Come Holy Darkness: December 2023

Dec 31, 2023

DAY 29 - NEW YEAR'S EVE

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Ciarán

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A GREETING
O God, you have searched me and known me.
(Psalm 139:1)

A READING
God clothed [Aaron] in perfect splendour,
and strengthened him with the symbols of authority,
the linen undergarments, the long robe, and the ephod.
And he encircled him with pomegranates,
with many golden bells all round,
to send forth a sound as he walked,
to make their ringing heard in the temple
as a reminder to his people.
(Sirach 45:8-9)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’
And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’
(Isaiah 6:8)

A PRAYER
May the light of God
Illumine the heart of my soul.
May the flame of Christ
Kindle me to love.
May the fire of the spirit
free me to live
this day, tonight and forever.
- from Celtic Benediction: Morning and Night Prayer,
by J. Philip Newell

VERSE FOR THE DAY
We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks.
(Psalm 75:1)

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"The Bell Ringers," by Henry Ryland (c.1890)

Ciarán of Saighir is perhaps the earliest Irish monk of all. Born on Cape Clear Island in the mid fifth century, he grew up in a pre-Christian Celtic Community but as a child had dreams in which he began to intuit the existence of Christianity. He ultimately journeyed to Tours and to Rome for his educaton and stayed in Rome twenty years. It was in Italy that he first encountered Patrick, who encouraged him to go back to Ireland and suggested he found a monastery near a well at Fuaran, in a part of the country equally accessible to those from the north and south. When Ciarán asked how he would know that he'd come to the right place, Patrick is reported to have given him a bell. The bell would only ring when he had arrived at the holy site. As Ciarán travelled, and after months of no sound from the little bell, when he arrived at Fuaran's well there was a sudden reverberating sound.

Given that Patrick has the reputation of bringing Christianity to Ireland, there is some dispute about the dates and times of Ciarán’s life. The tradition holds that the two men met in Italy on the pilgrim road between Rome and northern Europe. We can imagine this meeting of two great figures, both of them schooled in Christianity in the part of southern Europe that was also populated by Celts. Whether Ciarán preceded Patrick to Ireland or not, he was the first monk to be born in Ireland.

As with other saints, there are numerous stories of Ciarán’s relationship and affinity with animals. In the folklore surrounding him, some of the animals were his first disciples, since as yet no other Christian people were around to join him. Folklore stories tell of how he befriended and cared for animals, including a wild boar, to be part of his first monastic community.

In our own time, the image of the bell can offer us a useful metaphor for ‘aha’ moments on our own faith journey. There are many different ways that we refer to bells when we want to signify ideas of remembering, or having a sudden brainwave, or feeling a sense of warning. Bells are used to call communities to worship. During the pandemic, churches rang their bells in support of health care workers.

What are the ways that God signals to you when you are on the right path?
How much do you want to ‘ring the bells’ of your own faith with the news of Jesus coming as one of us?

Image by Julia@littlethorpe

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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 30, 2023

DAY 28

Image by Darren Larson

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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

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 28, 2023

DAY 26

Image by Gitta Zahn

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Columba

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A GREETING
This is my comfort in my distress,
that your promise gives me life.
(Psalm 119:50)

A READING
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’
(Matthew 8:23-27)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
(Psalm 107:29)

A PRAYER
Before God and you who are near me,
I release anything I hold against you;
I regret all I have done to harm you;
I stand beside the wrong in my life
and ask for God's forgiveness.
- prayer found in The Iona Abbey Worship Book

A BLESSING
God of love, in the silence of our hearts
give us words of welcome, acceptance and renewal
so that when we speak, our words come from you.
- from "Prayer for Three Voices" by Yvonne Morland,
excerpted in 50 Great Prayers from the Iona Community,
selected by Neil Paynter

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Uncredited video found on the
Instagram page of @valaisblacknosesheepscotland

One of the earliest Celtic missionaries is Columba, also known as Columcille, who is credited with establishing Christianity in Scotland through the establishment of a monastic community at Iona in the sixth century. He is one of three saints considered to be foundational to monastic life in Ireland and Scotland (the other two are Patrick and Brigid whom we will get to know also).

Educated in the early Irish monasteries, he then founded several of his own in Ireland before he fell into a dispute with Finnian, another monastic voyager who had been his mentor. The dispute is believed to have led to a battle. To resolve the conflict, Columba was either exiled or chose to exile himself (traditions attest to both). Taking twelve companions with him, when his boat first came ashore on an isle in the Scottish Hebrides, he did not stay there but pushed farther north. This brought him to Iona, in the Inner Hebrides. The boat journey was profound: he experienced a deepened desire for transformation and vowed to commit himself to a renewed life of faith. Although the first structure was destroyed, the Iona Abbey established in his name in the ninth century has endured and is still a thriving centre of spirituality.

In today’s reading, Jesus asks the disciples why they are afraid of the storm and adds the seemingly unkind phrase, “you of little faith." Although it is translated as ‘little faith,' the Greek words here mean ‘one who trusts too little.' The Greek word for 'trust' is the same as 'faith.' Today’s music is an old Celtic song that describes a woman waiting for a loved one, the boat man, to return. In our spiritual journeying, we play different roles. We are sometimes the voyager and sometimes the person waiting for something to come our way that will inspire us and free us from our spiritual knots. Both the voyager and the one waiting for guidance are accompanied: God is with us and can help to calm the stormy waters of our hearts. When we are seeking, whether a new place to journey to, or a way of being able to continue the life we have, our deepest prayers are met by God’s desire for our wellbeing.

In this midweek time between holiday events, we might be starting to feel weary, and yearning for the quiet rhythms of normal life. Or if we are alone, we might be longing for the season to just be over. How can we make space instead for prayer today, inviting God to be with us in a few moments of stillness? How can we quietly discern what it is we are most seeking -- for ourselves and for the world?

Image by Gitta Zahn

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 23, 2023

DAY 21

Image by Miquel González Page

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A GREETING
Relieve the troubles of my heart,
and bring me out of my distress.
(Psalm 25:17)

A READING
But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one... whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.
And he shall stand and feed his flock
in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth;
and he shall be the one of peace.
(Micah 1:2-5)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Seek peace, and pursue it.
(Psalm 34:14b)

A PRAYER
Gracious and holy God, lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth. Lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead us from hate to love, from war to peace. Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe; through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.
- Prayer for Peace found in Evangelical Lutheran Worship

VERSE FOR THE DAY
What does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
(Micah 6:4)

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"Christ in the Rubble," by Kelly Latimore.
The artist was inspired by the photograph below.

On Saturdays, we pause from our theme to pray for the wider world around us.

Earlier this month, authorities in Bethlehem decided not to proceed with regular Christmas celebrations, in solidarity with those affected by the war in Gaza. A region that normally sees thousands of tourists at this time of year, will be largely silent.

The image at bottom comes from the creche created by The Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. The scene depicts the baby Jesus lying in a mound of debris made by bombings. The creche scene was created as an expression of the lived experience of Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza. Bethlehem is in the West Bank, and therefore it is subject to tremendous distress in these days. All checkpoints allowing people in and out have been closed. Families are torn apart by grief and loss, both in the West Bank and in Gaza. There will indeed be silence in Bethlehem, but not the silence of mystery and awe; instead it is the silence of dread and fear. In Israel, families are also torn apart, as lost loved ones are grieved from the October 7th attacks, and others are held hostage far from home.

How do these events impact us, half a world away? Should we also alter our celebrations in honour of those who long for peace?

Jesus was a Jewish child born in Bethlehem, in a region called Judea because the occupying Romans no longer wanted it to have the Jewish name of Judah. Occupied Judea was run by Herod, a middleman between Rome and the Jewish community, and mostly a terror to the Jewish people. Jesus was forced as an infant to become a migrant to Egypt and then back to Nazareth; he was raised by a community of Jewish people in the Galilee, a region despised in its time for being rebellious. As a man, he was baptized in what is now Jordan, and crucified in Jerusalem, which is populated in our own time by Jewish, Muslim and Christian people. He was a person of many home regions and no one home.

To be Christian is to hold hope for a transformed world. When we are baptized, we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, longing for healing and restoration wherever there is brokenness. Sometimes we pray for others when they are unable to pray for themselves or when prayer is hard. We become the mediators of prayer. We hold the sighs and the words and we hold the hope that others are finding difficult to find. Despite all of the pain and desperate suffering and loss in both Palestine and Israel, despite that we could easily feel only a sense of doom, we are called to hope. We pray into this closed-down Bethlehem, O come O come Emmanuel. We beg Jesus to come and to help us transform hatred into love.

How can we hold the hope, and honour the pain, of this particular Christmas, on behalf of all peoples who live in war-torn regions? In what ways can we welcome Jesus into a world that will bring an everlasting peace?

Image posted by The Rev. Munther Isaac
on X (formerly Twitter).

Dec 22, 2023

DAY 20

Image by Mark O' Cúlar

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A GREETING
Let my prayer rise up, like incense before you,
the lifting up of my hands as an offering to you.
(Psalm 141:2, as adapted in Holden Evening Prayer)

A READING
Why is one day more important than another,
when all the daylight in the year is from the sun?
By God’s wisdom they were distinguished,
and God appointed the different seasons and festivals.
Some days God exalted and hallowed,
and some God made ordinary days.
All human beings come from the ground,
and humankind was created out of the dust.
In the fullness of God's knowledge God distinguished them
and appointed their different ways.
Some God blessed and exalted,
and some God made holy and brought near.
(Sirach 33:7-12)

MUSIC
Today's music is the whole of Holden Evening Prayer.
Music and lyrics are provided on the screen for you to sing along.

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
And the people of the Lord Most High offered their prayers before the Merciful One,
until the order of worship of the Lord was ended, and they completed the ritual.
(Sirach 50:19)

A POEM
When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
- The Peace of All Things by Wendell Berry

VERSE FOR THE DAY
I will give you the treasures of darkness
and riches hidden in secret places,
so that you may know that it is I, the Lord God,
who calls you by your name.
(Isaiah 45:3)

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A moulting red deer allows jackdaws to comb out its excess fur to build nests.
Video by Lawrence Chatton, @lawrencechatton, found on @birds_perfection on Instagram.

Today we begin the slow return of increasing daylight. For the ancient Celtic people, the solstice marked the beginning of a new year, nine days before the western calendar begins a new year. The church marks the change of year on Advent 1. And the Eastern Orthodox will mark it on January 14th. In diverse cultures and traditions, the days and weeks leading to the solstice offer a chance to review the past year, let it go, and commit to a new year of new beginnings.

Ritual plays an important role in the way in which we mark the transitions of our lives, from the mundane to the profound. We have small habitual rituals around getting up and going to bed. We have family rituals to mark certain holidays of the year. In our church lives, we have weekly worship, and the special events in the seasons of the church calendar. These rituals help keep us connected to our faith and to those faithful who have come before us.

At Newgrange, Ireland, there is a cairn that is approximately 5000 years old. Built in 3200 BCE by ancient Celtic people, its stone walls and slender opening have been precisely measured for the sun to fill its small space at the first moment of its rising on the day of the solstice. These days, people join a lottery for a chance to stand inside the small space and witness that first moment of the sun on the solstice.

In English, the word 'ritual' is hidden inside 'spiritual.' Holden Evening Prayer is a short evening ritual that was created by Marty Haugen for the Holden Village community in the mid 1980s. It meditates on the movement between day and night, and the shifting of light. You are encouraged to sing along with the video today, and discover that ritual experience. Although it was conceived as an evening service, It can be sung at any time of the day as a way of reminding ourselves of the rich relationship between light and darkness.

How will you deepen your understanding of holy darkness and holy light on this second day of the sun's return in the northern hemisphere? How will you renew your commitment to your own faith rituals?

Newgrange, Ireland. Image by Daniel Mennerich.
Click on the image credit to learn more historical detail about this monument.

Come Holy Darkness