Winter Light

I spent a number of my winter afternoons walking around Mount Auburn, Boston’s first landscaped cemetery. In wintertime, its undulating lawns are covered by snow, and peppered by leafless trees and stubborn shrubs of various kinds. Tombs and memorials of all shapes and stones poignantly complete the palpably silent scene. Like others who visit Mount Auburn in these cold, white days, our walks are reflectively sobering.

Yet, the monk in me finds it delightfully uplifting for in a space like Mount Auburn I come to appreciate life, not death. Here, life quietly abounds. The stick-like trees harbour refreshing buds that will burst forth in spring. Painful memories of separation give way to thankful remembrances for those who pay their respects. The faith that those who lie beneath are in God’s embrace above neuters death’s sting. There is indeed truth to Edith Stein’s rebuttal to Heidegger: in the face of death, we don’t see nothingness; we see the fullness of life, a fullness that allows us to say “I am!”

If we look at our lives, we too will find ourselves in spaces where God says, “I am here!” When our mistakes lead to forgiveness, reconciliation and growing up, God’s Compassion is at work. When hope pierces the despair in our lives, we warm in God’s assuring Truth. When a friend listens or comforts us when our self-worth is busted by another who puts us down or rebuffs the gift we are, we rest in God’s Love. Indeed, God dwells and works in no other place than our lives, in our everyday time with its attendant sunlit sights and dark recesses. God is here because of who we are to God, his beloved.

This is the truth of who God is and who I am that I find myself acknowledging each time I reach Mount Auburn's highest point and look out onto Boston: God is not faraway, as God is our everyday God, laboring in us and for us. I'd like to believe our new year invites you and I to confess this truth too. I believe we can because this year’s newness, with all its promises and possibilities, is God’s desire for us to live life well and happily in the coming days.

And, isn’t this an assuring truth for us to continue taking the first steps we have taken for 2010?

photo: winter light by adsj

"Making the House Ready for the Lord"

The following poem by Mary Oliver was read at last night's retreat for Boston College students who had recently returned from their social mission trips to Latin America. I find it a thoughtful reminder that even as we begin to fill our new year with life's many attractions and distractions, the Lord eagerly awaits us to invite him in.

Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed but
still nothing is as shining as it should be
for you. Under the sink, for example, is an
uproar of mice—it is the season of their
many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves
and through the walls the squirrels
have gnawed their ragged entrances—but it is the season
when they need shelter, so what shall I do? And
the raccoon limps into the kitchen and opens the cupboard
while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;
what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling
in the yard and the fox who is staring boldly
up the path, to the door. And still I believe you will
come, Lord: you will, when I speak to the fox
the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering sea-goose, know
that really I am speaking to you whenever I say,
as I do all morning and afternoon: Come in, Come in.

photo: stairway at st edmund's by adsj

A Christmas Prayer

On that holy night,

Somehow,

It happened.

Somehow,

God took a handful of humanity:

Proud, petulant, passionate;

And a handful of divinity:

Undivided, inexpressible incomprehensible:

And enclose them in one small body.

Somehow, the all too human

Touched the divine.

And it was not vaporized.

To be human was never the same,

But forever thereafter,

Carried a hint of its close encounter with the perfect.

And forever thereafter,

God was never the same,

But carried a hint of the passion of the mortal.

If God can lie down in a cattle-trough,

Is any object safe from transformation?

If peasant girls can be mothers of God,

Is any life safe from the invasion of the eternal?

If all this could happen, O God,

What places of darkness on our earth

Are pregnant with light waiting to be born this night?

If all this could happen, O God,

Then, you could be, and are, anywhere, everywhere,

Waiting to be born this night in the most unbelievable places,

Perhaps even in our own hearts.

Amen.

by Ian Oliver, Pastor, University Church, Yale University

To one and all who come to seek and find God, my greetings for a truly blessed and holy Christmas! May your Christmas be bright and beautiful because the One who is all brightness and all beauty has come into our lives, Jesus, God-with-us.

Praying with the Prophets @Advent 4: Prophecy of Bethlehem

We have come to our final guided prayer for this year's Advent recollection.

In this final week, I invite you to reflect on the prophet Micah's Prophecy of Bethlehem, and its invitation to us to look at the spaces where Jesus comes to be with us.

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As before, click on the arrow to begin your prayer experience. It would be easier to pray if you enlarged the screen by clicking on the rightmost rectangle in the bar below the image above. When you are in full screen mode, you can use the arrows in the bar at the bottom to help you move through today's guided prayer. Alternatively, you can let the bar fade and use your mouse or the arrow keys on your keypad to help you move along.

You are in God's time; allow God's Spirit to move you along. Take your time to reflect and pray. If you feel the need to pause longer at a slide, do so. God is meeting you there. Savour each moment in the prayer, moving to the next slide when you sense God's Spirit prompting you onward.

May your prayer with God spiritually nourish and delight you today.

These guided prayers were first presented in 2008 at an evening Advent recollection at the Centre for Ignatian Spirituality and Counselling, Singapore. Presenting them with me were Celina, Jarrod and Brandon.

Praying with the Prophets @Advent 3: Prophecy of the Virgin

This comes late. My apologies as I have been preoccupied with examinations. Indeed, the invitation for me is to also remember the reason for the season of Christmas, Jesus, more faithfully, as I offer this third guided prayer to you.

This week, let us we focus on Isaiah's Prophecy of the Virgin.

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Click on the arrow in the box above to begin. Clicking on the rightmost rectangle in the bar below the image above will help you enlarge the screen. In full screen mode, you can use the arrows in the bar at the bottom of the full screen to help you move along. Alternatively, you can let the bar fade and use your mouse or the arrow keys on your keypad to help you move.

Allow God's Spirit to move you forward in your prayer. Listen to God's promptings as you pray. May your time with the Lord be spiritually rich and joyful.

These guided prayers were first presented in 2008 at an evening Advent recollection at the Centre for Ignatian Spirituality and Counselling, Singapore. Presenting them with me were Celina, Jarrod and Brandon.