An Advent Reflection from CLT

In these times of local, national, global crisis and immense suffering, the cry of Earth, the cry of the poor resonates deeply with the Advent cry

“Oh that you would tear the heavens asunder… come be with us comfort your people!”(Is 64)

Advent season of waiting, hoping, and longing for the impossible to be made possible for light to shine on those who walk in deep shadows and for peace to descend upon Earth and reign in our hearts

We are all very familiar with the themes of Advent as we come to this season each year, the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love that unfold over the four weeks. We are invited to slow our pace even as the world around seems to get busy with another agenda. Advent is a season for stillness, for quiet, for discernment. It is a season of active waiting, straining forward, listening that is attentive and finely tuned.

Maria Boulding OSB says ‘If you want God, and long for union with him, yet sometimes wonder what that means or whether it can mean anything at all, you are already walking with the God who comes.’

The gift is certain, because God is already pledged, already in our world, already Emmanuel. We are irrevocably, unconditionally, loved.’ All your love, your stretching out, your hope, your thirst, God is creating in you so that [God] may fill you. God is on the inside of the longing.

Meister Eckhart, one of the great mystics taught: ‘You need not seek him here or there, he is no further than the door of your heart; there he stands patiently awaiting whoever is ready to open up. He longs for you a thousand times more than you long for him.’

Advent invites on a journey that takes us beyond words and images into silence.

Let’s consider Advent through the words of writers from different continents, where we as a Congregation are living, as an inspiration for reflection. Choose one that speaks to you and let it do its work in the stillness of your heart. If you have a favourite quote or poem please share it in the blog- let’s bring our blog to life and nourish one another on our Advent journey.

In Silence we hear God’s whisper, moving like a feather, through our being, stoking and transforming timid souls into fiery passion for justice. In silence God finds voice to cry aloud for little ones too broken and too crushed to speak aloud themselves. In silence God cries and is heard: Be Silent. In that silence allow God’s grace and God’s voice to rise from you and speak in you. 

Edwina Gately, A Mystical Heart. 

Never am I outside my God; 

God is not outside of me

I am God’s radiance and 

God’s light

And God adorneth me. 

Angelus SIlesius

The Womb of Silence

Not in the whirlwind, not in the lightening, not in the strife of tongues, or the jangling of subtle reasoning is He to be found, but in the sill small voice speaking in the womb of silence. Therefore be silent.

Let the past be silent, let there be no vain regrets, no brooding on past failures, no bitterness, no judgement of oneself or of others. Let all be silent.

Be still and know, Be still and look, let the eyes of the mind be closed, that you may hear what otherwise you would not hear. That you may know what otherwise you would not know.

Abandon yourself to Him, in longing love, simply. Holding onto nothing but Him. So that you may enter the silence of eternity and know the union of yourself with Him. And if in the silence he does not answer, he is still there. His silence is the silence of love. Wait then in patience and in submission. It is good to wait in silence for his coming. 

Unknown author, quoted in ‘Finding your Hidden Treasure’ Benignus O’Rourke OSA

Advent season:

Darkness is our beginning

Not our ending.

We begin in darkness
The womb of Creation
Covering the face of the deep.
So also, darkness is the beginning
Of Redemption.

A Star appears in the darkness—
A signpost to the wise
Of all times and from all places
To leave their darkness
And journey to find him
Who is Light.

Light is found
Not in a palace of privilege

But in a place of poverty.
Light is found
With an angelic chorus
To shepherds at their work by night.
Light is found
In a stable that is
Heaven’s Gate to a Renewed Creation.

Darkness is not our destiny—
Light is.

Uli Chi            Author           Spent his early years in Taiwan

Advent is here!

We are immersed in crisis;

But God is always our salvation.

We are surrounded by individualism

But God is communion.

Bombs speak in many places on our earth;

But God utters  one word that’s louder than every war: LOVE

There is despair

but  in Advent

the hopeful voice of our God of tenderness, does resound!

“Rise and put on your dignity”

It’s the voice of God who wants us in festive mood, holding the joy of the Kingdom in our hands.

“A voice cries out in the wilderness”

the prophet’s voice, threatened but not defeated,

forever the creator of life, the opener of roads of trust.

“What should we do?”

and as an answer, a thousand suggestions,

What is listened to in silence, asks

to be proclaimed  from all the watchtowers.

” A woman on the road of faith and service”

enlightens and accompanies our thirst as pilgrims,

It’s Mary, the woman in whom Advent makes itself flesh,

growth, love from the womb itself,

SON….

Hopeful Advent offers its hand to 

the joyful woman.

Christmas, the road and the search, go eagerly to the meeting,

the embrace, between God and humanity

Carmen Gloria- Chile

A poem by the well-known Saint Óscar Romero, titled “The God We Hardly Knew.”

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.

Through His incarnation,
God drew the suffering individual to Himself
and united him or her with His divine nature.
It is this precious love of our Saviour alone which
can carry us through all our times of crisis,
disintegration, disappointment and suffering.
God accompanies us along all our ways and he is closest to us
especially on the path of suffering.

St Paul of the Cross

Blessings for the Advent Journey from Therese, Carmen Gloria, Brigid and Mary-Ann