Reflection for December 31, 2008

A year is nothing but the amount of time it takes for the earth to go completely around the sun before it begins the trip all over again. The completion of a year, then, is not a sign that things are ending. It is surely much more the realization that life repeats itself unendingly. We have a chance to do everything again, better this time, more comfortably this time, more joyfully this time.
Songs of Joy, Joan Chittister


On meaning, as we age:

A burden of these years is that we might allow ourselves to believe that not being as fast or as busy as we used to be is some kind of human deficiency.

A blessing of these years is that we can come to understand that it is the quality of what we think and say that makes us valuable members of society, not how fast or busy we are.
The Gift of Years, Joan Chittister

Reflection for December 24, 2008

The Meditation this morning was a reading of the story,
My Father’s Gift
by Frederick Waterman.

Julian Cell wishes Blessings and Peace to all!

Reflection for December 17, 2008

ONE WORLD
Celtic Woman
I hear a baby crying,
A sad sound, a lonely sound.
I want to take her in my arms,
And then I dry away all her tears.

I see a boy who's frightened,
A young boy with old eyes,
I long to say you're welcome here,
You can be happy now that you're warm
We're all a part of one world,
We all can share the same dream...
And if you just reach out to me,
Then you will find deep down inside.... I'm just like you,

Loud voices raised in anger,
Speak harsh words, such cruel words,
Why do they speak so selfishly? When we have so much we can share.

So let your hearts be open,
And reach out with all your love,
There are no strangers now,
They are our brothers now,
And we are one.

We're all apart of one world,
We all can share the same dream,
And if you just reach out to me,
Then you will find, deep down inside,
I'm just like you....

We're all a part of one world,
We all can share the same dream,
And if you just reach out to me,
Then you will find, deep down inside...

I'm just like you....
I'm just like you....

Reflection for December 10, 2008

Preparing a Space

…The season of Advent is a season of preparation, a time of getting ready for what lies ahead. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says of John the Baptist, “This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ ’’ And in another Advent reading, Isaiah proclaims to us, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3). While both Matthew and Isaiah draw our attention to the horizon from which the holy one will appear, they also draw our gaze to the path itself.

The season beckons me to ask, what am I preparing for? What is the way that is being prepared within the wilderness of my life? What does it mean for my own life to become a path, a way of welcome for the Holy One? How do I give myself time to notice the ways that the path unfolds before me and within me? What are the acts of preparation that bring delight to my life? Whom do I ask or allow to help me prepare?

Chances are, if we don’t enjoy the process of getting ready, we won’t enjoy the event we are getting ready for. If we become so consumed by getting Christmas right—the right present, the right cards mailed to the right people at the right time, the right dishes for Christmas dinner—we risk missing the surprising ways that God prepares us in this season. As we open to God’s guiding in these Advent days, we may discover that the space being prepared for the coming birth lies within our own selves.

^{Jan L.Richardson, NIGHT VISIONS: searching the shadows of advent and christmas, United Church Press, 1998}

Reflection for December 3, 2008

Advent

The year draws down. In the meadows

And high pastures, the green grass veins

the grey. Already the stubble

Fields are green. Orien stands

Another year over California,

Simple and lucent, guarding the full moon.

Dew descends from heaven

Good pours from the clouds.

The earth wavers on its whirling track.

We milk by lantern light. The shadows

of the cattle are illimitable.

The lantern light knots in gouts of gold.

As the sun retreats, and the moon

Turns its face away and back again,

Following the spinning earth

Like our following lantern

Through the dark, back to the white breath

Of the cattle, back to the smell

of hay and dung and milk,

Back to the placental

Dark in the abandoned ruins,

God goes again to birth.

--Kenneth Rexroth

Charm . . . these nights in Advent, holy spheres,

While minds, as meek as beasts,

Stay close at home in the sweet hay;

And intellects are quieter than the flock that feed by starlight.

--Thomas Merton

Reflection for November 26, 2008

Live Your Best Life

Hold on to what is good even if it is

a handful of earth.

Hold on to what you believe even if it is

a tree which stands by itself.

Hold on to what you must do even if it is

a long way from here...

Hold on to my hand even when

I have gone away from you.

~By Nancy Wood, from Many Winters