Christmas is over and done with!

December 25th is ending, after all the talk about the exactness of the date - it's not about the calender, it about the FACT that God's Son came to live with us, after all the frantic getting and spending - not that you may have liked what you got, the preparations - meals, trees. creches, rooms.
And then that haunting line recurs "No room; there was no room for them in the inn.  So God had to stay outside.

Not much different today, I think, so I'm tempted to ask once again,'what difference did Christ's coming make to this world?'  God has remained respectful of his creation, not pushy, not controlling, not demanding attention or allegiance.  God has shown once again that humankind is worth his attention and the best he has to offer.  God is not fed up with us.  And this is reason enough to celebrate Christmas, to go beyond the world weariness and the cynicism that could so easily blind us to the power of Christmas.  So let us rejoice that God is with us in the midst of this confused and confusing world we are creating, to show us the that we are loved, precious in his eyes, and infinitely valuable.  So hurray for today and everyday of life.
 

Advent is about Openness

Openness... I remember reading a book, Beginning to pray by Archbishop Anthony Bloom, a long time ago.  One image has stayed with me, "curled about the centre of your own emptiness".

 I cannot remember what he was talking about, but the image of a wood shaving to describe a self-centred person has never left me.  A wood shaving can look attractive, especially when it has freshly fallen from the plane or the pencil sharpener, but it is brittle, hollow and of relatively little usefulness.  As Christmas approaches, I recommend that we pause briefly to ask, "What is at the centre of my life?  What forms the core of my being?  The answers may disconcert, and unless it is God and the things of God, then we risk being like the wood shaving.

St. Augustine described being in sin as "being turned inward on onself", the image is of a foetus, a bolum in our folklore.  Christmas is about birth, new life, generosity and hope.

CATCH THE SPIRIT!

ADVENT! HE IS COMING!

Concerning the Divine Word

With the divinest Word, the Virgin

Made pregnant, down the road

Comes walking, if you’ll grant her

A room in your abode

St. John of the Cross. Tr. Roy Campbell

This Advent, let’s “make hospitality our special care.”  We are busy about many things because we want to be welcoming and generous hostesses and hosts to those we love, especially at this season of love. But like the friends of Jesus, we may need to hear again his invitation to choose the ‘one thing necessary, the better part’ – friendship with him. 

So let’s select some helps towards this hospitality – quiet, stillness, welcome – quiet instead of the noise that passes for Christmas music; stillness instead of the frantic speed of mind, body and spirit that overtakes us at this season; welcome to the Lord-Who-Comes hidden in the Pregnant Virgin of our everyday encounters.

Imagine for a moment how you would respond to the scene painted in the short and disturbing poem of St. John of the Cross.  My house?  She could be anybody!  How can I be sure that it really is God?

Only intimacy with the God-Who-Comes, with Emmanuel can help us answer those questions.  And only if we are prepared to listen for the answer.

Emmanuel, God with us and God coming ever closer to us, help us to be open to the ways you come to us this Advent.  Make us expectant and hopeful in a world grown stale and distracted.  Let us shine like stars, lighting up the darkness that longs for your light.