What do we most value?

I was struck by the television interview between Cameron Bancroft and Adam Gilchrist about the ball tampering incident in South Africa. What particularly struck me as the comment which caused him to believe in the value of fitting in and being part of the team. I think this raises some particular questions especially as we enter into the new year. We can be pressured by many forces which seem to shape us into somebody we do not want to become but we can fear rejection from others and so we can start to be moulded or distorted into an image which we can all to easily become. This may be a time to reflect on how we wish to live and what do we most value.
It may be well to reflect on the letter of St Paul to the Colossians 3.12-17 to discover a way of being present. The first element is that we have been chosen for a good purpose. The central values that we need to live each day are:

• Compassion
• Kindness
• Humility
• Gentleness
• Patience
• Forgiveness
• Peace
• Love
• Thanksgiving

These can become the touchstones of what brings life to us and to others.

It also looks at ways of recognising that we can teach others by the way we live by becoming immersed in the person of Christ. The one resolution we probably need to make each day is how do belong to Christ rather than just fitting in. 

Let nothing affright you! Let silence befriend you!

Travelling home from the city last night I was trapped under the shelter of an awning watching the hail fall heavily around us. There was a sense of wonder of being caught up in something which was newsworthy but also witnessing how easily lives could be changed in that single moment of a storm. People huddled together not just to avoid being soaked but out of a fear that if they stepped out that they could be seriously hurt. For myself, I had images of my umbrella being battered and holed to make it no longer fit for purpose! There was a moment where I physically had to stop and wait in what had seemed a hectic day of last-minute activity. Yet being held at that moment I could not stop the hail or the storm I just had to wait it out.

In a similar way, Christmas and the birth of Jesus falls upon us and holds our attention by the immediacy of its impact on us. Rather than battering us into submission, it allows silence to fall upon us. This is not to cause damage to us but to disturb us by a silence which speaks eloquently to our hearts. It stops us to remember what or who do we listen for in life. Who will actually befriend us against the storms which can often be unleashed unexpectedly on our lives? Who will listen to our voice when it seems our prayers echo into darkness? Yet it is in this darkest of nights, in the raging of noise that can submerge us in the activity that one person steps through the mist to reach out to us. It calls for us to pause and listen to the call of a child who makes sense of our hearts. This is a time when our minds are enthralled, our hearts quickened and our lives enwrapped in velvety darkness that befriends us. May this Christmas move us closer to God and to each other with a spirit of generosity, gentleness and thanksgiving. Let nothing affright you! Let the silent voice of Jesus befriend you!

If you want!

If You Want

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.

Yes, there, under the dome of your being does Creation
come into existence eternally, through your woman, dear pilgrim –
the sacred womb of your soul,
As God grasps our arm 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 from Love Poems to God translated by Daniel Ladinsky

https://abbeyofthearts.com/blog/2009/12/17/winter-solstice-200/ accessed 5^th December 2018 Abbey of the Arts

We are called in this time of waiting to recognize that God’s slow guiding hand grasps our own and draws us closer. No longer are we passive observers waiting on the sidelines but we are drawn into God’s creative plan. No longer as strangers but as friends called to be involved in God’s creative dance of salvation. Do we want to join in the dance which plays rainbows on the sky?

Which way?

There can be a multitude of different ways of preparing for Christmas based on traditions, relationships and location. In a world where we become more familiar with how different cultures celebrate Christmas our minds and hearts are broadened to how this event affects so many people. We recognise that while it is formed around the birth of Jesus Christ how we prepare for that event depends upon our history, ethnicity and background. Against this reality, we are called to imagine how Jesus is present to us not lost in the midst of these different expressions. We are called to prepare a way in which he can speak to our own age and our own hearts.

The preparation seeks to balance both our prayerful attentiveness to the person of Jesus with how we seek to live out of that relationship in our daily lives. We are called to examine what we value and how His life draws us closer. We cannot just assume that this will happen by magic but rather through an openness to the life He seeks out for us. He seeks to discover us in our vulnerability and our need to centre our lives on God's fundamental call to love, honour and serve him. This time of preparation seeks to examine what we truly value and how we live out of this relationship in freedom. This is not just about writing goals and objectives but rather discovering the person we are called to be. As we sit this week maybe spend some time listening quietly for that still voice which brings meaning and hope to your heart. Seek to find that place where you can make room for Him in your own life and what He may be calling you to be present to in these days ahead.