A reflection for the feast of St. John of the Cross

 

One of my favourite Advent reflections is this beautiful poem based on the writings of St. John of the Cross. It reminds us that in each moment we are all Midwives of the Presence. Let us invite Mary to dwell in the Cave of our hearts that the Christ may be born in us always +

Advent

If

you want

the Virgin will come walking down the road

pregnant with the holy,

and say,

“I need shelter for the night, please take me inside your heart,

my time is so close.”

Then, under the roof of your soul, you will witness the sublime

intimacy, the divine, the Christ

taking birth

forever,

as she grasps your hand for help, for each of us

is the midwife of God, each of us.

Yet there, under the dome of your being does creation

come into existence eternally, through your womb, dear pilgrim—

the sacred womb in your soul,

as God grasps our arms for help; for each of us is

His beloved servant

never far.

If you want, the Virgin will come walking

down the street pregnant

with Light and sing ... 

.

--St. John of the Cross, “If You Want” in Daniel Ladinsky Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West (New York: Penguin Group, 2002), 306-307.

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Third Sunday of Advent : Gaudete Sunday

 The Third Sunday of Advent; "Gaudete Sunday", Rejoicing Sunday!

Joy bubbles up in the realm of created things as it feels its Creator draw near.

We are Joyful because the One we long for is about to enter the world.

Joyful because we know that nothing can happen in our life that can take this joy from us.

Joyful even in the midst of the darkness of our own lives for the One who IS Joy is descending and will take away our sorrow and our pain!

Joy bubbles up in the realm of created things as it feels its Creator draw near...

Remember, every Christmas light you see was kindled, ultimately, known or not, to greet the One who IS Joy!

May the light of your heart be alight today with Joy!

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The wondrously miraculous Tilma (cloak) of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the great sacred treasures of our faith... An extraordinary miracle that keeps revealing new mysteries as science continues to look ever more deeply at it down through the ages... But whatever mysteries it contains the most important grace it brings us to be a physical reminder of the nearness of our immaculate Mother  and her message of love to all people, especially those in trouble and persecuted... May Our Lady of Guadalupe be as close to me and to you as a cloak wrapped around us always, especially on this her feast day!

Memorare to Our Lady of Guadalupe

Remember, O most gracious Virgin of Guadalupe, that in your heavenly apparitions on the mount of Tepeyac, you promised to show your compassion and pity towards all who, loving and trusting you, seek your help and call upon you in their necessities and afflictions. You promised to hear our supplications, to dry our tears, and to give us consolation and relief.

Never has it been known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, we fly to you, O Mary, ever-Virgin Mother of the true God! Though grieving under the weight of our sins, we come to prostrate ourselves before you. We fully trust that, standing beneath your shadow and protection, nothing will trouble or afflict us, nor do we need to fear illness or misfortune, or any other sorrow.

O Virgin of Guadalupe, you want to remain with us through your admirable Image, you who are our Mother, our health, and our life. Placing ourselves beneath your maternal gaze, and having recourse to you in all our necessities, we need do nothing more.

O Holy Mother of God, despise not our petitions, but in your mercy hear and answer us. Amen

Our Lady of Advent

 

Our Lady of Advent:

(A meditation poem for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception)

O Lady of the first Advent,

bright ray of violet dawn 

glimpsed upon horizon’s edge,

you promise of patriarch’s prayers 

and prophet’s deep dreaming, 

presaged by ark and veil and temple, 

we call you now,

come and make us ready!

O green bud; who heals the root 

of the world’s tree you appear 

as seed of Spring in the midst

of deep sin wintered darkness; 

a light, a tindered spark, 

arising from the dry long fruitless 

wood now tender touched at last 

consumed by fire,

but unburned and unburied, 

appearing in the mind’s eye

of all who long for light 

and feel the past ages of 

our benighted vision’s yearning.

O bright Woman, born of the long line 

of Eve, hidden and hoped for 

in their tears and broken hearts 

and in their courage that quakes 

the ages of men.

You step a girl into this world 

as wisdom and benediction both, 

who will draw down from Heaven’s halls

the promised peace, who shatters walls and gates of the warmonger and in the grace of emptiness wakes our world soul with hope at last

of Eden’s long lost promise 

while magnifying the mystery of love.

We call you! 

Come and make us ready!

O Lady of the second Advent,

you will come sky mantled and star crowned, 

wrapped in sun splendour and moon’s 

slow silver stepping, become again the great cosmic solstice of the end, 

when the dance shall cease at last

the sky shall tear and you the Holy Ark 

be seen in the blue Heaven’s angeled embrace.

O come! 

Make us ready for that day when you as Queen and Mother and wisdom’s spouse all 

open the treasure houses of the heavens, when mercy is poured out at your prayer and we shall know ourselves your sainted subjects.

We call you! 

Come and make us ready!

O Lady of this Advent’s present blessing, seen in sign and circle down the spiral of the long years appearing, present in pillared candle flame, green and berried branch 

and open wreath’s enfolding emptiness;

make of us a manger, for we are straw, 

our cave hearts long for light 

though the mind’s inn, so filled with noise, crowded with distracted din, has too often no room for your birthing rest, 

your saving stillness, your broken heart

by which you bear us all anew in blessing. Come now and enter our darkness 

O wise Virgin, 

O green new shoot, 

O wisdom wild and dangerous,

O Queen, O woman,

O Lady of Advent,

we call you!

O come and make us ready.

Winter Sun

 

Winter Sun

You may have 

your languid summer skies,

all blue and cloudless, 

they are beautiful,

in their own way, 

I grant you.

But give me instead 

the sharp ferocity 

of a Winter dawn

flashing as a sword,

fleeting as the fast 

glimpse of fox fire 

between trees,

the quick conflagration 

that pierces darkness 

and hallows day,

and falls 

upwards,

dragging hearts,

and land,

and love,

awake.

Sung skywards

with the mighty 

choir of those 

birdsouls 

who lean forward

out of darkness

as lines are defined 

in sharp shock

of brother Sun's first 

frosted touch.

Yes. 

Give me a winter sky,

a dawn divine,

an advent promise of

light beyond the dark

where every tree,

Illumed and stretching,

writes a gospel 

upon golden air,

and the hidden holy 

is seen as breath 

upon the icy breeze

announcing in 

whispered wisps

He came, 

He comes, 

will come again

like sun blast, 

sun burst, 

sun rise

of a winter's dawn.

(Some Pics of winter dawns from various locations over the years)

St. Nicholas: Meeting the real Santa Claus

St. Nicholas’ Day

If it wasn’t Sunday this year it would be the Feast of St. Nicholas, Santa Claus himself, today! 

A Bishop of the early church so well known for his generosity and compassion to all that over 1,500 years later he sums up the Christmas season! The patron of children, sailors, prostitutes and pawnbrokers. (The three gold balls of the pawnbrokers sign signify three bags of gold Nicholas gave in secret to a family who were going to put their daughters into prostitution as they couldn't afford dowries for them! Legend says he delivered the coins by dropping them down the chimney!) May he remind us that at the centre of Christmas is a God whose greatest gift to us, Himself, came as a little child... 

As we always say If you want to know if there really is a Santa then the next time you are doing a deed of kindness and compassion just look behind you and you will see his footprints! 

But for me the Feast of St. Nicholas, always reminds me of that one morning years ago I was blessed to encounter him...

St. Nicholas Dawn

On the sixth morn of the

month that's dark,

while walking in that hallowed park,

and breathing deep the icy air

I felt the grace of Nicholas there.

I stood a moment in the frost

and felt the yearning of the lost

on land or sea who wandering go,

whose  minds and hearts are often low,

as gripped within by sadness grey

they stumble through another day

and 

long to feel the gift of light

break in upon their inner night.

Then feeling deep their dark and pain

I vowed to ne'r come there again,

until I felt him standing there

all bright against the freezing air.

A bishop robed in red was he,

who looked with kindness upon me,

while leaning on his gnarlèd staff

his beard it shook as he did laugh,

and said in tone of deepest cheer,

"Why, what on earth do we have here?"

"A little friar out in the cold,

whose failing heart is not so bold,

for overcome with grief is he 

for those whose lives in darkness be,

and those who know the belly's wail,

and those who sit alone in jail,

and those whose hearts know only pain,

and those who sleep outside in rain,

and those who fear the stronger power,

and those who nearer feel death's hour!"

And scarce he spoke, but I replied,

"Tis true you see what lies inside!"

"But what can I do next to you, 

who dwell above the azure blue,

and as a saint may do so much

to bring the light and healing touch 

of Heaven' s blessing earthward sent,

to those whose lives by pain are rent?"

At this, his face it darkened then,

as though despairing of all men,

like me who seek a grace to flow,

but far too often still say no

when called to be a mirror through,

the poor, the lame, the sickened too,

will see a glimpse of heaven's light

that lifts them from the pit of night.

Then as I stood before his face 

he touched my heart and blessed this place,

and said, "Tis right that this you know,

that saint I am and saint I go,

throughout the world both night and day,

to hear the cries of those who pray

and then I bring their yearning strong 

to Him who seeks to right their wrong,

and sent am I by His right hand

to all the hearts within the land

who gentled are by graces dear

and shed their sweet impassioned tear,

that they would know their call is this,

to enter into Heaven's bliss,

by healing, helping, lifting, raising

listening, watching, minding, saving

the weak, the poor, the little child, 

as I did here before I died."

"For this they call me Santa Claus,

I who kept sweet Heaven's laws,

and now I pass them onto you

O little one, who now dares to 

extend a hand that helps and heals, 

and so the light of God reveals,

to let each poor one deeply know

that Christ their saviour bowed so low,

that babe he came in frost and cold

our Shepherd King, who serves the fold,

and in His Mother’s arms did cry

for all the sheep, for you and I,

and none He lost, and none forgot 

not even those who choose the lot

of greed, and pride, and selfish gain, 

for them He offered every pain."

"So come my friend and stand with me

beneath the branches of this tree,

and we shall watch the dawn arise

and light grow in the eastern skies,

and pray, and psalm, and praise again

the One who is the light of men!"

Meditation for the Second Sunday of Advent

 Meditation for the Second Sunday of Advent: 

The second candle of Advent:  the Candle of Peace.

In kindling its flame we choose to stand in the purifying fire of Divine Peace.

For this Peace is no mere cessation of conflict, though that is indeed one of its fruits;

but an annual eternal journey into a way of being that is both ever ancient and ever new.

It is a Peace which restores and then surpasses our original blessing in the wedding of humanity and divinity we call Incarnation.

This Peace is at once a resting and re-setting of our whole being in Shalom: Divine Peace.

This is the kind of peace we long for, the peace we are made for and the peace that this world can never give, though those who yearn for it truly will find its seeds sown in the field of the world as His parting gift. 

Tonight this purple pillared flame beckons us on a journey of Peace.

Burning away all false peace within us until we are empty of all desire but that which calls across the endless ages and reveals the fundamental longing for communion with the One who is Love, who is Peace, who simply IS and in whose Holy Communion we find in turn the fullness of communion with all creation, with all that is in the embrace of the One who is Emmanuel: God with us… the Prince of Peace.

So this is our heavenly Peace for which there is no price too high to pay, no loss too great to suffer in order that we may touch its healing fire and yet all that Love angel-asks in return is simply be of good will towards all… short words we hear each year for the life long journey to Bethlehem’s blessing… 

So then we pray let this candle be a light guiding our feet into the way of Peace.