Amaryllis (2)

I posted a picture when I planted the amaryllis bulb I received from a friend in November and it is growing...beautiful to watch the growth.  I can't wait till it blooms!

Advent 2011

What a gift it was to begin this advent season with a silent prayer retreat.  God spoke into the silence, into my heart and soul.  He spoke through scripture, through nature, through words written and carved by others on a park bench and on railings, through books, through music, through the leaders of this retreat and through the women who silently journeyed along with me in this retreat.  Amazing the many ways God speaks if we take the time to listen!  Most of the time my life is so busy I don't hear His quiet whispers. I get caught up in all of the "doing" and don't take that time to just listen and "be" with Him.  A couple of years ago I came across an advent poem written on a blog that moved me and it was through this blog that God led me to this particular retreat.  Amazing!

God spoke words that I've not always let myself hear and gave new hope about growth and freedom and even friendship in my life.  During this retreat we had some reflections we could do and a couple of them had to do with Mary.  Mary in her waiting.  Mary in her response to what God was asking of her.  It seems her story is coming up everywhere for me since then which does make sense since it is advent and Christmas is coming.  Maybe I am just noticing it more this year.  One of the directors of the retreat asked if we would like to receive daily advent readings and reflections that she was going to send out.  These have been so meaningful this year as we share our responses with a group.  Today's reading was about Mary's response...her "yes" to God and her willingness to let go of self and receive what God had for her.  As part of the response we were invited to write the word "yes" in black marker on our palms.  So I write the word “Yes” on the palms of my hands to remind me to let go and receive the life giving spiritual energy of the Holy Spirit and reminding me to say "yes", the way Mary did, to whatever God has for me.

And so this advent season has been filled with a peace and beauty that brings joy to my soul.  At the very end of the prayer retreat, after we had a beautiful and moving time of sharing, we ended by singing this song together.  Cathy Hardy who wrote and sings it was one of the retreat directors.  I can't describe what joy there was as we sang this together.

Advent Reflection

I am really enjoying being part of a group who are sharing advent reflections and thoughts on a daily reading send out via e-mail.  Each day we have a question to reflect on.  I want to share today's reading because it speaks to so much of what is happening in our lives and society.  We so easily get caught up in this too, especially in this season.  Makes you think...

I'll share the question we were asked after the reading.

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

The Gospel Necessity  - Richard Rohr

It is safe to say that there is confusion about what is needed for life and what is really important for life. The vast majority of American stores seem to be selling wants not needs. What we now call needs were formerly wants, and they have moved to such a level of sophistication that now luxuries are “necessities” for many of us. The upwardly mobile in our culture cannot feel good about themselves unless the vacation next year is more luxurious than last year’s, unless the clothes and house are upgraded, unless the latest gadget is acquired. This keeps us all quite trapped and un-free, and inherently unsatisfied. We are running on a perpetual hamster’s wheel.

Meanwhile, most of God’s people on this earth starve; most of God’s people have to learn to find happiness and learn to find freedom at a much simpler level. What the Gospel is saying, of course, is that such simplicity is the only place that happiness is ever to be found in the first place. We have moved to a level where we have made happiness and contentment largely Impossible. We have created a pseudo-happiness, largely based in having instead of being. We are so overstimulated that the ordinary no longer delights us. We cannot rest or abide in our naked being in God, as Jesus offers us.

Such a message is about as traditional, old-fashioned and conservative a gospel as we can possibly preach, and it will always be true. Every generation needs to hear it and believe this anew, but particularly in our time and culture when even middle-class people have more comforts and securities than did kings and queens in the times when royalty flourished. We have become human doings more than human beings, and the verb “rest,” as Jesus uses it, is largely foreign to us. Indeed, such rest feels like “nothing” at all, which makes it very hard to sell to people who do not value rest.

REFLECT

What in your life, material or not, are you using to fulfill a need that really should be sought from elsewhere?