Welcome 2014!

Standing at the Gates of the New Year

Sacred Mystery,
Waiting on the threshold
Of this new year,
You open the gates
And beckon to me:

“Come! Come!
Be not wary of what awaits you
As you enter the unknown terrain,
Be not doubtful of your ability
To grow from its joys and sorrows.

For I am with you.
I will be your Guide.
I will be your Protector.
You will never be alone.”

Guardian of this new year,
I set aside my fear, worries, concerns,
I open my life to mystery, to beauty,
To hospitality, to questions,
To the endless opportunity
Of discovering you in my relationships,
And to all the silent wisps of wonder
That draw me to your heart.

I welcome your unfailing Presence
And walk with hope into this new year.

From: Out of the Ordinary by Joyce Rupp

A Family Album

This weekend in our Catholic Christian churches, we continue to celebrate the Christmas season with the Feast of the Holy Family. http://usccb.org/bible/readings/122913.cfm  All the reflections, sermons, and homilies speak of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus being the perfect family and a model for us all.  However, life for them was not perfect.  We know that they suffered from a political system that caused them to flee to Egypt.  Joseph had to trust his intuition, faith, and values - and leave his chisels, mallets, and saws behind – and begin anew. And as Jesus grew older, he became a presence that disturbed – especially the religious and political leaders. Thus being refugees and experiencing “up close” rejection and oppression, they grew in wisdom, grace, and age together.

Over this past week, it seems that folks in the U.S.,  became greatly frustrated with the fact that UPS and FedEx did not measure up to what was promised or expected.  People were “put out” because their orders were not delivered on time for Christmas.  No matter what reasons were offered, they were never enough to satisfy the inconvenienced parties.
But then I thought about all the people who were “inconvenienced” and without electric power (approximately 300,000 homes) for at least a week because of the ice storm on the east coast and Canada.  The linemen were working 18-24 hours a day to restore power.  They, too, were away from their families at Christmas, but believed it was their “call” to rescue these people.  The people were grateful to those who came to their aid and were happy just to be alive.  And what about all the other people across our planet who are still waiting? Waiting for relief, food, medicine, and to hear from lost family members, friends or relatives after earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons?

Here during this feast, I am pulled into remembering that we all are family as we share Earth.  However, Earth has had a difficult year with our humanity.  I will list a few of the “sorrowful mysteries” of our year–
• Floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, wild fires, monsoons, typhoons, and cyclones
• Sandy Hook victims,  Jersey Shores Hurricane
• Death of Nelson Mandela and Dustin Friedland (carjacking victim on Dec. 21st in Newark, NJ) http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/das-office-held-deadly-nj-mall-carjacking-21296900
• Bombing during Boston Marathon
• Three women kidnapped and held captive for 10 years in Cleveland, OH

And yet it was in the responses – financially, physically, spiritually, and psychologically, that we experienced the “joyful mysteries” as a family of Earth to bring hope and healing to all survivors of these devastations.  I will also provide a clip from Yahoo News of the highlights of 2013. May you pray it as you view it. It is a “family album” of the Joyful and Sorrowful Mysteries of our 2013 year across our planet.
http://news.yahoo.com/2013-front-page-news-183119205.html


And so we pray:
Creator of the Stars, God of Epiphanies, You are the Great Star.  You have marked my path with light.  You have filled my sky with stars naming each star, guiding it, until it shines into my heart, awakening me to deeper seeing, new revelations and brighter epiphanies.
O Infinite Star Giver, I now ask for wisdom and courage to follow these stars for their names are many and my heart is fearful.
They shine on me where ever I go: The Star of Hope, The Star of Mercy and Compassion, The Star of Justice and Peace, The Star of Tenderness and Love, The Star of Suffering, The Star of Joy.
And every time I feel the shine, I am called to follow it, to sing it, to live it, all the way to the cross and beyond.
O Creator of the Stars, You have become within me and unending Epiphany.                (From: Seasons of Your Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr)

A Christmas Prayer

Sharon’s Christmas Prayer


She was five,
 sure of the facts,
 and recited them
 with slow solemnity
 convinced every word
 was revelation.

 She said
 they were so poor
 they had only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
 to eat
 and they went a long way from home
 without getting lost. The lady rode
 a donkey, the man walked, and the baby
 was inside the lady.

 They had to stay in a stable
 with an ox and an ass (hee-hee)
 but the Three Rich Men found them
 because a star lited the roof.
 Shepherds came and you could
 pet the sheep but not feed them.
 Then the baby was borned.
 And do you know who he was?

 Her quarter eyes inflated
 to silver dollars.
 The baby was God.
 And she jumped in the air
 whirled around, dove into the sofa
 and buried her head under the cushion
 which is the only proper response
 to the Good News of the Incarnation.

– John Shea, The Hour of the Unexpected

A Stable Invitation!

Magnificat of the Shepherds
Luke 2:15-20

My soul delights in the greatness of the people summoned by angels,
and my spirit embraces each puzzled face that peers
through the lamplight at the warm-bundled gift of our song-filled God.
As our eyes meet, joy flows between us and our chins are lifted with gladness.
Yes, from this day forward all generations shall raise their voices
to proclaim those who gather here as blessed, for the Almighty has done
great things for us.
Holy are the simple people. And God’s mercy reaches from age to age
for those who would join hands and follow a holy calling.
The power of wonder has called them from the meadows; they are no longer
cold.  Kings sit alone in their palaces, and we laugh together in this comfortable place.
In the midst of this night we have shared the bread and meat of our haversacks
and our wineskins pass from mouth to mouth. The kitchen of the inn is long locked and
shuttered. Come, God of Israel, celebrate with your people, mindful of your love of  dancing . . .
according to the stories of David and of Judith . . . mindful of your
love of dancing, with garlands of straw flowerets wound about our necks,
with the bells of the flock and tongue-licked pans for tambourines,
we celebrate in psalm and canticle.

From: Miryam of Nazareth by Ann Johnson




Adoration of the Shepherds ~ Nicolas Poussin

UNTO HIS OWN
Homeless that first night –
One more statistic
To add to the census,
One more mouth to feed.
Only the shepherds,
Having nothing to lose
except a little sleep,
came to see.

From: Woman Un-Bent by Irene Zimmerman

The Bethlehem Star Inn!

Magnificat of the Stable

(Luke 2:6-7) 

We came to Bethlehem in early evening, exhausted from the long trip. The city already filled with Jews born here. Bethlehem, House of Bread, City of David, singer of songs, City of his grandmother, the beloved Ruth. There are families who return even to distant relatives, to birth their children here in family homes generation after generation. These Jews are gathered at the command of the Romans in order to record a census of the people born here. 

We see Jews by the thousands, arriving from the west, the south, and like ourselves from the north. Jews are sleeping in the open fields, on the rooftops, for there are no rooms at the inns. The Roman census clerks and their women have confiscated all of the inn rooms for their numbers.  We hear their drunken laughter surging through the open doors.  The smell of their pigs roasting in the garden sickens us as they well know.

This is no place for our child to be born. The innkeeper looks at me with distress as he whispers that there is no room at his inn. But he turns from his house, motions to Joseph to follow as he leads us over the hills to the near empty eastern side of the city.

There he makes room in his private stable cave, away from the crowds and the noise.  A newly cleaned place, safe, pure. He hurries back to his unwelcoming duties.

My soul rests confidently in the animal warmth and the lantern light of this simple place, Beloved Creator, and my spirit rejoices in the privacy of this time of birthing we share with you, O God of Creation, - for you come alive again tonight in the bone and flesh of your people.  Yes, this is  the time we have waited for. This is the moment of blessing.

Holy is birth, and you shall show yourself from age to age in those who enter into creation with you. You have shown the power of a dream enfleshed and we are humbled.

You have pulled down all our strivings and lifted up this simple, common moment. This stable is filled with good things, new life and happy people.

Are those in the inn rooms as satisfied? You have come to Israel, mindful of our shared nature, according to the promise of Eden . . . mindful of our nature to seek the wisdom of new life together as long as we walk the earth.

From Miryam of Nazareth by Ann Johnson

Advent-ing to Christmas and Beyond!

Oftentimes, writers post a reflection from their archives. I have done this, too. I wrote this for a Peace Tree Lighting a few years ago.  The images, invitations, and inspirations still ring true.  
Have a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year!  Sister Jean

The Christmas poem, Amazing Peace by Maya Angelou revealed these inspirations:
Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes 
Into this climate of fear and apprehension,
Christmas enters.  It is the season of gladness.

Writer and storyteller, John Shea tells us what Christmas is all about through the eyes of a child.  And so he shares this story:  “She was five, sure of the facts, and recited them with slow solemnity, convinced every word was revelation.  She said, ‘They were so poor they had only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat and they went a long way from home without getting lost. The lady rode a donkey, the man walked, and the baby was inside the lady.   They had to stay in a stable with an ox and an ass, but the Three Rich Men found them because a star lighted the roof.  Shepherds came and you could pet the sheep but not feed them.  Then the baby was borned.  And do you know who he was?’   Then her quarter-shaped eyes inflated to silver dollars . . . as she continued.  ‘The baby was God.’   And she jumped in the air and whirled around . . . which is the only proper response to the Good News of the Incarnation.”

Yes, it is Christmas time; it is the Glad Season; a halting of hate time.  At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ; we celebrate the Promise of Peace.  We celebrate this awesome mystery; an incredible, unfathomable, infinite kind of love that is difficult to wrap our minds around, much less our hearts!  

We, too, need to consider transforming our eyes to silver dollar size and jumping in the air and twirling because we have heard the Good News!  Our God has truly entered the human condition, a human condition that is not all clean and lovely, warm and welcoming as Christmas cards would have us believe.  As one author reflects, “Our secular, consumer society has usurped much of the wondrous mystery of it all from under us. Have we not, as well, sanitized the whole scene?  Have we not softened the rough straw with Downy,  sprayed a fragrance to cover the smells of the animals; silenced the cries of Mary in childbirth; tranquilized Joseph in his fear as he heard the first cries of this baby boy? Then there were these strange shepherds who had come in off the field, unkempt, poor and smelly.  Could not this have felt rather intrusive to Mary and Joseph in this shabby but sacred scene with their new born?  Was there possibly a healthy hesitance in Mary to hand them her baby to hold?” 

Jesus came into the world to homeless refugees, into abject poverty, on the outskirts of a brutal empire.  Christmas celebrates, not just the birth of a baby meek and mild, but a life of one who was perfect and total Love, perfect and total nonviolence, perfect and total peace.   Jesus was Word Incarnate whose words took flesh as well.  His words were of compassion, healing, friendship, encouragement and empowerment.  Jesus not only spoke of a God of mercy and forgiveness, but extended that forgiveness to all whom he encountered.  Jesus not only spoke of God’s Reign of justice, but he stood in solidarity with the poor and the outcasts. He not only spoke of a God who longs for our wholeness, but he touched a leper so that his skin would be made clean; he stooped to straighten the woman bent over by the law.  And to the hungry crowd, he fed their emptiness with the bread of compassion and truth.

Truly the nonviolent Jesus was a presence that disturbed.  He was the thunder in the mountain passes.  Into this climate of fear and apprehension, our God entered. Jesus taught by his way of life - for Jesus was the Word that both stabilized and destabilized; that comforted and discomforted; he was Wonder-Counselor, the Prince of Peace who filled our world with majesty, mystery and meaning.

A life of peace is both an inner journey toward a disarmed heart and a public journey toward a disarmed world.  However, we are not to lose heart. “We were made for these times,” writes Clarissa Pinkola Estes.  “People everywhere are concerned and deeply bewildered about the state of affairs in our world. Ours is not a task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world will help immensely.”

Once we become aware that our God is a God of peace, that we are created to dwell in God’s own peace here and now, then we can know deep peace within our own hearts, and that we can contribute to the peace of the world, then we will turn around, twirl around, and possibly jump in the air and start the journey of peace and stay with it for the rest of our lives.
Choosing to live a life of peace is a difficult balancing act between the inner work and public work, a high wire trapeze walk that requires calm, patient, step by step mindfulness and heartfulness toward a specific purpose, hope and vision.   

Yes, we are made for these times and as a people, a church, a nation, a world, we need generous, creative, imaginative people whose zeal can be ignited by the vision of a daring and not quite rational undertaking.  In our nation of abundance, let us not forget that 20 percent of the children in our nation live in poverty.   And in comparison with other industrialized nations, we have more high school drop outs, more violent crime among youth, more poverty among the elderly, more medically uninsured citizens, and the widest gap of income between the rich and the poor.  

Unlike the little girl in our initial story, these are real facts that call us to ponder the scarcities and the inequities of our social system.  Yes, we are made for these times – and we must dare to become imaginative, creative and generous so as to confront the dark forces that keep our minds and hearts hostage. Yes,  now is the time for hope to be born again in the faces and hearts of our children, and where we  all stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us as pillars of passion, heralds of hope and voices with vision where it will spread around the earth, brightening all things.

Yes, we are made for these times and called, invited, chosen and challenged to not only speak peace but BE peace. We are made for these times to stretch out and to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Together, let us look at our world and speak the word peace aloud. Together, let us commit ourselves to listen carefully as it gathers strength. 

We will hear its sweetness.  It will be loud; louder than bombs.  
It will halt all hate time.
Together, let us look at each other, then into ourselves.
Together we will say without shyness or apology or any hesitation; 
Peace, my friend; Peace my brother; Peace, my sister; 
Peace, my neighbor. Peace to all who are strangers.
Peace, to all the least, the last and the lost.
Peace to all and come the way of friendship.
For at this Holy Moment; at this Holy Instant it is the season of gladness, 
The Season of Amazing Peace!

Fourth Week of Advent Online Retreat ~ iReceive

http://www.csasisters.org/advent.cfm#206214