* December 2014 *

Dear friends,

Welcome to the continuation of the 2014 Advent Reader. The readings for the third week of the season are focused on the theme of Joy, followed by readings focused on the theme of Love beginning on the final Sunday of Advent, Dec. 21st. Again, I have drawn primarily from the volumes collected in 2010 and 2011 by myself and Brittany Callender, while also including some new quotes. As I have continued learning more about the celebrations of both Advent and Christmas, I have been intrigued by the historical custom of honoring fully a time of preparing for the Incarnation - and then rejoicing fully with more than just one day of celebration. Thus the Reader continues beyond Advent to include reflections throughout Christmastide - known as the Twelve Days of Christmas - and finally concludes on Epiphany. I hope that the words assembled here will offer encouragement & inspiration for you as we journey on into a new year of exploring the Life Abundant.

Thank you so much for the love, grace, & beauty that each of you bring into my life. My heart is nourished by your presence and care. Merry Christmas!

Love & grace, Emily Ling

14

We can surely no longer pretend that our children are growing up into a peaceful, secure, and civilized world. We’ve come to the point where it’s irresponsible to try to protect them from the irrational world they will have to live in when they grow up. The children themselves haven’t yet isolated themselves by selfishness and indifference; they do not fall easily into the error of despair; they are considerably braver than most grownups. Our responsibility to them is not to pretend that if we don’t look, evil will go away, but to give them weapons against it.

One of the greatest weapons of all is laughter, a gift for fun, a sense of play which is sadly missing from the grownup world. When one of our children got isolated by a fit of sulks, my husband would say very seriously, “Look at me. Now, don’t laugh. Whatever you do, don’t laugh.” Nobody could manage to stay long-faced for very long, and communication was reestablished. When Hugh and I are out of sorts with each other, it is always laughter that breaks through the anger and withdrawal.

Paradox again: to take ourselves seriously enough to take ourselves lightly. If every hair of my head is counted, then in the very scheme of the cosmos I matter; I am created by a power who cares about the sparrow, and the rabbit in the snare, and the people on the crowded streets; who calls the stars by name. And you. And me. When I remember this it is as though pounds were lifted from me.

madeleine l'engle, a circle of quiet

So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter.

gordon w. allport

Secret fears, the supernatural, Thank God for this new laughterThank God the joke’s on me

‘Cause I was born to laughI learned to laugh through my tears…

over the rhine, “born”

15

Now what is the missing chapter in this case, the chapter which Christians are offering? The story of the Incarnation – the story of the descent and resurrection... One has the picture of a diver, stripping off garment after garment, making himself naked, then flashing for a moment in the air, and then down through the green and warm and sunlit water into the pitch black, cold, freezing water, down into the mud and slime, then up again, his lungs almost bursting, back again to the green and warm and sunlit water, and then at last out into the sunshine, holding in his hand the dripping thing he went down to get. This thing is human nature; but associated with it, all nature, the new universe… If I accept this supposed missing chapter, the Incarnation, I find it begins to illuminate the whole of the rest of the manuscript. It lights up nature’s pattern… That is why I think the Grand Miracle is the missing chapter in this novel, the chapter on which the whole plot turns; that is why I believe that God really has dived down into the bottom of creation, and has come up bringing the whole redeemed nature on His shoulders. The miracles that have already happened are, of course, as Scripture so often says, the first fruits of that cosmic summer which is presently coming on… To be sure, it feels wintry enough still: but often in the very early spring it feels like that... It remains with us to follow or not, to die in

the winter, or to go on into that spring and that summer.

c. s. lewis

A brief respite from fearOf total neutrality. With luck, Trekking stubborn through this season Of fatigue, I shallPatch together a content

Of sorts. Miracles occur, If you dare to call those spasmodicTricks of radiance miracles. The wait’s begun again, The long wait for the angel, For that rare, random descent.

sylvia plath

But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people.

luke 2:10

16

The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls. In His love we possess all things and enjoy fruition of them, finding Him in them all. And thus as we go about the world, everything we meet and everything we see and hear and touch, far from defiling, purifies us and plants in us something more of contemplation and of heaven.

thomas merton, new seeds of contemplation

The winter is cold, is cold.All’s spent in keeping warm.Has joy been frozen, too?I blow upon my handsStiff from the biting wind.My heart beats slow, beats slow.What has become of joy?

If joy’s gone from my heartThen it is closed to YouWho made it, gave it life.If I protect myself

I’m hiding, Lord, from you.How we defend ourselvesIn ancient suits of mail!

Protected from the sword,Shrinking from the wound,We look for happiness,Small, safety-seeking, dulled,Selfish, exclusive, in-turned.Elusive, evasive, peace comesOnly when it’s not sought.

Help me forget the coldThat grips the grasping world.Let me stretch out my handsTo purifying fire,Clutching fingers uncurled.Look! Here is the melting joy.My heart beats once again.

madeleine l’engle, “the winter is cold, is cold”

A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

ezekiel 36:26

17

Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial.

g. k. chesterton

[Senior demon named Screwtape writing about God to junior tempter Wormwood]:

He’s a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a facade. Or only like foam on the seashore. Out at sea, out in His sea, there is pleasure, and more pleasure. He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are ‘pleasures for evermore’… He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least – sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us. We fight under cruel disadvantages.

c. s. lewis, the screwtape letters

You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

psalm 16:11

18

He had been wont to despise emotions: girls were emotional, girls were weak, emotions–tears– were weakness. But this morning he was thinking that being a great brain in a tower, nothing but brain, wouldn’t be much fun. No excitement, no dog to love, no joy in the blue sky– no feelings at all. But feelings– feelings are emotions! He was suddenly overwhelmed by the revelation that what makes life worth living is, precisely, the emotions. But then– this was awful!– maybe girls with their tears and laughter were getting more out of life. Shattering! He checked himself, showing one’s emotions was not the thing: having them was. Still, he was dizzy with the revelation. What is beauty but something that is responded to with emotion? Courage, at least, is partly emotional. All the splendour of life. But if the best of life is, in fact, emotional, then one wanted the highest, the purest emotions: and that meant joy. Joy was the highest.

How did one find joy? In books it was found in love– a great love… So if he wanted the heights of joy, he must have it, if he could find it, in great love. But in the books again, great joy through love always seemed to go hand in hand with frightful pain. Still, he thought, looking out across the meadow, still, the joy would be worth the pain– if indeed, they went together. If there were a choice– and he suspected there was– a choice between, on the one hand, the heights and the depths and, on the other hand, some sort of safe, cautious middle way, he, for one, here and now chose the heights and the depths. Since then the years have gone by and he– had he not had what he chose that day in the meadow? He had had the love. And the joy– what joy it had been! And the sorrow. He had had– was having– all the sorrow there was. And yet, the joy was worth the pain. Even now he re-affirmed that long-past choice.

sheldon vanauken, a severe mercy

Man was made for joy and woe Then when this we rightly know Through the world we safely go. Joy and woe are woven fine A clothing for the soul to bind.

william blake

Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

hebrews 12:1-2

19

The struggle to submit… is not a struggle to submit but a struggle to accept and with passion. I mean, possibly, with joy. Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy – fully armed too as it’s a highly dangerous quest.

flannery o’connor, the habit of being

This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

nehemiah 8:10

Then Hwin, though shaking all over, gave a strange little neigh, and trotted across to the Lion.

“Please,” she said, “you're so beautiful. You may eat me if you like. I'd sooner be eaten by you than fed by anyone else.”

“Dearest daughter,” said Aslan, planting a lion's kiss on her twitching, velvet nose, “I knew you would not be long in coming to me. Joy shall be yours.”

c. s. lewis, the boy and his horse

20

I think Layton lived his life in a perpetual confidence of small victories. Not that he appreciated and savored every detail; he simply thought he was doing a really good job all the time. After completing a task, or even in the middle of a task, he would often pump his hand from the top of his head down to his knees, going almost a little too far with the arc of his movement, but then Layton pushed everything too far—not quite to its breaking point, but almost.

His tendency to celebrate was one of the few differences between Layton and Father. Father never celebrated a moment in his life. He complained, he pined, he pounded, but he never reveled. Layton was a reveler. Where he got this gene, I don’t know. Most Spivets were too busy studying, corralling, moaning, or mapping to enjoy the ride they were on.

reif larsen, the selected works of t.s. spivet

You carry All the ingredients To turn your life into a nightmare--

Don't mix them!

You have all of the geniusTo build a swing in your backyard

For God.

That soundsLike a hell of a lot more fun.

Let's start laughing, drawing blueprints,Gathering our talented friends.

I will help youWith my divine lyre and drum.

HafizWill sing a thousand words

You can take into your hands,Like golden saws,Silver hammers,

Polished teakwood,Strong silk rope.

You carry all the ingredientsTo turn your existence into joy,

Mix them, mixThem!

hafiz, the gift: poems by hafiz the great sufi master

For the Lord will ransom Jacoband redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they. They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord… Then maidens will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their morning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

jeremiah 31:11-13

21

The nativity is a time to take courage. How brave am I. Can I bear, without breaking apart, this extraordinary birth? The end is the beginning. We have come to the shortest day, the longest night of the year. Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat… We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.

madeleine l’engle

It is true that we cannot be happy unless we love, so it is worth making every effort to love.

dorthy day

We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization. There is still a voice crying out in terms that echo across the generations, saying: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven. This love might well be the salvation of our civilization…

Now I realize that in talking so much about love it is very easy to become sentimental. There is the danger that our talk about love will merely be empty words devoid of any practical and true meaning. But when I say love those who oppose you I am not speaking of love in a sentimental or affectionate sense.. The Greek language comes out with another word which is the highest level of love. It speaks of it in terms of agape. Agape means nothing sentimental or basically affectionate. It means understanding redeeming good will for all men. It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. It is the love of God working in the lives of men.

martin luther king, jr. “facing the challenge of a new age”

22

Love comes quietly, finally, drops about me, on me,in the old ways.

What did I knowthinking myselfable to go alone all the way.

robert creeley, “love comes quietly”

He will remake us… He always has and Healways will.It is true– blessed be His name– thank you God.God breathes through us so completely…so gently we hardly feel it…yet,it is our everything.Thank you God.ELATION–ELEGANCE–EXALTATION–All from God.Thank you God. Amen.

john coltrane, a love supreme linear notes

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

galations 5:6

23

It is only truth that Jesus can love. He cannot love your imaginings, your riches. Sell all that you have. Undress--It is Jesus who asks, “How are you?” And if you would then sell the false self by which you sustain that contemptible Self and die; if you would answer truly, “I'm fat, helpless, and alone, unlovely,” then he would love you. No: Then you would know that he has loved you all along. To see one truth is to discover the other—which is that he loves you not because you are loveable, but because he is love. And here is the power of his love, that it makes ugliness beautiful. To be loved of God is to be lovely indeed.

walter wangerin, jr., the ragman

God is behind all things, but all things hide God. Things are black, creatures are opaque. To love a being is to render her transparent.

victor hugo, les miserables

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of the vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

isaiah 61:1-3

24

So God was god of old: A mother came to mouldThose limbs like ours which areWhat must make our daystarMuch dearer to mankind; Whose glory bare would blindOr less would win man’s mind.Through her we may see himMade sweeter, not made dim, And her hand leaves his light

Sifted to suit our sight.

Be thou then, O thou dearMother, my atmosphere; My happier world, wherein To wend and meet no sin; Above me, round me lieFronting my forward eyeWith sweet and scarless sky; Stir in my ears, speak thereOf God’s love, O live air, Of patience, penance, prayer:World-mothering air, air wild, Wound with thee, in thee isled, Fold home, fast fold thy child.

gerard may hopkins, “the blessed virgin compared to the air we breathe”

Love. That was what she had that IT did not have.

madeleine l’engle, a wrinkle in time

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

matthew 1:20-21

25

There was not long to wait now before the drama would begin – the curtain was trembling to its rise. The twilight of the early winter morning, the piercing sweetness of the voices rising in the still air, the tune and the words she loved well, “Christians, awake, salute the happy morn!” Then heaven would open.

phyllis sandeman, treasure on earth

An invasion of holiness. That is what Advent is about.

frederick buechner, listening to your life

Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, love divine; Love was born at Christmas, Star and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead, Love incarnate, love divine; Worship we our Jesus:But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token, Love shall be yours and love be mine, Love to God and to all men, Love for plea and gift and sign.

christina g. rossetti, “love came down at christmas”

26

It was wintertime.The wind was blowing from the plains.And the infant was cold in the caveOn the slope of a hill.He was warmed by the breath of an ox.Every farmyard beastHuddled safe in the cave;

A warm mist drifted over the manger.

On a rock afar some drowsy shepherdsShook off the wisps of strawAnd hayseed of their beds, And sleepily gazed into the vast of night. They saw gravestones, fences, fields, The shafts of a cartDeep in drifted snows, And a sky of stars above the graveyard.

And, shyer than a watchman’s light, One star aloneUnseen until thenShone bright on the way to Bethlehem. At times it rose, a haystack aflame, Apart from God and the sky,Like a barn set on fire, Like a farmstead ablaze in the night.

It reared in the sky like a flaming stackOf thatch and hay, In the midst of CreationSurprised by this new star in the world.The flame grew steadily deeper, wider,Large as a portent Three stargazers thenHastened to follow this marvelous light.

And all new matters of ages to comeArose as a vision of wonder in space. All thoughts of ages, all dreams, new worlds,

All the futures of galleries and museums, All the games of fairies, the work of inventors, The yule trees, and the dreams all children dream, The tremulous glow of candles in rows, The gold and silver of angels and globesAnd the splendor of tinsel and toys under trees.

boris pasternak, the poems of doctor zhivago

The birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it.

frederick buechner

27

“Fair Sir,” said Tirian to the High King, “this is a great marvel.” “It is the door you came through with that Calormene five minutes ago,” said Peter, smiling.“But did I not come in out of the wood into the Stable? Whereas this seems to be a door leading from nowhere to nowhere.”“It looks like that if you walk round it,” said Peter. “But put your eye to that place where there is a crack between two of the planks and look through” …

He looked round again and could hardly believe his eyes. There was the blue sky overhead, and grassy country spreading as far as he could see in every direction, and his new friends all round him, laughing. “It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from without are two different places.”“Yes,” said Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.”“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”

c.s. lewis, the last battle

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

john 1:14

You could more easily catch a hurricane in a shrimp net than you can understand the wild, relentless, passionate, uncompromising, pursuing love of God made present in the manger.

brennan manning

28

I learned about incarnation when I kept a salt-water aquarium. Management of a marine aquarium, I discovered, is no easy task. I had to run a portable chemical laboratory to monitor the nitrate levels and the ammonia content. I pumped in vitamins and antibiotics and sulfa drugs and enough enzymes to make a rock grow. You would think, in view of all the energy expended on their behalf, that my fish would at least be grateful. Not so. Every time my shadow loomed about the tank they dove for cover into the nearest shell. They showed me one “emotion” only: fear. Although I opened the lid and dropped in food on a regular schedule, three times a day, they responded to each visit as a sure sign of my designs to torture them. I could not convince them of my true concern.

To my fish I was deity. I was too large for them, my actions too incomprehensible. My acts of mercy they saw as cruelty; my attempts at healing they views as destruction. To change their perceptions, I began to see, would require a form of incarnation. I would have to become a fish and ‘speak’ to them in a language they could understand.

A human being becoming a fish is nothing compared to God becoming a baby. And yet according to the Gospels that is what happened at Bethlehem. The God who created matter took shape within it, as an artist

might become a spot on a painting or a playwright a character within his own play. God wrote a story, only using real characters, on the pages of real history. The Word became flesh.

phillip yancy, the jesus i never knew

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

1 john 4:9

But God’s own descentInto flesh was meantAs a demonstrationThat the supreme meritLay in risking spiritIn substantiation. . .Spirit enters fleshAnd for all it’s worthCharges into earthIn birth after birthEver fresh and fresh.

robert frost, “kittyhawk”

29

What? What's that? Your Universities? Oh, yes, you have learned men, who collect more facts than do the learned men of England. They collect facts, and facts, and empires of facts. But which of them will rekindle the light within?

e. m. forster, howards end

It has seemed to me sometimes as though the Lord breathes on the poor gray ember of Creation and it turns to radiance - for a moment or a year or the span of a life. And then it sinks back into itself again, and to look at it no one would know it had anything to do with fire, or light. That is what I said in the Pentecost sermon. I have reflected on that sermon, and there is some truth in it. But the Lord is more constant and far more extravagant than it seems to imply. Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don't have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?

marilynne robinson, gilead

The people walking in darknesshave seen a great light; on those living in the landof the shadow of deatha light has dawned.

isaiah 9:2

30

suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder, and looked and looked. It certainly was a marvelous sight. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree quite covered with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved.

Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into the garden. He hastened across the grass, and came near to the child. And when he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said, “Who hath dared to wound thee?” For on the palms of the child's hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet.

“Who hath dared to wound thee?” cried the Giant; “tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him.”

“Nay!” answered the child; “but these are the wounds of Love.”“Who art thou?” said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child. And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, “You let me play once in your garden, today you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.”

oscar wilde, the selfish giant

All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love.If I, a sinner even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it.

fyodor dostoevsky, the brothers karamazov

Silent night, holy nightSon of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy faceWith the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birthJesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

31

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

psalm 90:12

And we will be ready, at the end of every day will be ready, will not say no to anything, will try to stay awake while everyone is sleeping, will not sleep, will make the shoes with the elves, will breathe deeply all the time, breathe in all the air full of glass and nails and blood, will breathe it and drink it, so rich, so when it comes we will not be angry, will be content, tired enough to go, gratefully, will shake hands with everyone, bye, bye, and then pack a bag, some snacks, and go to the volcano.

dave eggers, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius

When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;when death comeslike the measles-pox;when death comeslike an iceberg between the shoulder blades,I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?And therefore I look upon everythingas a brotherhood and a sisterhood,and I look upon time as no more than an idea,and I consider eternity as another possibility,and I think of each life as a flower, as commonas a field daisy, and as singular,and each name a comfortable music in the mouthtending as all music does, toward silence,and each body a lion of courage, and somethingprecious to the earth.When it’s over, I want to say: all my lifeI was a bride married to amazement.I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.When it is over, I don’t want to wonderif I have made of my life something particular, and real.I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,or full of argument.I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

mary oliver

1

For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.

t.s. eliot

Ask the questions that have no answers.Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forestthat you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvestedwhen they have rotted into the mold.Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humusthat will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your earclose, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.Expect the end of the world. Laugh.Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

wendell berry

Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history.Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’ —the coyotes and the buzzards—Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth,Drinking water for the people I chose, the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.

isaiah 43: 18-20

2

It's true that I was very, very impressed by one of these things, which is the way earthquakes are fabricated, which is in the lower layer of the earth where the temperature is high. Then the defaults that are within the rocks are activated, and the rocks are able to deform without fracture, become what we call ductile -- they flow. But when the temperature is low and cold — it's cold like in the upper few miles of the earth — then they are rigid. These weaknesses cannot be expressed, and as a result the rocks are much

resistant, much more rigid, and they react by reaching their limit of resistance and suddenly, bing, you have a major commotion and an earthquake.

And so the difference is that in one case, the defaults play a role in putting weakness in that and making things much more smooth, and in the other case, it's very rigid. And I find in the society, it's very often the same thing in the community. Communities which are very strong, very rigid, that do not take into account the weak points of the community, the people who are in difficulty and so on, tends to be communities that do not evolve. And when they evolve, it's generally by a very strong commotion, a revolution, I would call them. I think this is a very important point which is passed over nowadays. And I think it's going to be a big discovery in life sciences when they realize the importance of the fragility of human life and the fact that the human life is really so fragile that it needs to create a whole new way of culture, of dealing with the others. The fragility is the essence of men and women, and it is at the heart of humanity.

xavier le pichon

Feeling vulnerable, imperfect, and afraid is human. It's when we lose our capacity to hold space for these struggles that we become dangerous.

brene brown

Ring the bells that still can ring.Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.That’s how the light gets in.

leonard cohen, "anthem"

3

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth on things in heaven...

colossians 1:19-20

By virtue of Creation, and still more the Incarnation, nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see.

pierre teilhard de chardin

I am, you anxious one.Don't you sense me, ready to breakinto being at your touch?My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.Can't you see me standing before youcloaked in stillness?Hasn't my longing ripened in youfrom the beginningas fruit ripens on a branch?

I am the dream you are dreaming.When you want to awaken, I am waiting.I grow strong in the beauty you behold.And with the silence of stars I enfoldyour cities made by time.

rainer maria rilke

4

And there is a chance that everything we did was incorrect, but stasis is itself criminal for those with the means to move, and the means to weave communion between people.

dave eggers, you shall know our velocity!

Love is the bread that feeds the multitudes; Love is the healing of the hospitals; Love is the light that breaks through prison doors; Love knows not rich nor poor, nor good nor bad, But only the beloved, in every heartOne and the same, the incorruptibleSpirit divine, whose tabernacle is life. Love, more than hunger, feeds the soul’s desire;Love more the spirit than the body heals; Love is a star unto the darkened mind; And they who truly are Love’s servants leal, And follow him, undoubting, to the end, Beyond the bounds of human righteousness, Past Justice and past Mercy, find at last, Past Charity, past Pardon, Love enthroned, Lord of all hearts, incarnate in man’s soul.

george edward woodberry, “from the roamer”

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 john 4:11-12

5

Love sought is good, but giv'n unsought is better.

william shakespeare, twelfth night

Herein is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us.

1 john 4:10

About five years ago I saw a mockingbird make a straight vertical descent from the roof gutter of a four-story building. It was an act as careless and spontaneous as the curl of a stem or the kindling of a star.

The mockingbird took a single step into the air and dropped. His wings were still folded against his sides as though he were singing from a limb and not falling, accelerating thirty-two feet per second, through empty air.

Just a breath before he would have been dashed to the ground, he unfurled his wings with exact, deliberate care, revealing the broad bars of white, spread his elegant, white-banded tail, and so floated onto the grass.

I had just rounded a corner when his insouciant step caught my eye; there was no one else in sight. The fact of his free fall was like the old philosophical conundrum about the tree that falls in the forest. The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.

annie dillard, pilgrim at tinker creek

6

Epiphany (Koine Greek: epiphaneia, "manifestation", "striking appearance") or Theophany (Ancient Greek, Τheophaneia meaning "vision of God"), which traditionally falls on January 6, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ. Western Christians commemorate principally the visitation of the Biblical Magi to the Baby Jesus, and thus Jesus' physical

manifestation to the Gentiles. Eastern Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, seen as his manifestation to the world as the Son of God. (Wikipedia)

Wise people know that while the grave is real - what the ancient Greeks called the Really Real - that at the same time, the Light is really real, and that we turn to this now, like Sunflowers. We remember that when ALL is said and done, Love is sovereign on this earth.

anne lamott

See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

isaiah 60:2-3

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,Where your thoughts never think to wander,This beginning has been quietly forming,Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,Noticing how you willed yourself on,Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safetyAnd the gray promises that sameness whispered,Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,And out you stepped onto new ground,Your eyes young again with energy and dream,A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clearYou can trust the promise of this opening;Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginningThat is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

john o’donohue, “for a new beginning”