Come Holy Darkness: December 2023

Dec 30, 2023

DAY 28

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Brigid

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A GREETING
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
(Psalm 9:1)

A READING
Mary said, tell me, Lord, why have I come to this place–to gain or to lose?
The Lord said, you have come to reveal the greatness of the revealer.
Mary said to him, lord, is there a place that lacks the truth?
The Lord said, the place where I am not.
Mary said, Lord you are fearful and marvelous.
-- from the Gnostic text, Dialogue of the Saviour, ch. 24,
as found in The Complete Gospels, ed. by Robert J. Miller

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord,
searching every inmost part.
(Proverbs 20:27)

A PRAYER
I should like a great lake of ale For the King of Kings. I should like the angels of heaven to be drinking it through time eternal. I should like excellent meats of belief and pure piety. I should like flails of penance at my house. I should like the men of heaven at my house; I should like barrels of peace at their disposal; I should like vessels of charity for distribution; I should like for them sellers of mercy. I should like cheerfulness to be in their drinking. I should like Jesus to be there among them. I should like the three Marys of illustrious renown to be with us. I should like the people of heaven, the poor, to be gathered around us from all parts.
- from the Prayer of St. Brigid of Kildare,
found in The Flowering of the Soul: A Book of Prayers by Women
edited by Lucinda Vardey

VERSE FOR THE DAY
Love your friends like your own soul,
protect them like the pupil of your eye.
-- from The Gospel of Thomas, ch. 25,
as found in The Complete Gospels, ed. by Robert J. Miller

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A fox on the Mourne Mountains south of Dublin, as photographed by Ryan Simpson,
found on the Facebook page of Ryan Simpson Photography.

Brigid is the third of the three monastic figures commonly referred to as the patron saints of Ireland (with Patrick and Columba) and possibly the most colourful one. She was said to be the daughter of an enslaved woman whom tradition holds gave birth to her while crossing through a doorway with a bucket of milk. This birth has given her the significance of being one who is connected to boundary places and thresholds -- important in Celtic spirituality. Later, she would provide milk for the poor and those living with leprosy from cows that offered a flow far beyond what they would normally produce. Cogitosus, a monk from the order at Kildare that she eventually founded, is credited with writing the first biography of a saint, by recording her life in the mid seventh century.

Perhaps because of her great motherly compassion for all on the margins, Brigid is often compared to and associated with Mary the mother of Jesus. A closer figure within the Christian story might instead be Mary Magdalene. Like Mary Magdalene, she played a significant but largely undocumented role in the unfolding of Christianity in her context. Like Mary Magdalene, there are stories to explain why she never married. In the case of Brigid, they include her own self-disfiguring to repel suitors, only to have her body miraculously made whole again later.

She had a legendary compassion for animals; there are stories about Brigid and the foxes she saved. (The fox is a significant animal in these times, often treated with favour, sometimes domesticated and assumed to have mystical powers.) She was deeply committed to the poor and particularly attentive to those who lived with leprosy. Some of the folklore surrounding Brigid includes trees she blessed that provided an abundance of fruit. She also had an unabashed fondness for ale and operated monastery breweries. There are several paintings that show her changing water into ale, the way Jesus did with wine. In today's prayer attributed to her, the petitions begin with, "I should like a lake of ale..." -- a lively departure from pious language. Included in her prayer is a desire for the company of the 'three Marys of illustrious renown.' Like Mary Magdalene, she was both venerated and looked on with uncertainty for her unconventional ways.

Also like Mary Magdalene, scholarship has suggested that Brigid is a compliation of several figures. She is considered to be a descendant of the pre-Christian Celtic goddess Brigit and through this association, she became a patron saint of livestock and dairy farming, and poetry and the arts, including weaving. The intricately woven St. Brigid’s Cross is still popular today.

Brigid’s feast day is February 1st, which coincides with the Celtic festival of Imbolc, marking the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Imbolc signals the first stirrings of spring, when the trees start to shake off winter and begin to resume new life. The Celtic tree of veneraton for Imbolc is the willow, respected as the mother tree of all trees. Brigid’s flower, the snowdrop, is among the first to appear in the late winter in Ireland.

In the short excerpt from the Gnostic text Dialogue of the Saviour, we hear Mary Magdalene characterized as having ‘come to reveal the greatness of the revealer.’ To uncover or reveal is a special gift of teaching and of ministry. Both Mary and Brigid were able to convey the mystery and the wonder of the Christian story in a way that inspired lives to be transformed. When did you have such a teacher who revealed the mystery of faith to you in a way that opened doors in your life? How can you continue to become such a figure in the life of others?

Image by Alcides Ota

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LC† Come Holy Darkness is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook, and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help to support extended offerings throughout the year.
Thank you and peace be with you!

Dec 29, 2023

DAY 27

Image by JJ Musgrove

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Patrick

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A GREETING
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
(Psalm 42:1-2)

A READING
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise God,
my help and my God.
(Psalm 42:3-6)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
I say to God, my rock,
‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully?
(Psalm 42:9)

A CONFESSION
But after I had come to Ireland, it was then that I was made to shepherd the flocks day after day, so, as I did so, I would pray all the time, right through the day. More and more the love of God and fear of him grew strong within me and as my faith grew, so the Spirit became more and more active, so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and at night only slightly less. Although I might be staying in a forest or out on a mountainside, it would be the same; even before dawn broke, I would be aroused to pray. In snow, in frost, in rain, I would hardly notice any discomfort, and I was never slack but always full of energy. It is clear to me now, that this was due to the fervor of the Spirit within me.
- from The Confession of St. Patrick,
translated by John Skinner

VERSE FOR THE DAY
At night God's song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
(Psalm 42:8)

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"A Legend of St. Patrick," by Briton Riviere (1877)

Patrick is by far the most famous of Irish Christian monks and yet his early relationship to Ireland was difficult at best. He was born and grew up in the west part of England where, at the age of 16, he was captured and enslaved by Irish slave traders and brought to Ireland where he was forced to tend to sheep. (The quotation above from Patrick's confession refers to that time.) He was already Christian but it was during the time of being enslaved that his faith deepened. When he managed to escape and return to England he was recaptured and enslaved again, then escaped again. It was at this point that he began to wonder if perhaps the will of God was for him to actually remain in Ireland. Therefore, when he became a free man he returned by his own will and is credited with being one of the principal founders of Christianity in Ireland. His life was a profoundly difficult one, in part because of his generous and deeply felt sense of inclusion for everyone and everything. He worked to build good relationships with the non-Christian Irish as well. He strove to end slavery in Ireland and was a great supporter of the vocation of women. For these convictions and more, he was often on the edge of martyrdom.

There is a story about Patrick, whose famous “breastplate prayer” is the text of the last part of today’s music. In the story, Patrick and his community of brothers were on their way to minister in another village where the leader had threatened to kill them. As the men walked through a woods, they recited the prayer to give themselves courage. As they continued to pray, those who waited to ambush them saw a mother deer and her calves passing through, instead of the monks. In another story, Patrick was drawn to a particular place to build his monastery. As he was scouting the location with others, he found a hind deer and its calf who refused to move. While the others prepared to kill it, he carried the calf on his shoulders and the hind followed him to where he released them in a woods. This is part of why Patrick is often associated with a deer and with Psalm 42 in particular. It might be helpful to read through Psalm 42 imagining Patrick relying on its words during his time of being enslaved.

In our own lives, the end of the year often brings reflection on where we have been and where we are going. For many of us, there may have been difficult changes over the past year that we might wish could somehow be returned to how things were. We may be yearning to feel God's presence with us, giving us courage and upholding our strength, as we hear about the development of wars, climate catastrophes and species loss, in the wider world. Somehow it might feel harder to feel as hopeful as we once did. Like the deer in Psalm 42, we thirst for God’s love and for a sense of meaning and the ability to make change in our world. This is why Jesus became one of us, to dwell with us in the midst of all of those uncertainties, and to help us build a renewed and transformed world.

How can the story of Patrick inspire our own longing for change? How much do you feel Christ above, below, beside and within you as you strive to deepen your discipleship?

Image by Marneejill

Dec 27, 2023

DAY 25

Image by Cary Bass-Deschenes

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A GREETING
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge.
(Psalm 57:1a)

A READING
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.
(Matthew 2:7-15a)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
For they have fled from the swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow, and from the stress of battle.
(Isaiah 21:15)

A PRAYER
May the Three Who are over you,
the Three Who are below you,
the Three Who are above you here,
the Three Who are above you yonder,
the Three Who are in the earth,
the Three Who are in the air,
the Three Who are in the heaven,
the Three Who are in the great pouring sea – bless you.
- Gaelic prayer found in A Celtic Primer:
che complete Celtic worship resource and collection,
compiled by Brendan O'Malley

VERSE FOR THE DAY
In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
until the destroying storms pass by.
(Psalm 57:1b)

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"The Adoration," by Oscar Cahén

Although Epiphany is not for another week, the flight of the holy family to Egypt is intricately tied to the events of the visit of the Magi. Yesterday, we considered the power of Mary’s ‘yes,’ the ‘peregrinatio’ of moving into a journey without knowing its destination, submitting to God’s will. The Celtic Christian monks and voyagers, we noted, were sometimes sent and sometimes chose to make similar journeys in oarless boats, drifting to wherever it was God’s will they should land.

The flight of migrants and refugees, however, is not such a journey. Refugees are forced by wars, economic destitution, and dangerous political realities to seek refuge anywhere safe. It is sometimes harder to hear God’s will on such a journey. In the treacherous times of Herod into which Jesus was born, Joseph knew they had to leave. God sent angels to guide his every move through instructional dreams. In his care was the most sought after child, whose death was possible at every turn.

The tension of these challenges is vivid in Oscar Cahén’s painting “The Adoration” which depicts the visitation of the Magi (here represented as kings). The colours are sombre, and Mary offers up the child while simultaneously withdrawing from the powerful light falling from the star. The visitors are shadowed and the scene is crowded: danger and violence are not far from the scene, just outside the frame.

Cahén was a Jewish refugee who fled to Canada in 1940 and was held for two years at Camp N, a detention camp in Sherbrooke, Quebec where unwelcomed Jewish people and other refugees to Canada were sent during the second world war. This is Cahén’s only Christian-themed work, but it powerfully evokes what it means to be both oppressed and hopeful. To arrive in a new land, saving one’s life from terrifying violence, only to be detained and treated as second-class citizens, is hardly freedom.

If our story were taking place today, the holy family might easily be found at the razorwire borders of Europe and Northern Africa, of the United States and Mexico. The hope represented by Jesus is the hope that we can be transformed into a people who don’t want harmful border walls. Good walls help to protect and enclose grazing animals from predators, they can helpfully establish boundaries. But there is no razorwire in the realm of God.

The Magi had been instructed by Herod to bring report -- but they don't, they leave another way. What sparked their bravery? We are told that they were "overwhelemed with joy" when they saw the child. How can we be inspired, in the first flush of our Christmas joy, to work harder for peace in the world? What is the role we are willing to play to help make the life of refugees easier?

Image by Julie from Wexford

Dec 26, 2023

DAY 24

Image by Pedro Szekely

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A GREETING
‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek God's face!’
Your face, Lord, do I seek.
(Psalm 27:8)

A READING
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
(Philippians 2:4-7)

MUSIC
The lyrics for this song are today's Poem Prayer below.

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
(Job 10:11)

A POEM/SONG LYRIC
My arms are your first home;
this muscle, bone, and hope
were born to cradle you
soft as I can.
Holy, holy this child.

The ease of your breathing
is a whispering song
dearer to me
than any I know.
Holy, holy, this breath.

When you smile,
your ancestors sing.
All they loved,
all they dreamed,
is born anew.
Holy, holy, this moment.

You will grow and go
and these arms will lift
this moment
into my heart.
I will carry it there,
gladly gladly
all of my days.
Holy, holy, this child.
- "First Cradle," by Brian Newhouse
found on kylepederson.com

VERSE FOR THE DAY
May their bones send forth new life.
(Sirach 46:12a)

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Adelie penguin mother and nestling born only five days ago. Cape Hallet, Antarctica. Photographed by Myeongho Seo, found on Instagram at @myeonghoseo

The birth of Jesus fulfills a number of Hebrew bible texts that foretell of the coming of a messiah: we quote Isaiah and Jeremiah often at this time of year. But there is nothing that we can turn to that could be read as a prophecy of Mary and her role in the incarnation. Mary is her own original figure.

In the Celtic tradition there is the principle of ‘peregrenatio,’ in which a spiritual seeker surrenders completely to the will of God, through a 'wandering,' without a destination. Some of the first monastic missioners would put themselves out in a boat to sea — without oars. Trusting the currents and the winds, they would simply drift until they landed where God had called them to be. For them, trusting God requires a complete surrender to God’s will in the present moment. We rarely make such decisions in our own lives today. While a ‘pilgrimage’ has a clear end in sight, a ‘peregrinatio’ does not. Mary’s ‘yes’ was a ‘peregrinatio.’

Today’s song lyrics emphasize the way in which a mother’s body is a baby’s ‘first cradle.’ Having surrendered to God’s will for her, Mary becomes a part of the unfolding of God’s creativity through Jesus. Mary evolves with Jesus, not just for him.

Mary is often portrayed in art as holding Jesus both in his infancy, and in his death. The Madonna and child of nativity scenes evolves into the Pièta: Mary with the crucified Jesus laid across her lap. In these moments Mary and Jesus are represented almost as one body. The very human body of Mary played an essential role in the incarnation. Through Mary we can identify with holding a child, wanting to protect it, and being agonized by loss. Surrendering to God’s will does not mean there will be no painful process along the way. In fact, most times some suffering can be expected. But something holy, mysterious, unknown and potentially life-changing can be the result.

How much are we willing to surrender to God’s will in our own lives? How easily could we take on a new path for God, despite not knowing where it will take us?

Image by David Cook

Dec 25, 2023

DAY 23 - CHRISTMAS DAY

Image by Tony Armstrong-Sly

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A GREETING
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
(Psalm 118:24)

A READING
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him, and without him not
one thing came into being. What has come into being in him
was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
(John 1:1-5)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
The word is very near to you;
it is in your mouth and in your heart.
(Deuteronomy 30:14)

A REFLECTION
Those of us who are Christians can also remember the example of Someone who lived with a sense of meaning and purpose in the most chaotic and oppressive time. We have only to recall that Jesus lived with God as the point of his being. Again and again, he told his disciples that he had come from God and was going to God. He knew who he was, that his deepest identity lay in the mystery that he was born of God. And he knew that he was for God, that he had come to announce the great dream of God, the dream of the reign of God and the great economy of grace. This was the meaning and purpose of his life. It was his passion. His affirmation of the point of his life was profoundly based on his gratitude for being born of God.
- from Radical Gratitude by Mary Jo Leddy

VERSE FOR THE DAY
He is the reflection of God’s glory
and the exact imprint of God’s very being,
and he sustains all things by his powerful word.
(Hebrews 1:3a)

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15th Century Besançon Book of Hours.
Mary reads scripture while Joseph minds Jesus.

Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus who took on human form to come among us. This quiet and humble and extraordinary event is a cornerstone of our faith, a turning point that sends us forward on our path of discipleship with renewed hope. Even as we experience joy in the season, we also know that hiding in the future of this wondrous moment is a deep and abiding sorrow. In a few months we will understand more fully through Jesus' death and resurrection, just how significant his incarnation has been. As hard as it is to imagine, the person of Jesus was known only to a few hundred people in first century Palestine.

Advent has ended and Christmas is here, but for the figures of the birth story, a new Advent begins. Mary and Joseph must raise the boy prophet and wait for the words promised by angels to be fulfilled. They will spend thirty years in that ‘Advent’. On the night that Jesus was born, John the Baptist is already several months old. The people who will be called by Jesus to “drop their nets” and follow him are in their infancy. At the time of this birth, there are children of Nazareth and Galilee who will grow up to be those who will have profound impact on the future of the Christian story. Like Peter and Thomas and Mary Magdalene.

It can seem strange to imagine such essential figures of our faith as children. God knew them, just as God knows us, from our mother’s womb and before. Each of us has a role to play in the unfolding of God’s realm on earth. In the coming days, we will follow the paths of the people who became some of the earliest and most significant Celtic Christians. We will look at the pilgrim paths that have been established in their name, and the ways in which their unique stories involve the lives of animals and plants and the land they found themselves in.

Unlike Mary and Joseph, we don’t have to wait thirty years to follow Jesus into the world. Each year we tell the story of the birth again so that we can renew within ourselves our own preparation to be disciples of Jesus. During the rest of the year, we may fall out of practice or become too disaffected by the troubling realities that are all around us. And each Advent and Christmas we come back to our faithful hearts and try again; we prepare and renew ourselves once more. We prepare for the birth so that we are ready to then renew our sense of discipleship.

In these coming twelve days of Christmas, how will the joy we feel ignite our discipleship? How will we prepare our hearts for building up the body of Christ?

Image by Tony Armstrong-Sly

Dec 24, 2023

DAY 22 - CHRISTMAS EVE

Image by Martin Eckert

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A GREETING
My soul shall rejoice in the Lord!
(Psalm 35:9a)

A READING
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
(Luke 2:1-7)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Grace is poured upon your lips;
therefore God has blessed you forever.
(Psalm 45:2b)

A POEM PRAYER
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
- from "Sometimes" by Mary Oliver

VERSE FOR THE DAY
Then they spoke to the angel of the Lord who was
standing among the myrtle trees, "We have patrolled the earth,
and lo, the whole earth remains at peace."
(Zechariah 1:11)

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Reindeer captured in Tromsø, Norway by Even Tryggstand,
found on Instagram at @eventyr.

In telling the story of the nativity, we like to imagine it taking place at night. Perhaps we are guided by the narrative of the shepherds "watching their flocks by night," and guided by a star. Within this tableau we are perhaps more able to connect to the mystery, stillness and wonder of the birth. And yet, as we have been exploring in recent days, we know that Jesus was born into a complex and corrupt political time. His parents were so pressed by the regime to pay taxes, and so lost among the throng, that they could not find a suitable place for the birth. Even those who come to pay homage had to leave in secret. The story of Jesus' birth has danger at every turn.

In the Celtic tradition, Christmas Eve is a time of storytelling. Prayers are offered for those who have passed out of this world during the previous year, and people gather at their graves at night to lay fresh holly, one of the most important plants for the Celtic winter festivals. Sometimes a door is left unlocked to welcome the spirits of those who are gone, with food and a lit candle for an unexpected neighbour or wayfarer or spirit. This custom was later borrowed for Saint Nicholas and Santa.

Traditions can become routine, the opposite of what Christmas calls us into. Jesus comes into our lives, not to help us settle back into a status quo, but to inspire us to bring truth to power, to go into the communities we live in, emboldened with our vision for how to build the realm of God. Within this perspective, we may be better able to tell the truth of our own lives and of the hardships we want Jesus to set free. We might be better able to see the dark skin of Jesus, and the midnight light of the lamps held by those who are fleeing persecution and injustice, as Jesus and Mary and Joseph soon will be. Jesus brings comfort and peace, only through the knowledge that we ourselves have the power to change the way the world works. It is in acting on this knowledge that we can experience a true and lasting joy.

Advent is over: Jesus is being born once again into our lives. What does it mean to release ‘waiting’ and receive ‘joy’, knowing beyond 'joy' there is so much work to be done in Jesus’ name?

Image by Martin Eckert

Dec 21, 2023

DAY 19 - THE LONGEST NIGHT

Image by Ralph Arvesen

A Meditation for the Longest Night

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A GREETING
My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word.
(Psalm 119:28)

A READING
Listen, God, to my prayer;
my cry goes out to you alone.
Don't hide your face on the day of my anguish.
Lean your ear toward me;
when I cry out; answer me quickly.
(Psalm 102:1-2)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
When I thought, ‘My foot is slipping’,
your steadfast love, O God, held me up.
(Psalm 94:18)

A BLESSING
To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.

Let there be
a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,

that go with you
even to the
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you...

Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.
- from "Epiphany 4: Blessing in the Chaos" by Jan Richardson,
found on paintedprayerbook.com

VERSE FOR THE DAY
With weeping they shall come,
and with consolations I will lead them back.
(Jeremiah 31:9)

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"Evening Light" by Isobel Hamilton (2020)

In many countries on the winter solstice, there is a tradition of ‘Longest Night' gatherings that offer spiritual companionship to those who live with sadness in this season. Sometimes we find ourselves devastated by realities that cannot be fixed or changed. Sometimes that truth can leave us feeling profoundly lost and alone. Although we may wish to, we may not really see any hope on the horizon at all. Today we make space for that painful place.

The Celtic people believed that evil spirits caused the sun to come to a stop for twelve days in winter. When it seemed to be moving again, they knew they had survived the winter solstice. From year to year, a log was saved to rekindle, creating a new fire that would burn through the darkness. The Yule log allowed a means for keeping warm, and for doing tasks and chores that had to continue in the dark.

In much of the northernmost part of the planet, today will have no sun at all. There is currently no daylight in Tuktoyaktuk, in the Northwest Territories, and there won’t be until January 14th. On that day, the sun will be up for less than an hour.

Jesus understands darkness, it is a part of his life. Jesus is born into chaos and violence and Jesus dies that way too. These framing realities do not alter his purpose or his commitment to bringing love to the world. Love lives in darkness, love lives in light. Jesus comes into all of it to bring his whole self to us, so that we may know him — in darkness, in light and in all the shades between. The birth of Jesus reminds us that we never have to be alone within our own internal pain, temptation or isolation. Jesus has experienced suffering and his love is always with us.

On this longest night, what is the anguish that Jesus is holding with you? How can you feel his strength as you move forward together, one love-drenched step at a time?

Image by John Arnold

Dec 19, 2023

DAY 17

Image by Robin Jaffray

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A GREETING
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
(Psalm 56:3)

A READING
[Wisdom] is a tree of life for those who embrace her,
My children, maintain sound wisdom and right judgment,
and don’t let them out of your sight,
for then they’ll be the life of your soul,
jewels to grace your neck.
Then your journey will be secure,
and your feet won’t stumble.
When you sit down, you won’t be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
So don’t fear sudden disaster
or the ruin that comes to corrupt individuals—
for God is your insurance,
and will keep your feet from the snare.
(Proverbs 3:13,18,21-26 TIB)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.
(Luke 2:19)

Source

A BLESSING
Mary, we come to you knotted
in a hundred different ways.
Our hearts are knotted with grief and anger,
our bodies feel knotted with tension,
our minds knotted with anxiety and fear.
We ask you to gently work on those places
of tightness and holding within us,
to loosen them gently...
Help us to soften our hard edges
and yield to your grace.
Allow us to see you at work within us,
slackening and unbinding.
Sustain us in the moments
when all feels as if it is unraveling.
Help us to trust your work
and know that we must first come undone,
before we can be woven back together again.
Bless us with patience and wisdom;
support us in loosening our steady grip
so we might also prevent more knots
forming in days to come.
- from Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal,
by Christine Valters Paintner

VERSE OF THE DAY
I want you to be free from anxieties.
(1 Corinthians 7:32)

†

"Mary, Untier of Knots,"
by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner

In Mary's first encounter with Gabriel, and later during the visit of the shepherds after the birth, we are told that Mary 'pondered'. She considered and reflected on what was happening within and to her. What was she feeling?

Today’s music is written from Mary’s point of view. It offers us a chance to hear Mary’s private fears and concerns, her anxiety and desire for God to always be near. “Breath of heaven hold me together, be forever near me.” Breath is at the start of the biblical story: the Hebrew word for Spirit, ‘ruach’, that moves over the face of the earth in Genesis 1, is also the word for human breath.

Among the many ways in which Mary has been portrayed in art, in 1700 a German painter named Johann Schmidtner depicted Mary as ‘the untier of knots.’ The painting (see above) depicts Mary being fed a ribbon filled with knots. As the ribbon passes through her hands, Mary is untying the knots and an angel passes out the unfurled ribbon again to us. The painting has inspired many people, who are encouraged by it to see Mary as a figure who can help us undo the tangled problems of our lives. Mary, who is herself worried and anxious in the song, becomes in the painting, the one who unties anxieties and fears.

Knots are a significant part of Celtic iconography, appearing on many graveside Crosses and decoratively pervasive on Celtic monuments and sites. The tradition of the iconographic knot can be traced to 5th century Rome and Gaul, the area where the Celts first originated in western Europe. When the pre-Christian Celts came to Ireland, they brought the knots with them. Although they appear right through the middle ages in both Roman and Celtic design, and throughout Europe in a variety of contexts, their intricate weavng has become synonymous with Celtic expression. Celtic knots are not meant to be unraveled or undone, but can be seen as part of both the order and mystery of Creation, in which God’s wisdom weaves its way into the fabric of our lives.

Whether we choose to meditate on the beauty of Celtic knots, or prefer to pray to Mary the Untier of Knots (perhaps with this meditative youtube series), we know that we are held in the arms of a loving God who accompanies us in all of the knotty parts of our lives. Each time we breathe in, we have the chance to feel the love of God that is always with us. Advent is a time when we can reorient breath and body and stillness, by breathing deeply.

What will you pray to have ‘untied’ today? How can you breathe into what worries you?

Photo by Sarah Webb of an installation by Meg Saligman,
"Mary, Undoer of Knots Grotto," Philadelphia, 2015.
The installation includes the painting above by Schmidtner
and was inspired by it. Visitors were encouraged to tie strips of cloth
to a grid with written messages of the trials they are going through.
Then, they were encouraged to untie the knot made by someone else.

Dec 18, 2023

DAY 16

Image by Daniel Peckham

†

A GREETING
In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid.
(Psalm 56:4)

A READING
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
(Luke 1:39-44)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
You are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you.
(Isaiah 43:4a)

A POEM
It was from Joseph first I learned
of love. Like me he was dismayed.
How easily he could have turned
me from his house; but, unafraid,
he put me not away from him
(O God-sent angel, pray for him).
Thus through his love was Love obeyed.
- from "O Sapientia" by Madeleine L'Engle
found in her collection A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation

VERSE OF THE DAY
You who seek God, let your hearts revive.
(Psalm 69:32)

†

Mothers protecting newborns. At left, a mother and infant humpback whale, photographed by @PaulNicklen, found on Instagram. Click here to read his story. At right, a mother osprey and her young one, photographed by @harrycollinsphotography, found on Instagram. Clck here to read his story. Make sure sound is on for both.

The Celtic Cross is one of the most recognizable emblems of Celtic Christianity. It evolved out of the pre-Christian Celtic pagan symbols of the circle and cross, representing the sun, and the simple ring that represents the moon. The early missonaries encouraged the adoption of the ‘sun’ symbol alongside the Latin Cross, which blends Creation spirituality with the theology of the Cross. Initially, crosses were inscribed into a rock rather than carved out and were not seen in graveyards until the nineteenth century. Some believe it was Saint Patrick who took the short arms of the Celtic Cross and adjusted them outward to more closely resemble a Latin cross. Over the centuries, biblical stories were engraved onto them as a form of education. The Celtic knots also became vividly a part of the Cross iconograpy. In many places in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the short-armed long-stemmed version (as in both of today’s images) remains consistent.

Today’s reading tells of the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with the one who will be John the Baptist. Mary and Elizabeth are celebrating the end of their own Advent, their own people’s period of centuries of waiting. They may be worred, as they are living in challenging times. And yet, despite the circle of suffering and death that surrounds them, both women are able to embrace the joy of new life and share it with each other.

Every year, despite how hard things have been, the promise offered by the incarnation of Jesus is brought into our lives anew. God is always in the space between ourselves, those we love, and the future. Although we know that the journey to the Cross lies ahead for the one who will become one of us, we also know it is not the end of the story. The Celtic Cross holds the presence of Creation. The Cross that symbolizes the way in which Jesus died speaks also to his resurrection: the perfect circle enclosing the Cross reminds us that Creation does not die when Jesus does, but waits for him to rise, so that it too may be renewed. In this way, the Celtic cross holds Creation, crucifixion and new Creation all woven into one.

How can it enrich our experience of the Cross to bring aspects of Creation into the symbol? How can Advent help deepen our appreciation for its meaning?

Image by Spencer Means

Dec 8, 2023

DAY 6

Image by Justin Kern

†

A GREETING
For God alone my soul waits in silence.
(Psalm 62:1a)

A READING
Moses said to them, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded: “Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord; bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.”’ So they put it aside until morning, as Moses commanded them; and it did not become foul, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, ‘Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. For six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none.’
(Exodus 16:24-26)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
‘Be still, and know that I am God!'
(Psalm 46:10)

A REFLECTION
Sabbath is more than the absence of work; it is not just a day off, when we catch up on television or errands. It is the presence of something that arises when we consecrate a period of time to listen to what is most deeply beautiful, nourishing, or true. It is time consecrated with our attention, our mindfulness, honouring those quiet forces of grace or spirit that sustain and heal us.
- from Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our Busy Lives
by Wayne Muller

VERSE OF THE DAY
Hallow my sabbaths that they may be a sign between me and you.
(Ezekiel 20:20)

†

Take a few moments to close your eyes and rest in the sound of wind.

Genesis 1 describes the making of plants and wildlife and sea creatures before it describes the creation of humankind. Therefore, it is possible to consider that everything, not only humankind, has been made in God's image and that God’s creativity is an expression of God’s hospitality to us. Therefore, the invitation to observe the sabbath, is an invitation into God’s home, to rest, enjoy, be at peace with what has been made for us. When the biblical people were enslaved and in forced exile, the sabbath tradition became an essential way of surviving while surrounded by oppressors. It was a way to carve out a moment of remembering who they were.

The earliest monastic founders of the Celtic church kept a seventh-day sabbath on Saturdays, in keeping with the Hebrew Bible commandments and customs. The Torah holds prescriptions against working on the sabbath, but mostly to do with work that was based on creativity. What we do on a sabbath day of rest is to realign our hearts and minds with God's deepest desires for us.

In our hectic over-run days of duty and care, it can be hard to surrender ‘doing’ to ‘being’. Busyness is an easy habit to fall into, especially when our cell phones and computers are never far from reach. Giving ourselves purposeful activity creates meaning. And yet the simple verse in Psalm 46 comes with an exclamation mark: in Hebrew it’s not a suggestion, it's a command.

Advent is our sabbath rest time of the spirit, in preparation and waiting. When we are able to be still and listen for God, we are more likely to renew our own creative light. In order to find that space, we have to make room for the beauty of Creation that lives within us. Music, prayer, the arts, and nature can help us to do that, by inviting us to let go of all of our ‘doing’ and simply rest in beauty.

How can we teach ourselves to be still, as one of the ways we honour the sabbath?
What are our own sabbath prayers?

Image by Anthony

Come Holy Darkness