Advent & the season of Winter

I consider, the spiritual time of Advent corresponds well to the season of winter.

“ … Winter is the perfect time for stillness. We have time to deepen into the season with our questions, our dreams and visions, and take time for our small hibernations.

Winter is like the womb of the year – It is a space that holds all potential, as well as great mystery. The dark has its purpose…it is the rich nourishing earth where the roots grow. The seeds are sheltered here before they sprout.

Winter is the most “feminine” time of year, with its ability to transform and heal in the depths, beneath our conscious awareness… Winter invites us to rest our mind and body and cultivate our imagination with some quiet time. We need to remember that rest is regenerative and essential to the success of everything else we do! Rest is not “doing nothing!” Rest is when our bodies build and cleanse. It’s when our brain puts things together in new and innovative ways, sorting and sifting our experiences for meaning and connection.  Restful or non-focused times are when we are most likely to have those “aha” moments that can change everything!

So, winter gives some time to let things loosen, to dream your dreams, to be nourished and comforted.  We gain strength, wisdom and perspective when we allow ourselves to deepen into these dark places.”

Sourced from Barbara Hannelore in https://www.motheringarts.com/winter-blessings/   

Contributed by Sister Nancy Wales, csj

IMAGE: Winter, by Karen Davis

Third Week of Advent:Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday

Let fearful hearts rejoice!

May trembling hands and weak knees be strengthened.

Let the singing begin.

God comes with healing and purpose, with gladness and light, to set aside our doubts, to free us from the binding shackles of fear. God invites us to believe again in the promise of new life. We are called to acceptance of our present uncertainties. In these days, when many are faced with the need to move, we are reminded that God is present and there is no need to fear. There will be food; there will be warmth; there will be the compassionate ear and the voice of solace. The generous heart will care for the lonely one; the shut-in will be visited. As we respond to the needs of our world and our congregation, we know that God is faithful and we are faithful. We are faithful with God’s faithfulness. We say “Yes” in the ways that Mary and Juan Diego said Yes, knowing that we may not understand the how, but God’s faithful compassion will shine through. God watches over the stranger and God watches over us; God upholds the widow and the orphan and we uphold each other. Let us rejoice in the Spirit that is our strength. May we recall that desert flowers bloom and that Jesus came as the Light for our lives and our world. May we live in compassioate care with each other and with our universe.

Sr Helen Russell, csj

It is Now the Moment to Wake from Sleep

Here in the northern hemisphere, it is the season when light and life are fading. Darkness tends to encroach on our daylight ever more rapidly during these winter months and creates the perfect backdrop for Advent to do its work in us. In some ways it is the time to learn how to ‘see in the dark.’ This new way of seeing is more like a wake-up call.  In the readings of the 1st Sunday of Advent, St. Paul already admonished us, “Brothers and sisters, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the amour of light; let us live honourably.” (Romans 13: 11-12)

In our day and age, living honourably has become ever more challenging. Not wanting to be a prophet of doom, I do acknowledge all the honourable things done by the many that care for our world, evident in so many commendable efforts made to turn things around, to protect our world and all who dwell here. However, as I wrote in last week’s reflection, Advent is a good time to take stock of how each one of us has contributed to the increasingly sad state of our precious life-giving planet. 

In his encyclical Laudato ‘Si, Pope Francis draws our attention to how St. Francis viewed our common home, Mother Earth. In his eye’s our earth "is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us."1

Here we are in the 21st century, on the brink of an ecological crisis.  We are living on Mother Earth who is threatened to the borderline of extinction. It is the eleventh hour to change our ways drastically, and change them soon, before it is too late – though some experts are of the opinion that we have long moved beyond the point of no return.  What is happening to our common home? Our ecological challenges, precipitated by our ravenous capitalism, pollution and smog, the despoliation of the resources of the natural world, etc. impact our natural habitat. This ecological crisis in turn impacts our lives and in alarming numbers animals are threatened with extinction.  With his encyclical, Pope Francis “metaphorically takes us by the hand and leads us to the plight of the Earth, its people and all its living things — and sometimes into places we would rather not go.”2

Most of us have learned things in the dark that we could never have learned in the light. Though we have been steeped in darkness, now is the time to see anew and heed this wake-up call. Let us be attentive, and take note:

what is God asking of me, of you?

What ecological virtues might we develop during this Advent season, and beyond? 

As Richard Rohr points out, “The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.”

1.https://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/spend-advent-laudato-si-and-question-what-god-asking-me 

 

- Sr. Magdalena Vogt, CPS

 

 

The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God.

-St. John of Damascene