us; and may we be God’s strength to those in our world whose hands and hearts we hold.
• May the God of gentleness be with us; and may we be God’s tenderness to warm all who are hurt, alone, depressed, or in need of kindness.
• May the God of mercy be with us; and may we bring mercy, courage, and hope to those in our world who suffer from fear, lack of trust, or who have been hurt in any way.
• May the God of compassion be with us; and may we be God’s compassion to those who are weary, or in need of a listening heart.
 • May the God of patience be with us; may God’s patience be with us as we pray to stand with out-stretched arms, with an understanding heart - free of judgment -to receive those who are in need of our support.
• May the God of peace be with us; may God’s peace be with us as we pray for those in our world who are the least, the last, and the lost; and for those who are troubled, anxious, in doubt, and restless.  May God’s peace be a warm mantle of love to still their hearts.

 +Breathing in: Generous God  

Breathing out: Thank you

 

 

Thanksgiving Prayer

In the spirit of humility we give thanks for all that is. 
We thank the great spiritual beings who have shared their wisdom. 
We thank our ancestors who brought us to where we are now. 
We are grateful for the opportunity to walk this planet, 
to breathe the air, 
to taste the food, 
to experience sensations of a human body/mind, 
to share in this wonder that is life. 
We are grateful for the natural world that supports us, 
for the community of humankind that enables us to do many wondrous things. 
We are grateful that we are conscious, 
that as intelligent beings we can reflect upon the many gifts we have been given. ~ Tom Barrett 

A story to massage our spirits . . .

 

The Forever Tree

Once, a long, long time ago, a little tree was growing in the forest. As the little tree grew taller and stronger, she began to notice the wide expanse of sky stretching far above her head. She noticed the white clouds scudding across the sky, as if on some great journey.  She watched the birds wheeling overhead. The skies, the clouds, the birds in flight – they all seemed to speak of a land of forever.  The more she grew, the more she noticed these forever things, and the more she longed to live forever herself.  

One day, the forester happened to pass close by the little tree. He was a kindly old man, and he sensed that the little tree was not entirely happy. ‘What’s the matter, little tree?’ he asked. ‘What troubles your soul?’ The little tree hesitated, and then told the forester about the deep desire in the core of her being: ‘I would so much like to live forever.’ ‘Perhaps you shall,’ replied the forester. ‘Perhaps you shall.’

Some time passed, and once again the forester passed close by the little tree, now grown tall and strong.  ‘Do you still want to live forever?’ he asked the tree. ‘Oh, I do, I do,’ the tree replied fervently. ‘I think I can help, but first you must give me your permission to cut you down.’ The tree was aghast: ‘I wanted to live forever.  And now you say you are going to kill me?’ ‘I know,’ said the forester. ‘It sounds crazy.  But if you can trust me, I promise you that your deepest desire will be fulfilled.’

After much hard thought, the tree gave her consent. The forester came with his sharp-bladed axe.  The tree was felled. The sap of life streamed away and was lost in the forest floor. The tender wood was sliced into strips. The strips were planed and shaped and smothered in a suffocating layer of varnish. The tree screamed silently in her anguish, but there was no way back.  She surrendered herself to the hands of the violin-maker, all dreams of foreverness vanished in a haze of pain.

For many years, the violin lay idle. Sometimes, she remembered better days, when she was growing in the woods. What a bad bargain it had been, surrendering herself to the forester’s axe.  How could she have been so naive as to believe that this would enable her to live forever?
But the day came – the right and perfect moment – when the violin was gently lifted from her case and caressed once more by loving hands.  She held her breath in disbelief.  She quivered, as the bow tenderly crossed her breast. And the quivering turned into a pure sound that reminded her of how the wind had once rustled through her leaves, how the clouds had once scudded by on their way to forever, how the birds had wheeled overhead, shaping circled of eternity in the blue sky.

A pure sound.  Pure notes. The music of Forever. ‘My wood has turned into music!’ the tree gasped, deep inside herself. ‘The forester spoke the truth.’

And the music resounded, from listening heart to listening heart, down through all the ages until at last, when all the listening hearts had made their own journey home, it rolled through the gates of eternity, where the little tree became a Forever Tree.

                                                                         Story by Margaret Silf            

Ponderings:
• What are the desires deep down in the core of your being?
• How does the story make you feel?
• What is disturbing for you in the story?
• What is true for you in the story?

(questions adapted from Megan McKenna)      

November 19, 2023: Rosemary Johnston Preaches for the 33rd Sunday in Ord...

Befriending the Darkness!

 

 

God is the Friend of Silence
We Need to Find God,
God Cannot Be Found in Noise and Restlessness.

God Is the Friend of Silence.
See How Nature . . .
Trees, Flowers, Grass
Grow in Silence.
See the Stars, the Moon and Sun . . .
How They Move in Silence.

The More We Receive in Silent Prayer,
The More We Can Give in Our Active Life.
We Need Silence to Be Able to Touch Souls.
The Essential Thing Is Not What We Say,
But What God Says . . .
To us and Through us.

All Our Words Will Be Useless
Unless They Come from Within.
Words Which Do Not Give the Light of Christ . . .
Increase the Darkness.
-Blessed Mother Teresa

Gratitude

 

A seeker once went to the holy woman in the desert because life had become too chaotic and he yearned to have balance and order restored within him. The desert woman said to him, “Your life is chaotic because you have become dependent on change, on excitement, on variety. You want always to experience something new instead of finding what is new through the repetition of what seems old. If you would have balance and order within, do one small thing at the same time each day with gratitude in your heart and slowly the tattered fragments of your life will be bound together into a textured tapestry of beauty. It does not take great doses of hardship – only one small thing done every day at the same time with gratitude in your heart. One small thing every day, at the same time, with gratitude in your heart. One small thing, every day, same time, with gratitude. And that will be enough.” Ask yourself the question: How does the activity of my life keep me from practicing gratitude?

(Author Unknown)

A Song of Praise to our Autumn God

 

O God of Autumn loveliness, 

We thank you for the many colors of our lives.                            

We thank you for the rich hues of red, 

The promising hope of greens,                                         

The depth of the golds, and the well-worn browns.

 

We praise you for all of the life you have given us, 

The life we celebrate at this harvest                                

Time each year. Like the leaves of the trees, 

We ourselves have been blown around,                                        

Toasted in the sun, and whipped by rain and storms. 

Yet, we stand as a testament to life well lived.

 

Your trees, O God, remind us of our letting go, 

Our need to trust transformation                                      

So that new life can come. 

Yet, like them, we resist the tearing, wrenching, pulling, and tugging.

We cling earnestly to our color and our home!

 

Release us, God of the Autumn, and free us 

so that the wind of your Spirit can fling us

To the places we most need to go.  

Bury us deep in places where we will find warmth.   

Help us to find ourselves grounded in You.

 

As we look around in this harvest time, 

We celebrate the bounty all around us 

And deep within us.   

May we be forever grateful for the plentitude!   

May we be forever generous with all that is ours.  

May we be forever willing to give of ourselves!

 

And as we journey towards this winter time

Help us to always carry the spirit of springtime 

Deep within us as a sign of hope!   

We believe, O God of Transformation, 

That all of life is your belief and hope in us!   

Ready our hearts, steady our hearts

 That we can respond fully in faith and love!

(Author Unknown)