Fr Richard Rohr Has A Blog

 

Wow!

Great and exciting news today when I opened my inbox as a new link bounced up ...

Fr.Richard Rohr has finally succumbed and has decided to write his own blog.

It's called Unpacking Paradoxes and he adds "contemplation in action, as I try to live it…

Here's the link

You can also get his daily meditations via e.mail from here. 

This is the one for today...

 

“Come, Lord Jesus,” the Advent prayer, means that all of Christian history has to live out of a kind of deliberate emptiness or chosen non-fulfillment. Perfect fullness is always to come, and we do not need to demand it now. This keeps the field of life wide open and especially open to grace and to a future created by God rather than us. This is what it means to be “awake,” as the gospel urges us (Matthew 24:42)!  We can also use other a words for Advent: aware, alive, attentive, alert, and awake are all appropriate! Advent is above all else a call to full consciousness and a forewarning about the high price of consciousness. Adapted from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr, pp. 4-5 Starter Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus!

Advent Art and Videos Brother Micky McGrath and More Advent Resources

Daniel Bonnell is one of my favourite artists and his website has a feast of images, among them many for Advent and the Christmas season. Enjoy...

Below is a series of great Advent videos from another great artist, Brother Micky McGrath. 

These videos are posted early but if I don't post them now I'll probably forget ! Also at the end of the post is a link to Godspace where Christine Sine has added updates and links to even more resources......

In Advent 2010 Brother Mickey McGrath, Father Jeff Putthoff and some youth and staff at Hopeworks Camden USA, put together a few video advent reflections. 

Brother Mickeys paintings were used as a starting point and people who lived or worked  in Camden were asked to talk about the painting, Camden, and the meaning of the Advent Season. This one features Andrea Ferich of the Centre for Environmental Transformation in Camden.

If you enjoy them please pass them on to friends and family!

The Annunciation 

 Mary's Yes

Joseph's Dream 

 The Mystic Rose

This last video goes way forward to the Epiphany but it makes sense to put it with the others so they are all in one place.

The Epiphany

Related articles

• More Resources for Advent 2011 (godspace.wordpress.com)

Christmas Eve

This carol from the Outer Hebrides Islands was originally a Gaelic carol titled "Taladh Chriasda."

"Christ Child's Lullaby" was translated into English in 1855. Father Ranald Rankin wrote verses for his congregation in Maidert to sing in Gaelic at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, as it is to this day in Scottish churches.

The video is set in Assisi at Christmas time.

This carol is a verbal representation of what the Blessed Virgin Mary may have felt while gazing on her Son's face.

The Christ Child's Lullaby

Sung by Sheena Wellington by Narada on the CD Celtic Spirit.(Please buy it. Wonderful music.)

My love my treasured one are you

my sweet and lovely son are you

you are my love my darling you

Unworthy I of you

Alleluia ...

Your mild and gentle eyes proclaim

the loving heart with which you came

a tender helpless tiny babe

with boundless gifts of grace

Alleluia...

King of kings most holy one

God a son eternal one

You are my God and helpless son

My ruler of mankind

Alleluia

Related articles

• Beauty Will Save the World (frozenclocks.wordpress.com)

How Long O Lord ?

Images from cuddlelikeapanda

  

How long exactly did you say this "Be watchful! Be alert!" thing lasts ?

 Dogs eh ?
The cats are getting it right ...

Advent Blues Light A Candle In The Darkness

"Incarnation is incredibly important for elevating the value of being a particular person in a particular place:

Jesus prevents us from thinking that life is a matter of ideas to ponder or concepts to discuss. Jesus saves us from wasting our lives in pursuit of cheap thrills and trivializing diversions.

Jesus enables us to take seriously who we are and where we are without being seduced by intimidating lies and delusions that fill the air, so that we needn’t be someone else or somewhere else .........

"Jesus keeps our feet on the ground, attentive to children, in conversation with ordinary people, sharing meals with friends and strangers, listening to the wind, observing the wildflowers, touching the sick and wounded, praying simply and unselfconsciously.

Jesus insists that we deal with God right here and now, in the place where we find ourselves and with the people we are with. Jesus is God here and now ...."

"Part of our job is to help people understand how many of the simple practices of their daily lives are caught up in the narrative of God’s mission to reclaim the world.

Maybe this year, as we prepare to remember God’s Incarnate Son, we can cling to the Christ-practices of the here and now.

Maybe we can embody the way Christ’s Incarnation shows us a faith that is earthy and real as we become more and more like the One who came and is to come."

 Above taken from here

This  all sounds fine and dinky but in the same vein of keeping it real and meeting people where they are, I really like this ... It's called Holiday Hump Prayer

It's a timely reminder that although for some, Christmas may be the best of times, for many it is also the worst of times and can be a hard slog , filled with stress and anxiety. 

Combined with Nature's darkest days and evenings,some people find the forced jollity of December hard to cope with, and don't find Christmas a season of "good cheer, not least for the bereaved.

For many people, all the forced merriness and excitement going on around them only exacerbates and sharpens any feelings of existing sadness that may be associated with loss of any kind and grief.


People can experience grief more acutely during the Christmas season, because the celebratory traditions and expectations they have developed for this time, strongly remind them of loved ones they’ve lost.

Prayer 

"Father, as we approach another holiday season, I come to you with gratitude for the many blessings that You have graced my life with.

I have often taken them for granted, and at times, scorned them. But they are many and I am grateful because they have come from You.

But I also remember today those who find the holiday’s anything but gratifying.

And I lift to You those who will go through the rest of this year and into the beginning of next year with sadness, grief, and anger.

Some are going through this holiday season because someone dear to them, a spouse, a sibling, a parent, and close friend died and the holidays will remind them of their absence.

Others will go through this holiday with sadness because life has changed so much for them that nothing is the same and no one understands that.

But You do.

And still others will face the holidays with anger because of terrible conflicts.

For all of these who will face the holidays this way, I ask that You will walk with them no matter how deep the grief, or how profound the sadness, or how powerful the anger is. 

Love them deeply and place in their path people who listen long, speak well, and take their time.

You know and understand our pain during the holidays. So grace them, and us, with Your loving and merciful presence.

Bring hope and healing. Bring love and faith.

Bring Yourself, and all of Your glory, into their, and into our, hearts and souls."

Amen

Some churches arrange special services to give time to comfort those who have experienced a loss. 

This 2010 article from The Chicago tribune explains how the need for Blue Christmas services came about.









I haven't heard of any Catholic services like this in the UK and I wonder if people feel there is a need for them.

 This article is worth a read- it's not religious but it is well written and makes good sense that even without Christmas, for some people it will still be a depressing time of year !

So what music could throw some much needed light into the gloom ?
How about  Light A Candle by Neil Young ?........... Did I hear a groan ?

 Lyrics

 Instead of cursing the darkness,
Light a candle for where we're going,
There's something ahead, worth looking for.

When the light of time is on us,
You will see our moment come,
And the living soul inside will carry on.

It's a chance to give new meaning to every move we make,  
Through the caverns, in the caves, where we come from.

When the light of dawn is on us,
We will see what we can be,
And the ancient ones can sleep an easy sleep

In the hallways of the ages, on the road to history,
What we do now will always be with us.

It's a chance to give new meaning to every move we make,
In the caverns, in the caves, where we come from.

Instead of cursing the darkness,
Light a candle for where we're going,
There's something ahead, worth looking for.

When the light of time is on us,
We will see our moment come,
And the living soul inside will carry on.

Light a candle in the darkness,
So others might see ahead,
Light a candle in the darkness, when you go.

Light a candle in the darkness,
So others might see ahead,
Light a candle in the darkness, when you go.

CS Lewis and Advent

Today is the anniversary birthday of C.S. Lewis. (1898-1963)

(That C.S. is Clive Staples by the way.)

"When he was four, his dog Jacksie was hit by a car and killed; the boy declared he was changing his name to "Jacksie," and for a while he wouldn't answer to anything else. For the rest of his life, he was known as "Jack" to his family and close friends.

Raised in the Church of Ireland, he became an atheist in his teens and eventually returned to the church after a series of long theological arguments with his friend and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien. "I gave up Christianity at about 14," he said. "Came back to it when getting on for 30. Not an emotional conversion; almost purely philosophical. I didn't want to. I'm not in the least a religious type. I want to be let alone, to feel I'm my own master; but since the facts seemed to be just the opposite, I had to give in." 

He wrote Mere Christianity (1952), a classic of Christian apologetics; and The Screwtape Letters (1942), an epistolary novel that consists of letters from a demon to his apprentice nephew, giving him pointers on leading a man astray.

 Image via Wikipedia
He's also the author of the seven-book allegorical fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia, which he wrote for children. 
He thought it would be a good way to introduce Christian themes to children without beating them over the head, something that had turned him off as a young man. "An obligation to feel can freeze feelings," he once said.

One of his books, Miracles (1947), had a profound effect on a writer from New York. Joy Davidman Gresham had been raised Jewish, but, like Lewis, had become an atheist. She was separated from her husband, who was an alcoholic, and she was raising their two sons by herself when she came upon Lewis's book. After she read it, she began praying, and started attending services at a Presbyterian church. She also began a correspondence with Lewis that eventually led to their marriage in 1957. 

Image via Wikipedia

Joy was diagnosed with bone cancer, and she married Lewis from her hospital bed; the doctors sent her home to die, but she went into remission instead, and they had almost four wonderful years together. After her death in 1960, Lewis was devastated. He wrote a book, A Grief Observed (1961), which contained his thoughts, questions, and observations. It was so raw and personal that he published it under a pseudonym. 

Friends actually recommended the book to him, to help with his grief, unaware that he'd written it. His authorship wasn't made known until after his death in 1963. 








In the book, he writes that he doesn't believe people are reunited with their loved ones in the next life. "Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand."
Biography of Lewis taken from Writer's Almanac.  

C.S. Lewis and Christmas are intertwined in many ways so here are a few choice links to explore.

This Sermon for the first week of Advent  incorporates the life of C.S. Lewis .

This one has two essay extracts from Lewis 

and this is a daily blog with all things Lewis !

C.S. Lewis Song Music composed and performed by Brooke Fraser from New Zealand. Based upon the "Argument from Desire" by C.S. Lewis and an inspiring video that matches the lyrics well to our modern day problems and the Hope of Advent.

.

 Lyrics

If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy,
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary,
then of course I'll feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared

[CHORUS:]
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan as I wait for hope to come for me

Am I lost or just less found? On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?
is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?
Cos my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
And avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become

[CHORUS]
 
For we, we are not long here
Our time is but a breath, so we better breathe it
And I, I was made to live, I was made to love, I was made to know you
Hope is coming for me
Hope, He's coming 

 One of my favourite quotes from Lewis...........

Related articles

• C.S. Lewis and Reality (godlessgirl.com) I included this link as I think that C.S. Lewis would have appreciated it, as he was an atheist himself for many years.

Advent Longing and Waiting

Image La fenetre les chats de Willy Ronis from here

Every year we celebrate the holy season of Advent, O God. 
Every year we pray those beautiful prayers of longing and waiting, and sing those lovely songs of hope and promise.
Every year we roll up all our needs and yearnings and faithful expectation into one word: “Come!” (The Divine Dawning, Karl Rahner, S.J.)

Focus Towards Bethlehem

For several Christmases, The Ship Of Fools website have offered a seasonal rundown of the best religious gadgets in The 12 Days of Kitschmas. 

Here are some of the most popular items specifically about Christmas among them this nativity set seen left.

However among the more frivolous items, there is a gift with a more serious note...

The web authors describe it thus :

"A real humbugging Scrooge of a party pooper, pouring icy water on the true, hedonistic spirit of the season. We give you the Walled Nativity, a none too gentle reminder of the 230-mile, six-metre high wall, topped with barbed wire and lined with guard towers, that encircles Palestine – and Bethlehem. As its purveyors, the Amos Trust, say, with not a little understatement: "This is a nativity set with a difference. In 2007 the wise men won't get to the stable." At £12 for the small version, and £50 for the large, church version, the Walled Nativity is made all the more poignant for being made by impoverished wood-carvers in the town where Jesus the carpenter was born." Click here to order! The Amos Trust website has an updated annual resource pack for Christmas with new reflections, prayers and facts about life in ‘the little town’ as well as links to video clips and music.  The following is taken from the Amos website. "By reading out a reflection written by Palestinian Christians living in Bethlehem or showing a video clip of images of modern Bethlehem in a Christmas services or carol concert, we are responding to the request of Palestinian Christians living under Israeli occupation not to be forgotten by us this Christmas. (This request was part of the Kairos call.) If you want to make their stories the focus this year: click here for the free service pack and use it in a church service this Christmas. Photos of the separation wall in Bethlehem are available to download via their Flickr site. (Please note these photos are to be used by churches and non-profit community groups only.) Page 14 of the pack contains the links to video resources - here is the list of links for easy click-through: This video is from Sami Awad from the Holy Land Trust's message for Christmas 2011 Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, music video of a special version played on the Oud by Basel Zayed. Little Town of Bethlehem - a new feature length documentary about modern Bethlehem. You can watch the trailer here, or buy the film here. Oh Palestine music video of Garth Hewitt's song recorded by Reem Kelani. The track comes from the album 'Under the Influence' which you can buy from their shop. Bethlehem Hidden from View - this 17 minute film with interviews from Christians in Bethlehem today is available to buy from their shop. They've cancelled Christmas in Bethlehem song by Garth Hewitt. This video has had 67,000 hits on youtube with a basic slide show of modern Bethlehem. The Bethlehem Pack 2011 is now available to download for free from here This year is also the 3rd anniversary of the Kairos document issued by a group of Palestinian Christians as part of a campaign for justice and peace which can be read here and more from here.

Related articles

• After centuries, Bethlehem Church of Nativity to get new roof (deaconjohnspace.wordpress.com)
• Poverty in Bethlehem - Canon Giles Fraser (kiwianglo.wordpress.com)
• 'Little Town of Bethlehem' filmmaker to appear at Mercyhurst screenings (goerie.com)

Advent Poems 2011 Part I

If, like me, you find poetry a vital spiritual doorway that opens up into ways of expressing prayer and reflecting on faith
I hope you find these useful.

Last year I managed to find several Advent poems and it will be a big challenge to find new ones I like for this year but wonderful serendipity and time spent on google searches (!) brought me to this wonderful gift of a blog by Charlie Lowell completely devoted to daily poetry posts on the theme of Advent which he began on November 28th during the year 2008. 

There are lots of superb poems Charlie- Thank you so much !! 

Sadly Charlie has not continued the exercise past 2008 but there are plenty here that are timeless.

These are two examples . Hope you enjoy them 

The God We Hardly Knew
by Oscar Romero

No one can celebrate
a genuine Christmas
without being truly poor.
The self-sufficient, the proud,
those who, because they have
everything, look down on others,
those who have no need
even of God- for them there
will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry,
those who need someone
to come on their behalf,
will have that someone.
That someone is God.
Emmanuel. God-with-us.
Without poverty of spirit
there can be no abundance of God.

Christmas Dream
by Eugene Peterson

“...an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.”

Amiably at home with virtue and evil -
The righteousness of Joseph and Herod’s
Wickedness – I’m ever and always a stranger to grace.
I need this annual angel visitation.

- this sudden drive by dream into reality -
to know the virgin conceives and God is with us.
The dream powers its way through winter weather
and gives me vision to see the Jesus gift.

Light from the dream lasts a year. Through
Equinox and solstice I am given twelve months

Of daylight by which to build the crèche where my
Redeemer lives. The fetus of praise grows

deep in my spirit. As autumn wanes I count
the days until I bear the dream again. 

Advent Music 2011 Part I

A couple of pieces of music set to video if you would like to slow down and take a moment  for a few minutes of reflection at the start of this first week of Advent..............
hope you enjoy them......  Ready.... Steady ....Slow ......

Tim Hughes : Everything

Fernando Ortega: Allelu

Monday First Week Advent 2011 Reflection

First Monday Week One of Advent. Scripture readings for today's Mass are here

First Reading from Isaiah. 2: 1-5

 This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In days to come,
The mountain of the LORD's house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.

All nations shall stream toward it;
many peoples shall come and say:
"Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
That he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths."

For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations,
and impose terms on many peoples.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.

O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the LORD!

Reflections

A human being is a part of the whole called by us the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest....

This delusion is a kind or prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in all its beauty."
— Albert Einstein

Healing of self and the healing of the planet are inextricably linked and we all need to be able to widen our circle of compassion.

In this first week of Advent my prayers and longings are for peace; and yes,this peace  has to begin with me !!

This is beautiful prayer from Fr Austin Fleming at A Concord Pastor Comments who is on retreat this week but thankfully he posted this before he set off...

 "If you have an Advent Wreath at home, pray for peace this week as you light the first candle each day. If you don't have an Advent Wreath - light any candle and pray for peace. If you have no candle, simply pray for peace...

Pray for an end to war and its violence and bloodshed...
Pray for the safe return of those in the armed services
who are far away from family and friends...
Pray for those who have died in the war
and for those they left behind...
Pray for the poor who suffer war's hardships...
Pray for peace...
Pray for the peace the world cannot give or make for itself...
Pray for our enemies...

Pray, too, for an end to the little wars (and the bigger ones)
waged in our own lives, in our families, our neighborhoods,
at work and in the Church...
Pray for those who have been harmed by our belligerence...
Pray for those we make our personal enemies...
Pray for an end to the wars we fight within and with ourselves...
Pray for peace...
Pray for the peace we cannot give or make for ourselves...
Pray for the peace that only the Lord can give...
Pray for the peace the Lord came to make for us..."

I'll finish today with two pieces of music and video reflections:
The first is "The Christ in You" using the brilliant stained glass works of Irish artist Harry Clarke, put to the music of Mike Scott's band The Waterboys.

The second is by Max Richter and Dinah Washington "On The Nature of Daylight /This Bitter Earth", with footage and stills from the film Baraka.

 Both pieces fit the theme of today's first reading on the futility, anguish and bitterness that war and conflict causes and also in the gospel where the centurion's desperation for the healing of his suffering servant and his words of outstanding faith ring out : 

"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed."

Because he was willing to go that extra mile for his servant Jesus answered him and his servant was cured...

Life goes so quickly and this Advent also makes me aware of how brief the life of Jesus was on this earth and how awesome his accomplishments in such a short time- all possible because of the love he was willing to show.

I hope and pray that I can use this Advent to see Christ in those I meet and show love   that will bear fruit.

 Lyrics to song below video

This bitter earth

well, what a fruit it bears

This bitter earth

And if my life is like the dust
That hides the glow of a rose
What good am I ?
Heaven only knows

This bitter Earth
Yes, can be so cold
Today you're young
Too soon you're old

But while a voice
Within me cries
I'm sure someone 

may answer my call
And this bitter earth
May not be so bitter after all

This bitter earth

This bitter earth

What good is love
that no one shares?

 And if my life is like the dust
That hides the glow of a rose
What good am I ?
Heaven only knows.

More information on the stunning film Baraka here.