Computer Broken !!

I thought one domestic disaster was quite enough but sadly I have to report yet another one.

I spilt coffee over my computer and it is not working at all, despite trying to dry it out.

I have logged on to Blogger via another borrowed computer tonight just to let people know the situation.

It is likely be several days now before I manage to get a replacement computer and then to try and sort out if my hard disk can be salvaged for vital information.

Have a Happy New Year folks !!

Back Home and Thin Lace Thoughts

Hi folks !! Hope you all are well and in good festive spirits.

 

It seems an age since I posted and I have missed being in regular touch with you all and I certainly have some catching up to do !
 

I have just arrived back from sailing on the high seas around the Canary Islands - We had some rough seas on the outward sail through the Bay of Biscay as per usual, but also some good weather to make up for it and I met some great people both on ship and onshore.

But, after the car journey back home to Cornwall from Southampton this morning, involving long delays and circuitous routes trying to get around several road accidents. I opened the door to discover my central heating has given up the ghost. The repair men can only get here tomorrow morning so I'm sitting here tonight in my winter coat and gloves !

I hope the heating gets sorted out before hypothermia sets in !!

Although there is no snow here, several parts of the UK including my county of Cornwall have experienced very heavy rainfall while I have been away with many flood warnings in place.  

I also know that many of my friends in the USA have been experiencing heavy snowfalls and extreme weather with more to sweep in by the weekend so I hope you all manage to stay warm and safe.

Meanwhile I found a reflection by John O Donohue  in my drafts called Thin Lace and it is a nice one to describe some of the encounters I have had while spending my first Advent and Christmas at sea. 
It was strange to be away from home and at first I did feel a bit like odd holes were appearing in my Advent experience this year !!

I am conscious of the long distances many travel at this time of year to be with loved ones. For those who work at sea as part of a ship's crew it can be a time of yearning and sadness at being away from home and family.

The Advent journey for me this year was an unusual one as it was on a "camel of the seas" that we travelled through Advent towards Christmas Day.  

We were exceptionally blessed and delighted to have a daily celebration of Mass on board ship by Fr Gerard Bradley, Director of Spiritual Formation from St John's Seminary at Wonersh, UK, who was on board as part of his sabbatical year and the Midnight Mass was a wonderful joint celebration by crew and passengers.


John O'Donohue's piece below also helps me reflect on the crossing of various meridians and time lines as we approach the end of the year.

Image source 

  

Thin Lace

The human person is a threshold where many infinities meet. 

There is the infinity of space that reaches out into the depths of the cosmos;
 the infinity of time reaching back over billions of years. 

A world lies hidden behind each human face. 

In some faces the vulnerability of inner exposure to these depths becomes visible. 

When you look at some faces, you can see the turbulence of the infinite beginning to gather to the surface.

This moment can open in a gaze from a stranger,
or in a conversation with someone you know well. 

Suddenly, without their intending it or being conscious of it, 
their gaze becomes the vehicle of some primal inner presence. 

This gaze lasts for only a second. 
In that slightest interim something more than the person looks out.
Another infinity as yet unborn, is dimly present. 

You feel that you are being looked at from the strangeness of the eternal. 

The infinity gazing out at you is from an ancient time.

 We cannot seal off the eternal.
 Unexpectedly and disturbingly,
 it gazes in at us through the sudden apertures in our patterned lives. 

A friend, who loves lace, often says that it is the holes in lace that render it beautiful. 

Our experience has this lace structure…..

 Image source

 

John O’Donohue, Anam Chara

In Search Of Our Kneeling Places

  Image source

In Search of Our Kneeling Places

In each heart lies a Bethlehem, 

an inn where we must ultimately answer 

 whether there is room or not. 

When we are Bethlehem-bound 

we experience our own advent in His.

When we are Bethlehem-bound

 we can no longer look the other way 

conveniently not seeing stars

 and not hearing angel voices.

 We can no longer excuse ourselves

 by busily tending our sheep or our kingdoms. 

This Advent, let’s go to Bethlehem

 and see this thing that the Lord has made known to us.

 In the midst of shopping sprees 

let’s ponder in our hearts the Gift of Gifts. 

Through tinsel let’s look for the gold of the Christmas Star.
In the excitement and confusion, 

in the merry chaos,

 let’s listen for the brush of angels’ wings. 

This Advent, let’s go to Bethlehem 

and find our kneeling places. 

“In Search of Our Kneeling Places” by Ann Weems

David LaMotte

We Are Each Other's Angels..

A beautiful song that seems especially good for now.

Lyrics

Well I hope I see you later
Because it's time for me to go
  That's my ride that just pulled over
Sure was good to know you

Now go answer your calling
Go and fill somebody's cup
And if you see an angel falling
Won't you stop and help them up

Because we are each other's angels
And we meet when it is time
We keep each other going
And we show each other signs

Sometimes you will stumble
And sometimes you just lie down
And sometimes you will get lonely
With all these people around

You might shiver when the wind blows
And you might get blown away
You might even lose your colour
But don't you ever lose your faith

We are each other's angels
And we meet when it is time
We keep each other going
And we show each other signs

Thank you for the water
I thought I was gonna die out here in the desert
But you quenched my thirst
Let's break a little bread together

I've got a little manna
It was a gift
From somebody who was passing by
And offered me a lift

Now go answer your calling
Go and fill somebody's cup
And if you see an angel falling
Won't you stop and help them up

Because we are each other's angels
And we meet when it is time
We keep each other going
And we show each other signs

Advance Posts for Rest of Advent and Christmas

I will be offline from Friday until after Christmas

so....

 I wish everyone a Happy and Peaceful Christmas 
and heartfelt thanks for all your friendship and support throughout the year.

So Thank you. Gracias. Merci. Salamat. Danke. Obrigado. And . . . Go raibh maith agat.

 I've posted a few links and some previous reflections for these coming Sundays 
( albeit different readings), for easier access and also a link to a Christmas Day homily.

THIRD SUNDAY ADVENT

• Scripture readings for Sunday's Mass are here. 

• Reflections from St Louis Centre For Liturgy here

• Edge of Enclosure Reflections here.

• Gaudete Sunday : Third Sunday Advent 2011

• Gaudete, But Not Just For Advent 2011

• Gaudete Sunday ; Third Sunday Advent 2010

• and another for Gaudete Sunday 2010

FOURTH SUNDAY ADVENT

• Scripture readings for Sunday's Mass are here.

• Reflections From St Louis Centre For Liturgy here

• Fourth Sunday Advent 2011 and Annunciation Mass

• Fourth Sunday Advent  2010

• Fourth Week Advent Reflections 2011 

• Are You Ready To Be Charged With The Grandeur Of God ?

Seeing Shepherds by Daniel Bonnell

No More Leaving

At

Some point

Your relationship

With God

Will

Become like this:

Next time you meet Him in the forest

Or on a crowded city street

There won't be anymore

"Leaving."

That is,

God will climb into

Your pocket.

You will simply just take

Yourself

Along!

From: 'The Gift'

                                                         Translated by Daniel Ladinsky 

• CHRISTMAS CREED 
  
  
  
  
  * I believe in Jesus Christ and in the beauty of the gospel begun in Bethlehem.
  
  
  * I believe in the one whose spirit glorified a little town; and whose spirit still brings music to persons all over the world, in towns both large and small.
  
  * I believe in the one for whom the crowded inn could find no room, and I confess that my heart still often excludes Christ from my life today.
  
  
  * I believe in the one who the rulers of the earth ignored and the proud could never understand; whose life was among common people, whose welcome came from persons of hungry hearts.
  
  * I believe in the one who proclaimed the love of God to be invincible:
  
  
  * I believe in the one whose cradle was a mother’s arms, whose modest home in Nazareth had love for its only wealth, who looked at persons and made them see what God’s love saw in them, who by love brought sinners back to purity, and lifted human weakness up to meet the strength of God.
  
  
  * I confess my ever-lasting need of God: The need of forgiveness for our selfishness and greed, the need of new life for empty souls, the need of love for hearts grown cold.
  
  
  * I believe in God who gives us the best of himself. I believe in Jesus, the son of the living God, born in Bethlehem, for me and for the world.
  Author Walter Russell Bowie and I've discovered a nice illustrated version of this from here.

 CHRISTMAS DAY

Scripture Readings for Vigil Mass and at other times are here.

• My selection of Christmas poems from 2011 are here 

• and from 2010 are here

• More Christmas poems from Kingdom Poets site here.

Hope to be back online around 29th December...

Click here for a beautiful homily which is both on video and in text

The Complete text alone is here.

          and my prayer for this Christmas for all of you who visit here is 

from a letter of St Paul to the  Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)

                                               "I pray that out of his glorious riches 
                                                 he may strengthen you with power 
                                                 through his Spirit in your inner being, 
                                                 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
                                                 through faith.
                                                 And I pray that you, being rooted
                                                 and established in love,
                                                 may have power, 
                                                 together with all the saints, 
                                                 to grasp how wide and long and high
                                                 and deep is the love of Christ, 
                                                 and to know this love
                                                 that surpasses knowledge
                                                 that you may be filled
                                                 to the measure of all the fullness
                                                 of God."

The Heart In Waiting

The Heart-in-Waiting

Jesus walked through whispering  wood:

'I am pale blossom, I am blood berry,

I am rough bark, I am  sharp thorn.

This is the place where you will be born

Jesus  went down to the skirl of the sea:

'I am long reach, I am fierce  comber,

I am keen saltspray, I am spring tide.'

He pushed the cup  of the sea aside

And heard the sky which breathed-and-blew:

'I  am the firmament, I am shape-changer,

I cradle and carry and kiss  and roar,

I am infinite roof and floor.

All day he walked, he  walked all night,

Then Jesus came to the heart at dawn.

'Here and  now,' said the heart-in-waiting,

'This is the place where you must  be born.'

By Kevin Crossley-Holland, from Selected  Poems, 2001; 

 

Best Friends

I think this deserves to go viral, don't you ??  :-))
 

Awaiting The Christ Child

 Awaiting the Christ Child

from Christine Sine

Thomas Merton on Advent

Remembering ....

Forty four years ago on December 10, 1968 Thomas Merton died at the age of 43 of an accidental electric shock from a faulty electric fan in his cottage at the Red Cross Conference Center in Samut Prakan, Thailand. Merton had presented a paper at a conference of monastics that morning.

 Thomas Merton Jan 31st 1915- December 10th 1968

Image source and more on the painting

The quote on the card is particularly relevant to Advent and reads

"Time is not given to us to keep a faith we once had

but to acquire a faith we need now "

Into this world,
this demented inn,
in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,
Christ has come uninvited. 

But because he cannot be at home in it,
because he is out of place in it,
and yet he must be in it,
his place is with those others for whom there is no room.

His place is with those who do not belong,

who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak,

those who are discredited,

who are denied the status of persons,

tortured,

excommunicated.

With those for whom there is no room,

Christ is present in this world.

Thomas Merton (from Raids on the Unspeakable)


“But Love laughs at the end of the world because Love is the door to eternity. He who loves is playing on the doorstep of eternity…”

Thomas Merton.  The Intimate Merton.

Image source


Click here for my post last year on Merton's Advent thoughts : Advent Hope or Delusion.

In despair Advent offers HOPE – the hope of a revitalised faith and church, the hope of respect and love for God's creation that is complete in the hope that Christ brings.

  In the presence of war and death, Advent offers PEACE – and yet a peace beyond our understanding, but a peace that is so much more than the absence of conflict, in the awesome peace of Christ. 

 In prejudice and hate, Advent offers LOVE – the perfect love of God in surrender, a way to love one another, a yearning to love His church. 

 In sadness, discouragement and loneliness, Advent offers JOY – the joy of salvation, the joy of new life, the joy of earth as it is in heaven.

In a 2008 NCR article titled The Lifelong Advent of Thomas Merton by John Dear S.J. says :

"I regard Merton an Advent person. Indeed, he is forever marked as one by the calendar of sacred events of his life. He entered the monastery on Dec. 10, 1941, in the heart of Advent, and died twenty seven years later to the day. And the intervening years, they were one long season of Advent.

He constantly awaited the coming of Christ, pointed to Christ like John the Baptist, and practiced peace, patience, wisdom and hope. And he urged us to do likewise. His letters, like all his teachings, prod us to wake up, look to Christ, practice the Advent disciplines of peace, hope and nonviolence, and do what we can to welcome the coming of Christ and his gift of peace on earth."

Click here for the full article and some excerpts John Dear has taken from Merton's letters for Advent meditation.

Related articles

• Weekend Reading: Thomas Merton (jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com)
• Faith Is the Weaver by Fr. Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. (yearoffaith2013.com)
•  Click here for this year's post for Thomas Merton's birthday on 31st January. 
• Beth Cioffoletti's great blog Louie Louie on all things Merton has a 2006 post on Thomas Merton's death here.