by Elaine Breckenridge
The sun has set on December 31 bringing closure to another year. And of course, having risen on January 1, the sun has launched us into 2024. In her book, Kindling the Celtic Spirit, Mara Freeman notes that because the new year follows on the heels of the winter solstice, the new solar cycle represents both closure and renewal. She also describes how the turning of the year gives us the opportunity to create new space in our lives to live in a more sacred manner.
There are many rituals associated with the turning of the year. I observe the New Year’s Eve custom of opening the back door, taking a broom and sweeping out the old year. In the past I have swept out the remains of the old year and closed the door quickly, as if to make sure the year was both finished and banished into the past. This year I felt called to be more reflective, to take time to process what could be understood as having survived a year of trauma.
This passing year was marked for me by two joint replacement surgeries, a dog attack which has left permanent disfigurement and scars, a partial mastectomy and a grueling round of radiation treatment for breast cancer. And yet, remarkably, I have experienced both physical and emotional healing this past September and October. While the Earth was letting go of her leaves and preparing for the long winter’s nap, I was entering springtime in my heart. With a new hip, I was happy to walk again and still feel green and born anew.
I am at peace and am thankful for the prayers and love I have received from family and friends. I did not slam the door shut on 2023! Yes, there is closure, but with it, I am humbled and in awe for how suffering has changed me. Indeed, I am grateful.
The renewal aspect of the New Year custom is to rise at dawn on January 1 and open the front door to welcome the new year. I have done so (though I missed the dawn!) with anticipation and I admit-a little anxiety. After having been housebound for a year, I wonder. How will I choose to begin not only a new year but what feels like a new life? It is clear that I cannot resume my previous life. No. Too much has changed. I have been changed.
I am unclear of what my next steps should be. Should I resume an active ministry in the church? Find a way to volunteer in my local community? Devote all my time to my grandchildren and their parents? Find a new vocation? Travel? Honestly, I am a little nervous to do anything. I am not used to having the freedom to make choices.
It seems fitting then that my sacred word for the coming year is “courage.” Rather than making traditional New Year’s resolutions for the past few years I have instead asked God for a word to live by throughout the coming year. The word courage seems to have chosen me.
On one level, I should be ecstatic like the healed lepers in the Gospel story of Luke (Luke 17:11-17). Healed by Jesus, each of them immediately left Jesus and headed back to their hometowns, presumably to be reunited with loved ones and to resume their former lives. One leper, however, made the decision to turn back, to go to Jesus to give thanks for the healing.
Perhaps, as an antidote to my anxiety and confusion about what to do next, I am being called to simply spend some time giving thanks for the physical, emotional and spiritual healing that has happened to me in the last few months. As Freeman wrote above, I will give myself space to find new ways to live my life in a more sacred manner.
I opened my front door today and simply raised my arms in gratitude to God for the new life that I have been blessed with. I will offer this prayer daily through January 6, written by John O’Donohue:
May I have the courage today
to live the life that I would love
to postpone my dream no longer
but do at last what I came here for
and waste my heart in fear no more.
I am not sure what my dream is and what it is I am called to do next, but with courage as my mantle, with love in my heart and with enthusiasm for the continuing journey, I do vow to practice letting go of fear. I greet the coming new year with joy and anticipation as I let it unfold, moment by moment, day by day knowing that God is with me.
May you my friends, also know that God travels with you, especially during this time of sacred turning. Happy New Year!
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by Christine Sine
Happy new year, and welcome to 2024. Can you believe it? Yesterday we laid the old year down with all its sorrow and joy mingled together and today a new year dawned with all kinds of hopes and expectation. We all know that it could be another challenging year with much sorrow and pain, but that is all the more reason to look forward with a positive attitude and some good spiritual practices that will help us weather the storms.
A Time for Review – The value of Retreat
Last week Tom and I enjoyed three days at Anacortes just north of Seattle. We go there every year at this time for a refocusing retreat to reflect on the year that has past and prepare for the year to come. I find it is good to make an effort to walk slowly through all I am leaving behind before looking ahead. I always start by reading through my journal for the last year, highlighting the high and lows of the year. It is good to walk back through the key things I did, as well as the events that most shaped the year. I like to reflect on what I learned about myself, those around me and also the world in which I live. I love to remember the joy and shed tears for the sorrows. Some people like to make a list to help them on this journey. My artist friends even enjoy using different colours and embellishing their reminiscing with doodles and sketches. I prefer just to make a rough outline to think back on.
It was the changing light of the sunrise and sunset different each day, yet always the same beautiful golden orb hanging on the horizon, that held my attention. It became my image for the new year. It contrasted with the rising and setting of the moon full on our first night, obviously waning by our last. The moon changed so quickly, like the year that was passing, fading quickly into what would in a few short days be a moonless night. Our rhythm through the year looks more like the moon than the sun I thought. It will not be constant, it will wax and wane. Sometimes it will be invisible. Quite liberating that! Don’t try and force God or your coming year into a rhythm that does not belong.
Looking Back With Gratitude
As I looked back, I was amazed at what an encouraging journey the year held. It started on a real low point. Severe headaches and neck pain made me think I should give up gardening and knitting, two of my favourite activities. It soon became obvious however that it was more a process of rethinking rather than giving up. I purchased some new raised beds that sit at 2’6′ and mean I can garden without bending over. They are wonderful. I also started a whole new series of stretching and strengthening exercises that improved my pain considerably and meant I could once more knit. It was with great delight that I recently finished a baby sweater for our downstairs tenants.
Looking back made me realize that 2023 was a year of bounty, productivity and reconnection. Just saying that gives me joy. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza overshadowed the year and fulled me down, so that it was easy for me to end on a negative note, but when I looked back negativity was not what struck me about the year. I reconnected to friends, I reconnected to the garden and I reconnected to my creativity and now I am reconnecting to some of my dreams for the future too. I am very excited that next week I will record my first interview, an introductory one, with Forrest Inslee for my new podcast Liturgical Rebels. The following week I hope to conduct interviews with my first three guests – Kelly Latimore, Drew Jackson and Scott Erickson. I am very excited about this. Liturgical Rebels is all about helping people to think outside the box with their approaches to spirituality and practice, and these three artists and poets can really help us find our ways forward.
New Podcast
Reflect Prayerfully
A lot of my friends like to use the Ignatian Prayer of Examen or something like this ecological examen as a framework for reflecting back on the year. To hold each high and low point in our hands, examine it, rejoice in the right and confess where we went wrong, before we release it to all the detritus of the dying year can be a great practice of release and freedom. Others prefer to use a labyrinth or a lectio exercise – lectio divina, visio divina or lectio tierra are all possible approaches that can help us to reflect and release the year that has passed.
When I asked myself “What spiritual practices gave me the strongest connection to God in 2023?” it was not any of these processes that came to mind however. My use of embodied exercises that use breath prayers and circling prayers, the writing of poetry and my creation of my Advent/Christmas wreath, and sacred space stand out for me. There are also my awe and wonder walks which continue to be a mainstay of my spiritual practices. I am already thinking about how I can adapt these practices for the beginning of 2024. Looks like a lot of different practices doesn’t it, which is great for me as I love variety.
Rethink the Future
Each new year seems to provide a blank slate on which to rethink how we do things.It is also, I suspect, my theme for 2024. I can rethink ministry, rethink spiritual practices and in some ways rethink priorities as we move into a new year. It is important for all of us as we look ahead, even though we think we may very quickly forget the resolutions we make. that’s why I don’t make resolutions anymore. I focus on intentions.
As I do this so there are several questions I ask myself:
How might I become more like Jesus?
How do I look after my own physical and spiritual health?
How might I become more considerate of others, especially the most vulnerable in society?
How might I become more active in the preservation of God’s good creation?
Self, others, creation. All of these need to be considered as we look to the future.
Circling prayer exercises, like the one I created for Advent last year are a wonderful way to rethink our focus. Here is a prayer I wrote over the weekend after reflecting in this way. It both helps me put the old year to rest and prepare for the new year.
As the old year dies,
And we lay it to rest.
Circle us God who is above us,
Circle what is good within us,
That we might grow stronger each day.
Circle us, God who is beside us,
Circle us with your wisdom,
That we might discern right from wrong.
Circle us God who is within us,
Circle us with your love,
That we might show compassion for the vulnerable.
Circle us God who is above us,
With the brilliance of your light.
Circle us God who is beside us,
With grateful and repentant hearts.
Circle us God who is within us,
With the comfort of your abiding.
As the new year is born,
And we welcome a new day,
Circle us God who is above us,
With the knowledge of your faithfulness.
Circle us God who is beside us,
With the trust of your presence.
Circle us God who is within us,
With the hope of your renewal.
Light bringer, joy filler, love incarnate,
You who are One,
You who are three,
Circle us with the wonder of your life.
(c) Christine Sine 2023.
My good friend Tom Balke just sent me a copy of this wonderful poem by Alfred Tennyson. It is a perfect poem to meditate on as we contemplate the end of the year and the beginning of a new one.
In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]
Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809 – 1892
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
shortly after I posted this another good friend Michael Moore sent me a link to where Alana Levandoski created and posted a song written from the poem. It is beautiful .
by June Friesen
In Arizona we have a little community called Carefree. It is a delightful little town that is rather unique in many ways. It has unique street names such as Easy Street and Ho Hum Lane. It has delightful little eating places such as Black Mountain café as well as a Tea Room. It has unique shops including antiques, Native American artifacts, Mexican artistry, and much more. In recent years it has also become a place where people love to retire. In the center of this village is a park which is unique in many ways. It has metal sculptures that portray the west including a few horses. There are a couple of play areas for the children to enjoy as well which have creative play things. My favorite however is this wonderful water feature. It is a manmade water fall which arches over a walkway. I love to such stand under the water as it cascades above me and imagine God’s presence washing over me. And when the sun is shining in the right space – as it was recently for these photos – God is there with a special presence. As I pondered the photos I took the other day I was led to these verses in Psalm 118.
Psalm 118:21-29
Thank you for responding to me; you’ve truly become my salvation!
The stone the masons discarded as flawed is now the capstone!
This is God’s work.
We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it!
This is the very day God acted— let’s celebrate and be festive!
Salvation now, God. Salvation now!
Oh yes, God—a free and full life!
26-29 Blessed are you who enter in God’s name—from God’s house we bless you!
God is God, he has bathed us in light.
Adorn the shrine with garlands, hang colored banners above the altar!
You’re my God, and I thank you. O my God, I lift high your praise.
Thank God—he’s so good.
His love never quits!
God, as I ponder Your continual, eternal love
Cascading over this world every moment –
I am reminded as I watch the water in this pond
Cascading over these rocks –
How different each one of the rocks are,
Each one is a different size,
Each one is placed in a different space,
Each one has water flow in
Different ways, different areas –
For some the water flow is fast,
For some it is a trickle,
For some it goes over,
For some it goes around,
For some it has smoothed the edges,
For some it has made indentations,
For some it has brought a cleansing,
For others there are specks of dirt and a fallen leaf or two,
Yet, each rock simply remains in its space
Allowing those who come by
To stop and ponder and rest their spirit for a while
As I chose to do.
God too chooses to cascade His Spirit
Continually over this entire universe –
Especially upon the planet we call earth,
His Spirit cascades equally in all places worldwide
And I cannot but notice the similarities to His Spirit’s presence
And how it flows over all of humanity as well.
How different each one of us is,
Each one is a different size,
Each one living in a different space/place,
Each one has the Spirit present around or in us in
Different ways, different areas –
For some the Spirit seems to flow steady,
For some it seems to flow intermittently,
For some the Spirit seems to flow quickly,
For some the Spirit seems but a trickle,
For some it goes over,
For some it seems to go around,
For some it has smoothed the rough edges,
For some it has made indentations,
For some it has brought a cleansing,
For some there are specks of tarnish still,
And one could go on I am sure,
But the abiding and beautiful truth is this:
The Spirit is present,
Not will be or wishes to be –
He is present –
He is waiting for you and for me
To take the time to embrace His cascading cleansing
Allowing it to flow completely and fully within our spirits
Washing us with resurrection new life cleansing
Setting us free to embrace and live a life fresh and new once again.
Amen.
Now if you are like me you may find it necessary to revisit these times with the Spirit just as I do. And I love that I actually have the physical reminder to go to from time to time. Another reminder can be a fountain – a fountain inside or outside the home. I have also chosen to do that at times. In one of our homes I had a fountain on the patio and I often did my quiet time in this area allowing the fountain’s trickle of water to remind me of the Spirit’s presence. Embrace the Spirit – Jesus’ gift to you and to me – and to the world.
Photographs by June Friesen. Scripture is from The Message Translation.
Whether you are praying the stations of the day, in need of resources for rest, hoping to spark joy and find wonder, or simply want to enjoy beautiful prayers, poetry, and art – our digital downloads section has many options! Christine Sine’s book Rest in the Momentis designed to help you find those pauses throughout the day. Praying through the hours or watches, you may find inspiration in our prayer cards set Prayers for the Dayor Pause for the Day. You may find your curiosity piqued in the free poetry and art download Haiku Book of Hours. All this and more can be found in our shop!
I love the week between Christmas and New Years…39 years ago today, I married my best friend and we are celebrating love and life and taking stock of what knowing each other for over 40 years means. I keep saying this can’t be possible since I’m only 35…but the calendar and my drivers license don’t lie.
Rob and Me 39 years of Love and Adventure
I love that we are in the midst of the 12 Days of Christmas! The Christmas Season! I just wish more people would take the time to enjoy these days as days of celebration and reflection, to use this time as a time to sit and look at the tree with all it’s lights, to rest and to process all the gifts of the year. Instead in America, we tend to jump right back into to work and “real life” and start the race again.
I love that the Christmas Story doesn’t end with the Shepherds. We get Simeon and Anna to remind us that waiting is worth it. They both have waited and worshiped and held to the promise of the Messiah. Then they get to experience the PROMISE in the flesh! He cries real tears and smiles real smiles and needs a burp after he eats! God is really with us and his name is JESUS.
Pete Grieg of 24/7 Prayer posted on Instgram this week and suggested doing an end of the year Examen. What could it look like to take the time to reflect on the year that has past in order to move into the NEW YEAR with joy and peace. I’d suggest getting together your journals, your photos from the year, any other things that you do that might help you ponder and look back on the past several months. If you knit, or do a craft/art you might pick several of your creations to help you reflect on the year. Bring some paper and pen or your journal and art supplies if you like creating things. You might even choose to collage from magazines as a way to process your year.
SIT IN LOVE :Pick a comfortable spot. Light a candle. Imagine yourself in the presence of Jesus.
Picture Jesus looking at you and smiling. How does that feel?
Allow Jesus to hold you in his love. Just sit with this for a bit. It’s sometimes hard to really believe that Jesus loves us just as we are! Allow that LOVE to surround you.
PRACTICE GRATITUDE: Now take time to reflect on the beautiful gifts of this past year. As Father Michael Sparough says…not a list of things but rather a savoring of the gifts in your life…Where have you seen the goodness of God? In people, in places, in yourself? Think about places you’ve been, opportunities you’ve had. Look back through your journals, your photographs, your calendar. LOOK FOR GOOD THINGS, THE GIFTS! Take time to be grateful. You might make a list, or create a collage, or some other response to these good gifts. Thank Jesus for these amazing things, both big and small.
PROCESS GRIEF: There have been so many hard things this year. So much loss. So much pain. Take the time to look back and feel those feelings. You don’t have to hold back with Jesus. He knows. You can yell, cry or scream it out if you need to. Just forewarn your housemates of what you are doing ahead of time. I like having a pitcher of water and a large container to pour out my tears to God to express my grief. After taking some time to reflect on the grief and pain of your year, give these things to Jesus to hold for you.
REPENTANCE: Reflect on the things you have done this year that you need to say sorry for and ask Jesus to forgive you. This isn’t about making a list or beating yourself up for things. Remember that Jesus is sitting with you and He is smiling at you! JESUS LOVES YOU. Just sit with Jesus and allow him to love you in the midst of things you need help with…like anger, and worry and judgement and self criticism and gossip, or fear….Give these to Jesus to hold and REST in his LOVE.
LOOK FORWARD in HOPE! What are the good things, the things you want to take into this year ahead? In our Epiphany retreat a couple of years ago, Christine Sine reminds us to consider the intentions, rather than resolutions, we want in the new year.
Sit for a while and imagine Jesus smiling at you and listening to you as a dear friend would over coffee or tea. Listen to Jesus. Sit with Him in His LOVE.
What things do you want to take with you on your journey into the NEW YEAR? What things did you notice as you reflected on this year that you’d like to keep going? ASK JESUS TO SHOW YOU? As you look ahead, ask Jesus for the GRACE you need for the new year. Feel His loving arms surrounding you!
You could also create a year end play list to help you celebrate and process the year.
Lord Jesus! Today I am grateful for Love and Life and Friends.
I am grateful for breath, for running water, heat and electricity that I too often take for granted.
Jesus your love is truly an amazing gift I get to open daily. Thank you for loving me flaws and all! Help me to be more aware of your love and share that love with both friend and stranger. Help me to always seek and work for justice and peace in our broken world. In your beautiful name! AMEN
by Rev Sheila Hamil
The preacher and the boy finished the challenge at exactly the same time, miraculously so, and they looked at each other and smiled.
Poem: The Rubik Cube, by my daughter, Sarah
and a love for all those who haven’t enough.
To help on life’s journey, to see the way through.
That if you believe, there’s no need to fear.
And God will be with you each day of the year.
Light looked down and saw the darkness.
Love looked down and saw hatred.
came down and crept in beside us.
Welcome to the season of Christmas. I love these 12 days after Christmas Day in which we continue to celebrate Christmas. This year I appreciated more than ever before that these days celebrate both the sorrow and the joy of the season. On December 26th we celebrated St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and tomorrow, December 28th, we celebrate the Holy Innocents who were killed by Herod as he attempted to kill the Christ child that the Magi told him had been born in Bethlehem.
My own celebration is a combination of joy and sorrow too. My Christmas altar has two images of the Holy family in it. One is a fairly traditional image in the middle of my Advent wreath, now filled with white candles. The other, is Kelly Latimore’s powerful icon Christ under the Rubble, which has been important for many of us this Christmas season, not just because it focuses on what is happening in Gaza, but because it reminds us of all the violent places in our world where the light of Christ is still so desperately needed.
In my Meditation Monday – Where is Christ Born, I talk about these images and comment: Strangely, these rather devastating images of Christ’s birth give me hope. Into the rubble of all the broken places of our world comes the One who showed us a different way to live, a way which can, as it has countless times before, bring reconciliation, peace, stability and new life.
I am excited that Kelly Latimore will be one of my first guests on the new Liturgical Rebels podcast. Another will be my favourite poet of the 2023 Drew Jackson. I expect to start recording next week, and appreciate your prayers.
I have done much reflecting on the Christmas story over the last 
week, some of these reflections are posted on Facebook and Instagram. Much to my surprise one of my posts has now had over 2.4K likes and 2.7K shares. It has been interesting reading through the responses. Most loved the post, a few got angry, and a few others had very helpful suggestions, especially about how our understanding of the words “meek” and “mild” have changed since Jesus day. One person commented: Maybe meekness was never meant to be passive, but rather an active and fierce expression of love and trust. Another post, which has also been very popular is this one that I wrote in response to to Kelly Latimore’s icon.
To facilitate this kind of interaction on reflections I write that do not appear on the Godspace blog, rather than expecting people to sign up for Instagram and Facebook, and then not be able to find posts in the midst of the ads and at the whim of the algorithms, I am thinking about starting a Substack newsletter. If you have any words of wisdom on that, or thoughts as to the value of that please let me know.
In yesterday’s post Empty But Expectant Jenny Gehman reflects on the hope we often find in the emptiness of despair and heartache. On Saturday in Reflections on Micah and Matthew, Karen Wilk reminded us that Jesus’ way is the shepherd’s way. He goes before us. The incarnation reminds us (among other things) that God’s way among us is the Shepherd’s way, a way of leading that is not distant or powerful, but gentle and instructive. In Freerange Friday,- Invitation to Worship, Lilly Lewin offered the last of her Advent invitations, She reminds us that in the Christmas story there are many ways to worship. The angels sing, the shepherds race to see, and Mary ponders in her heart. How do we worship this Christmas season? On Thursday April Yamasaki, in On the Edge of Winter reflects on a Gerald Manly Hopkins poem to a young girl, Margaret who is grieving.
I love the honesty and vulnerability that our writers express. I hope that it speaks to you in the same ways that it speaks to me.
It’s hard to believe that the next letter I write you will be in 2024. This has been a challenging year and we all hope that next year will hold more joy. Because of their popularity, and the keeness of many attendees for more, I am planning another series of webinars in the Spring. One thing people really appreciate about the way I do these is the interactiveness and the change for discussion. We begin as strangers and end as a community of friends who have learned from each other. Save the dates for our upcoming events: Spiritual Discernment:Finding Direction in a Confusing World, Saturday January 27th; Lent Quiet Day March 2nd and Spirituality of Gardening – May 11th. I am very aware that Saturday morning Pacfic Time is very inconvenient for those who live in Australia and New Zealand. Please let me know if you would be interested in another event at a better time for our Down Under friends.
Many blessings on all of you as we draw towards the end of the year. I am working on a new prayer for the 2024 but thought that I would end today’s letter with one I wrote a couple of years ago:
As a new day dawns,
And a new year emerges,
Let us open our eyes and our ears.
There is hope in every sunrise and sunset,
All around the world.
The light of hope will guide us.
Let us entwine our hearts with God’s heart,
And invite the eternal in us,
To welcome the wonder of each day.
Many blessings
Christine Sine
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