by Christine Sine
January is a month for discernment. Over the last few days many of us in North America have been confined to the house by icy blasts and snow. It’s a great time to curl up with a good book, spend some time in prayer and listening to God. My go to book is always Henri Nouwen’s Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life.
In the introduction he gives a great definition of discernment:
Discernment is about listening and responding to the place within us where our deepest desires align with God’s desires. As discerning people we sift through our impulses, motives and options to discover which ones lead us closer to divine love and compassion for ourselves and other people and which ones lead us further away. (xv)
This week it was the second section of the book “Discerning Guidance in Books, Nature, People and Events” that really caught my attention and has expanded into what is becoming a new series on discernment. His chapters: Read the Way Forward; Read the Book of Nature; Pay Attention to People in Your Path and Discern the Signs of the Times are each worthy of at least one post. Today I will start with books.
“What books have shaped your life, your history with God?” Nouwen asks, a little daunting in this day and age when many of us read at least one book a month. Even more daunting when one realizes, as I do, that I have read hundreds of books since I became a Christian as a teenager. However, as I sat and reflected on this, a pattern emerged. The kinds of books that influenced my thinking and shaped my faith changed as I grew and matured, a healthy progression for all of us. It was great to reflect back on these trends and how they influenced my view of God and the spiritual practices that drew me close to the Divine.
In my early years, scripture study held my attention and scripture union resources in particular created a rich foundation for my faith. Then I developed a passion for missionary biographies , and was inspired by books like Ten Fingers for God about Dr Paul Brand who pioneered tendon transplants through his work with lepers in India, and One Vision Only: The Biography of Isobel Kuhn. It was books like this that set the trajectory of my life, convincing me that I was called to serve God on the mission field and propelling me to join Mercy Ships in 1980. My time on the ship and working with refugees on the Thai/Cambodian border turned my life and faith upside down. When I was married in 1992 I needed a whole new array of books to lead my journey as I struggled to make sense out of my experiences. Three streams of books helped shape the next stage of my journey.
The concept of shalom, which I first heard about in James Metzger’s book Saigon to Shalom and then introduced to the wonderful works of Walter Brueggemann and a life long commitment to social justice. The study of this concept became a growing passion for me and eventually came together in my booklet Shalom and the Wholeness of God.
However this did not meet all the spiritual cravings in my life. It was also at this time that I was exposed to books on contemplation and monasticism, beginning believe it or not with a series of novels on the life of Brother Cadfael, a 12th century monk who lived on the Welsh/English border. The first book in the series, A Morbid Taste for Bones introduced me to a rhythm of life that was very intriguing for me. Henri Nouwen: The Wounded Healer and Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation and other books by these wonderful authors soon followed. Then came the discovery of more contemporary contemplatives like Christine Valter’s Paintner whose book The Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice introduced me to the possibility of spiritual practices beyond the traditional forms of prayer and Bible study.
On our honeymoon Tom introduced me to Celtic Christian spirituality, and this continues to be a strong passion of mine. Through authors like Phillip Newell and his book Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul I continue to find inspiration for my spiritual practices and view of faith.
Last but not least are the books on gardening and spirituality and nature. Such a wonderful discovery in the last ten years. Norman Wirzba’s Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating was particularly valuable as a book for framing my own journey, though many others have added practices and ideas that continue to enrich me.
Why am I sharing this you may ask? First because I think it is good for all of us to look back on what has shaped us in the past as this often holds clues to what will shape us in the future. Unfortunately with the incredible array of books out there it is very easy to read something and then forget about it completely. Looking back and reflecting on what we have read gives us the ability to be intentional in what further shapes us. Sometimes we need to be educated in fresh ways, and what we read is a good place to start.
Nouwen encourages us to read attentively. I was fascinated by his comments on Thomas Merton whom he says was introduced to asceticism by Aldous Huxley, encouraged in everyday spirituality by Therese of of Lisieux and brought into contemplative prayer by Ignatius of Loyola. Reminded me of my own introduction to monasticism by Brother Cadfael. Don’t despise the novels that also often shape our thinking.
My current reading incorporates a lot of black and indigenous authors as I grapple with the challenges of how white Western theology contributed to genocide of indigenous people in many parts of the world and the enslavement of others. I am also reading a lot of garden books – 2 fascinating ones I got for Christmas The Writer’s Garden: How Gardens Inspired the World’s Great Authors, a fascinating look at the gardens that inspired writers around the world like Robbert Burns and Agatha Christie, and Gardening Can be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels and Grim Gardens Have inspired Mystery Writers which interweaves plant information with mystery books by some of my favourite authors. Yes you guessed it I love a good mystery story, though my current light reading is more sci-fi and urban fantasy.
What have you read in the last few months that has most strongly shaped your beliefs and your practices? As you sit and discern, what other directions might God prompt you to do more reading in? How could these decisions change the shape of your life and your faith?
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My dog’s biggest decision/resolution for any day of the week is what toy shall he play with from his two new ones. And each decision is “new every morning”
On a Facebook group I’m part of my QEC practitioner suggested instead of feeling like we are being forced into New year resolutions – that most of us feel guilty about breaking by mid-January – why not QEC a vision of Peace, Joy and Plenty for 2024. This is working with that principle that what we believe will come to pass will come to pass. This isn’t a “Pollyanna” “pie in the sky” way of thinking. This isn’t saying that we will be protected from bad things happening. But it is saying that we will ride through them with peace, with deep joy [not the silly giggles but something deep and fundamental] and that we will know we will have plenty/enough of whatever we need to see us through.
All this is what God says to us through the Bible – that “the joy of the Lord is our strength” [Nehemiah 8:10], “my peace I give to you” [John 14:27] and Matthew 6:25-34 which tells us not to worry about anything because God has it all for us. God has what we need in abundance. Though too often we do not see Christians living this out, so find it hard to believe. But it is there!
But I realised as I was free writing around this that there is an order to have this happen. I felt that one couldn’t just dive into believing there is plenty/enough/an abundance because it is so hard to believe. It is why we have to QEC things and put in new beliefs so we can start on that journey.
- But that QEC journey starts, I think, with us having peace with our past, with our upbringing, with our mistakes.
- From this place comes deep joy that we are such amazing people, even if that has been lost in things that have been said to us as children.
- Then once we are at this place of deep joy and gratitude, then we can believe we have plenty for what lies ahead each and every single day.
To succeed with this we need to be like those who go to Alcoholics Anonymous believe, that what we have this for each day and we rejoice in the dailiness of it and not have to stake it up for longer than today.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
…
Amen.
Note the “living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at at time” or as Lamentations 3:23 says, God’s blessings are “new every morning” because “great is your faithfulness”.
By not trying to put it in resolutions – that we aren’t doing at the moment anyway and so won’t stick to because there are reasons why we didn’t start now – but listening to our hearts and going day by day doing our best to live in peace, from which follows joy and gratitude, givings us the hope of living in plenty/enough then we can move in harmony with ourselves, with God, with The Universe, and with each other.
Join Christine Sine January 27th, 2023 10 am – 12 pm PT for a virtual retreat, Spiritual Discernment: Finding Direction in a Confusing World, as she facilitates an exploration of practices that enable us to become “all ears” and listen in all circumstances to the voice of God. This session will be full of helpful input, discussion and creativity. Come join us and learn to listen more deeply to the voice of God.
1-2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory— this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrimage to worship him.”
3-4 When word of their inquiry got to Herod, he was terrified—and not Herod alone, but most of Jerusalem as well. Herod lost no time. He gathered all the high priests and religion scholars in the city together and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
5-6 They told him, “Bethlehem, Judah territory. The prophet Micah wrote it plainly:
It’s you, Bethlehem, in Judah’s land, no longer bringing up the rear.
From you will come the leader who will shepherd-rule my people, my Israel.”
7-8 Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars from the East. Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared. Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem, and said, “Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I’ll join you at once in your worship.”
9-10 Instructed by the king, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time!
11 They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.
12 In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country. MATTHEW 2: 1-12 THE MESSAGE
I didn’t grow up celebrating Epiphany. I had a great aunt Dot who talked about the 12th Night and she always had her tree up til Epiphany, but I didn’t really understand the connection to the visit of the Magi. I definitely didn’t have a connection to the church year calendar.
Now I celebrate a Season of Epiphany. Not just one day. I don’t just jump back into regular life if I can help it. In fact my tree is still lit and my decorations are still up at least for a few more days. I’ve noticed several people in my neighborhood still have their trees lit up at night. I think we are all are in need of the Light. We aren’t ready to move on to the next thing.
Last week I offered the Invitation to Follow the Star into the new year and the new season ahead. This week I invite you to consider what it was like to be the Magi. What was it like to journey back home? Growing up, I didn’t really know anything about the traditional names or ages of the Magi or that they probably didn’t arrive in Bethlehem til Jesus was a young toddler. At my house, the three figures of the “Wise Men” were in the manger scene arriving on the night of Jesus’s birth bringing their gifts to the baby.
How about you? Did you celebrate Epiphany? What was your impression of the Magi growing up? Did you have one? Did you pay attention?
Here’s artist Ted Lyddon Hatten’s view :
“Epiphany, January 6, marks the arrival of the gift-toting, star-following magi: Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar.
The story of the Wise Men has many versions. The one I grew up with had them offering gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh from Asia, Persia, and Africa, respectively. Each magi represented a different culture from a different season of life. Melchior was 60, Gaspar in his 40’s, and Balthazar was the 20-year-old wise man from Ethiopia.
Balthazar was by far my favorite figurine in the nativity set from my childhood. His skin was the color of chocolate, his treasure chest, like his lips, was sealed tight. While all the other figures stood in awe, Balthazar took a knee.
I don’t know what ever became that nativity set, but the spell that Balthazar cast over me still holds.
Myrrh, the gift he brought to the Messiah’s baby shower left a trail of intrigue that I continue to follow in my work as an artist. Myrrh was a costly burial spice, which makes tragic sense.
The wisdom of a 20-year old Black man is as clear as the yonder star over a weary Bethlehem. Life is fleeting, particularly for Black and Brown-skinned babies. Balthazar was covering the funeral costs upfront for a death he knew would come too soon.
To honor Balthazar, his wisdom, and the Black lives we carelessly discard, here are a few images of my work with myrrh over the years.
peace,
TLH
What do you notice? What make you curious? You might check out more on
on the Magi from Wikipedia
Adoration of the Magi Rubens
Now read and ponder the poem by T. S. Eliot
The Journey of the Magi
‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
What sparks your attention in the poem?
Imagine what it was like to be one of the Magi….Heading home from seeing the Baby King….Their saddle bags are empty but their hearts are full. They found the One they’d been looking for, but now they have to go back home another way.
Weren’t they tired? They didn’t seem to get to stay very long and revel in their discovery of Jesus.
I never really thought about what they felt like or how long they might have gotten to spend with Jesus.
Did the new way home take longer than it did to get there?
Was this route more dangerous than the one they just completed?
What was home life like when they returned? Had people changed? Did they want to hear about the journey? Did they want to see the post cards and look at all the photos? Or were they just indifferent?
How have we changed after we’ve seen Jesus? After we’ve had an encounter with him?
What are we like when we get back home?
How has meeting Jesus changed you this past year?
Consider how your journey with Jesus has changed you in the last few weeks, months. What do you notice? What did you learn?
How do you anticipate your journey going forward into the new year? Do you have to go back a different way?
Are you expecting things to take longer? Are you expecting conflict or smooth sailing ? Talk to Jesus about this.
Who do you need to journey with?
What gifts, resources or supplies do you need to journey on the road of 2024? Take some time to consider the journey ahead.
I know that I need the extra time of the Epiphany season to help me to keep the celebration going. To help me remember the gifts of last year. I need the season of Epiphany to reconnect to the story of Jesus being born and the entire world changing forever. To help me remember how meeting Jesus this past year has changed me!
I need to keep lighting candles, making time to listen and taking time to look at the stars and receive the wonder of Immanuel.
Epiphany Centerpiece
If you’ve put away the Christmas decorations, find something new to remind you of the Magi and the celebration of Epiphany. You might create a new center piece with stars or three containers or gifts to represent the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Allow the stars and the Gifts of the Magi to remind you that Jesus is with you on our journey. You might create a pathway or find a new place or route to walk as a part of your epiphany practice.
Star Words
Choose a STAR WORD or two and allow Jesus to inspire you. Here’s a List of Words you can cut out and choose from.
Take time to Look and Listen just like the Magi of old. You might create your own Epiphany Play List to listen to the rest of January.
ART BY TED LYDDON HATTEN
Remember that Jesus even knows what it’s like to have to leave in the middle of the night and not really know the path. We are not alone. Jesus is with us on the road.
THE BLESSING OF LIGHT :
May the blessing of light be upon you,
Light without and Light within…
And in all your comings and goings,
May you ever have a kindly greeting
From any you meet along the road.
From old Gaelic p. 1091 Celtic Daily Prayer book 2
MAIN ART: The Three Wise Men by Alma Thomas
by Wendy Janzen
At Burning Bush Forest Church, we meet once a month for outdoor worship, and once a month for a learning/serving/action/community building event. To supplement those events, we offer an eco-spiritual practice of the month for people to explore on their own.
What is an eco-spiritual practice? There are a variety of ways this could be defined, depending on who you are and how you approach ecospirituality. As a Christian pastor and spiritual director, I see eco-spiritual practices as invitations to explore and deepen our spiritual lives through activities that invite contemplative connections with creation and creative or embodied expression of our response to God’s presence there. To some, they may seem far from a typical prayer practice, but as I read somewhere, anything can be a prayer when we bring that intention to it. eco-spiritual practices invite us into the wondrous, to nurture our spirit and connect with God.
The eco-spiritual practice we are currently exploring is creating a phenology wheel. Phenology is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life. A phenology wheel is a way to record what we are noticing in the circle of the year. To make it a spiritual practice, an added element of recording the liturgical calendar or a spiritual insight connected to each month, adds another layer of paying attention. Because it is a wheel, you can begin this practice at any time of year.
I first discovered the phenology wheel in 2016 (on the Raising Little Shoots website), the same year I founded Burning Bush Forest Church. It appealed to me as a personal practice to aid in deepening my own awareness of God’s activity and presence with me in nature as I led others in outdoor worship. I sensed that if I was going to be leading a different kind of worshiping community I needed new and different kinds of spiritual practices to ground me in my ministry. It was an enlightening experience, one that opened me to engaging with the cycles of nature in ways that also nurtured my faith.
To engage with this as an eco-spiritual practice, create your own template using whatever you have on hand – I used the back of some scrapbooking paper, a dinner plate and a ruler to create my template with a bit of trial and error (This time around I am switching to watercolor paper).
Once you have your template at the ready, turn your attention to what you notice around you each month. Take leisurely walks, gaze out the window, notice weather patterns, track the changes in daylight or moon cycles, watch for wildlife. See what captures your attention and take time to connect and reflect.
To quote Mary Oliver’s Instructions for Living a Life, “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” Pay attention each month to what astonishes you. What captures your curiosity? Observe the ordinary and the unusual. Then tell about it through creative expression. You may want to take pictures or keep a journal through the month to help you notice patterns or significant moments.
When the inspiration hits, or at the end of the month, pull out your template and whatever art supplies you have on hand. Use the outer part of the wedge to express what rises to the surface when you think about connecting with creation this month. Don’t worry about your artistic ability – this isn’t for show.
Use the inner part of the wedge to somehow record what resonated with your spirit or interior life this month – a ritual, a holy day, particular words, a mood. Is there any intersection between what you are noticing and the liturgical season you are in (if you are from a tradition that follows liturgical seasons)? Does your experience bring to mind a scripture verse or line of poetry? Does it inspire a prayer? Does it have anything to show you about God’s presence and revelation in creation?
Be playful, open-minded and open-hearted with this practice. My hope is that this practice
- encourages you pay attention to your surroundings better
- deepens your sense of connection to your watershed and with the other creatures in the community of creation
- affects your sense of time and the changing seasons
- inspires you to see God in creation, and helps to see creation as a revelation of God’s compassionate and ongoing presence on earth.
NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Wendy Janzen is pastor of Burning Bush Forest Church, an experimental faith community that began gathering for outdoor worship in the Grand River watershed in 2016. She is also one of the co-founders of the Wild Church Network, serves as Eco-Minister for Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, and is a spiritual director. As someone who left childhood believing she was not artistic or creative, she is enjoying exploring new creative outlets as a response to God’s creative activity in the world.
“Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you.” (Brian McLaren)
Christine Sine is offering three virtual retreats this winter: Spiritual Discernment: Finding Direction in a Confusing World, Lent Quiet Day: Beauty from Ashes, and Spirituality of Gardening. Register for all three retreats here.
Welcome to the season of Epiphany. Over the weekend, I posted one of my Epiphany prayers on Facebook. It includes the lines:
The Christmas star has not faded,
It has been planted in us.
The light of the world has not dimmed.
It shines in you, in me, in all creation.
And the darkness can never extinguish it.
I really need these words at the moment. Christmas is over. This weekend we took down our decorations, dismantled our tree and turned off the Christmas lights. Everything suddenly looks very drab, and here in Seattle a dreary rainy day adds to that feeling. However, this month of January is a very important one. It is one that helps to set the trajectory of the rest of the year. It encourages us to think about the future, spend time listening to God’s voice and take time for discernment, and planning and, if you are a gardener like me, its time to begin planting too.
Henri Nouwen in his book Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life suggests that discernment needs to become a way of life for all of us, but we all need help to move in that direction. Ear marking January as a month for discernment is a great way to move the rest of our lives in the right direction. My own personal journey this year began with rereading both Nouwen’s book and Margaret Silf’s Sacred Spaces: Stations on a Celtic Way which provided the framework for my Monday Meditation: Letting Go. What she suggests is that we all need to strive to make decisions that encourage our roots to grow deeper. Our goal should be to develop the inner core of our being so that it draws us closer to God, to each other and to all of creation. Every time we choose well and grow our roots deeper, our ability to discern the next steps to enable us to grow into the people God wants us to become will grow a little bit sharper and more clearly defined.
It is easier for us to focus on the upward growth and the fruit, but this really is only an outward sign or an inward development. A good question to ask ourselves in every decision we make is: “Which course of action is more likely to lead to a deepening of our true self and a closer bonding with the truest self of every other creature and of all creation?”
I encourage you to develop your own discernment process for this month. Maybe you would like to read Nouwen or one of the other books in Godspacelight’s The Art of Discernment reading list. Please also consider signing up for the Spiritual Discernment: Finding Direction in a Confusing World webinar at the end of the month. This will be a great time to explore some of the best practices that help us discern and make discernment into a way of life.
Last night we chalked the doors on all three floors of our Mustard Seed House Community. What a fun activity to begin this season with. Like Emily Huff, who sent me the Chalking the Door description and practice several years ago, I never tire of this tradition to mark our door and to take a moment to remember the friends and family who have passed through our door during the past year. It’s great to give thanks for them, and to ask for God’s blessing and light to shine on those who will come through our door in the coming year. I talked about this in my sermon at Seattle Mennonite Church on Sunday too and one of the congregation came up to me later and told me he had already started his list of people to pray for.
The next wonderful celebration on my list for the year is Imbolc and Candlemas. I look forward to making St Brigid crosses again. Lilly Lewin and I talked about this in our Facebook live session Candlemas, St Brigid and Praying with a Cup last year. So if you are looking for another celebration to enjoy before Lent begins make sure you check it out.
I loved Lilly Lewin’s Freerange Friday: An Invitation to Follow… the Star. Don’t miss the stunning art piece of the Magi she included as well as her wonderful reflection. It was also a delight to have Ana Lisa De Jong contribute someNew Year’s Eve poems. She has blessed us with many such gifts over the years. I heartily recommend these new poems as well as her The Gateway to Heaven: Poems for Contemplation that is available as a free download from the Godspacelight store.
On Wednesday, Barbie Perks posted a very profound post Comfort My People that revolved around a discarded bird’s nest that she picked up. “How many times do we as people, I as a person, tend to discard God’s comfort without reason? Sometimes we just flat out don’t even know what that comfort looks like because we are so focussed on what we want, how our issues could be resolved, that we are oblivious to what God is doing in our lives. I know I am guilty of this.”
Last week, Forrest Inslee and I recorded the introductory episode for my new podcast The Liturgical Rebels and in the next few weeks I expect to interview Kelly Latimore, Drew Jackson, Scott Erickson and Brian McLaren. So exciting! No definite launch date yet, but I am still aiming for a birthday celebration for me on January 18th.
I am also delighted to announce that you can now sign up for our spring webinar series which begins with Spiritual Discernment in a Confusing World on January 27th, followed by Lent Quiet Day – Beauty from Ashes on March 2nd and then Spirituality of Gardening on May 11th. Once again we have a reduced price for those who sign up for all three. Your participation in the Spirituality of gardening webinar also includes a digital copy of To Garden With God.
Life is very full and very satisfying at the moment, though I am aware that we live in an uncertain world as is expressed in this closing prayer by the Celtic saint, St Brendan.
Help me to journey beyond the familiar
and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways
and break fresh ground with You.
Christ of the mysteries, I trust You
to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know
that my times, even now, are in Your hand.
Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
and somehow, make my obedience count for You.
The Prayer of St. Brendan
Many Blessings
Christine is offering three virtual retreats this winter: Spiritual Discernment: Finding Direction in a Confusing World, Lent Quiet Day: Beauty from Ashes, and Spirituality of Gardening. Register for all three retreats here.
AT HOME IN OUR HEARTS
What if the Holy One were hidden,
the truth at home in our hearts.
What if truth were a person,
rather than a set of concepts,
fruitless rules.
What if truth were a body broken,
not unlike our own,
prone to shattering.
And a body resurrected,
that all its broken pieces,
married to our own,
might bring us into wholeness.
What if our body were a vessel
of the Divine
a place where God lives as the Invisible,
despised and rejected,
as vulnerable as a babe in arms.
What if our hearts,
in alignment with his,
burn within us,
like Mary’s awareness
of the Light held in her womb.
What if the Light that Mary bore
into the world
is now the glow that our hearts contain,
and emit through the sacrificial
tasks of living.
What if the fire inside is the truth
which refines,
and leaves us,
as Christ’s body on the cross,
with the flesh and the temporal shed.
TO DO
Do what you can do,
or don’t do at all.
When you are at the crossroads
laid low with sorrow,
weary or ill,
know,
that he who is at the crossroads,
the bedside,
or by the chair where you sit unseeing,
whose name is Love in any language,
every faith,
or lack of it,
sits with you,
so still.
Yes, what you can see or do
may be minimal,
but the cross roads,
the sick bed,
the place of vigil,
or grief’s reminiscing,
its remembrances,
unraveling,
is the very place in which you
will find your meaning,
your comfort and restoration.
Someone holds a mirror quietly for you
amongst the rubble of yourself,
that the eyes you soon see
are your own, longing and open,
mapping a future,
re-imagining what’s been altered.
No strident advice given
to hurting ears,
instead
this presence of Love is rather like,
the Balm of Gilead,
the spark that rebuilds a fire,
the foundation stone
upon which the author of your days sits,
handing you a pen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘We’re all golden sunflowers inside.”
– Allen Ginsberg
UNFOLDMENT
We must unfold it,
to see what is written.
Life’s pages are not foreseen,
except in dreams,
and hopes and plans,
which in the unfolding
we must marry with what is.
Life’s pages are always surprising,
unnerving,
in how they ask more of us
than imagined.
And yet,
in the very living and unfolding
we become equipped,
a muscle strengthened by the climbing.
Life’s pages are written in linked cursive,
a building upon themselves
like stones in mortar,
and yet flexible and responsive
to movement,
as rooted trees
with their wind-blown foliage.
We must unfold it
with hope and courage – Life –
which is always a fusion of what we bring
and what is awaiting us.
For in the marrying of ourselves
to tomorrow,
we take all that is best in ourselves,
all that is developed,
and mix it
with the wonder of Life’s newness,
tasting and adjusting for sweetness,
and with the aid of new revelations,
until Life in her fruiting and blooming
then starts again,
all decay and leaf-fall
to burgeoning spring.
by Christine Sine
Christmas is over. This weekend we took down our decorations, dismantled our tree and turned off the Christmas lights. Hardest for me was packing away my Advent/Christmas wreaths. I have really enjoyed my new Celtic Advent wreath with its six candles plus one in the centre for Christmas Day, and it is hard to let go. However as Margaret Self reminds me in her book Sacred Spaces: Stations on the Celtic Way, which I am currently reading, all cycles of our lives come to an end and the cycles of the liturgical calendar are but a reflection of that.
Margaret Silf talks about mountaintop experiences and valleys, concepts that we are all familiar with when we think about our life journey. She points out that mountaintop experiences expose us to a burst of creative energy capable of fueling the next stage of our journey. However we cannot live on the mountaintops. “They demand of us that we move on that we walk back down to the valleys of our daily lives, there to live in the power and live out the vision of what we have seen and what we known on the summit”
I feel Epiphany is a little like that. We are coming down from the mountaintop experiences of Christmas and now it is time to live out what we experienced. For some of us it is time to let go and allow new things to bud and grow in our lives.
What really caught my attention this weekend was her likening the cycle to the nature of trees.
Every cycle of our lives has its unique and particular springtime, bringing that initial burst of energy, so too each cycle has its autumn, its fall, its time of coming down from the heights.
This cycle reflects the nature of trees, and where they direct their energy. In spring all their life-force seems to flow into the rising sap, the buds and the fresh leaves, the supple young branches, the new growth. And then in winter the direction of that energy seems to turn, down to the roots, so that the tree might survive and deepen its hold on life. (Sacred Spaces: Stations on the Celtic Way 75)
As she says, it is easy to notice the above-ground part of the cycle when everything seems to be growing and reaching out. Buds, new tree shoots followed by flowers and fruit. This is the spring and summer of the cycle, the time when life seems good and everything above ground is flourishing.
However there comes a point in the cycle when we move into autumn and then winter. Our life energy seems to change direction. As we move into the colder seasons of the year, flowers fade, leaves begin to fall and the tree’s energy now goes into developing roots that go deep and grow strong. If we try to hold onto the leaves and the flowers, the tree suffers, and the roots become stunted and may eventually die.
So it is with the cycles of our lives. There comes a point when we need to come down from the mountain top in order to let the power of these experiences take deeper root. Letting go is about “recognizing what at any particular stage in our becoming is essential to our inner lives, and being prepared, if necessary, to let everything else be subordinated to the overriding choice for what is growing us into who we really are.” (77)
What she suggests is that we all need to strive to make decisions that encourage our roots to grow deeper. Our goal should be to develop the inner core of our being so that it draws us closer to God, to each other and to all of creation. It is easier for us to focus on the upward growth and the fruit, but this really is really only an outward sign or an inward development. A good question to ask ourselves in every decision we make is: “Which course of action is more likely to lead to a deepening of our true self and a closer bonding with the truest self of every other creature and of all creation?”
Every time we choose well and grow our roots deeper, our ability to discern the next steps to enable us to grow into the people God wants us to become will grow a little bit sharper and more clearly defined.
Gradually the whole tree of our own life and of the life of all creation will be strengthened and enriched, and next year’s leaves and next year’s fruit will be all the more radiant and nutritious. Far from losing the leaves we have surrendered, we will find we have gained a wholeness and a deep-down health of spirits and a freedom that opens the channels of our hearts to the “sap” of Life itself, holding us in being. (Sacred Spaces: Stations on the Celtic Way 77)
Fortunately the apparent ending of every creative cycle also provides a gateway through which the inpouring of creative energy will nourish the next cycle. The story of God provides a cycle of life death and resurrection. We know that we cannot hang onto Christmas, just as we will not be able to hold onto Lent or easter in the coming months. These seasons nourish us and provide the inner growth that makes us productive.
Epiphany is a good time to think about this cycle. It’s a good time to work through a discernment process and be honest about the choosing you are making. Which season are you at in the cycle of your life? Are you in a season of spring, or autumn? Are there things you need to let go of that will enable your roots to grow deeper? Are you starting to send out buds in a new project or relationship?
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