Christmas reflection

It is customary that the prioress gives short reflection at First Vespers of Christmas - we share the following with our readers:

  

The theme of my reflection, on this Christmas Eve night, is ‘ Peace’. The Order has just established the month of December as the month designated for all its members to pray for world peace and each year the whole Order will focus on praying for peace in a particular area of the world. This year the focus is on Colombia, South America, -that the peace agreement signed in 2016 will become a reality there. Conscious also of the lack of inner peace in ourselves at times  and in people in general, I was led to ponder the title given to Jesus before his birth, that of Prince of Peace,  in the book of the prophet Isaiah, which will be read tonight at Mass:

            For there is a child born for us,

            a son given to us

            and dominion is laid on his shoulders;

            and this is the name they give him:

            Wonder – Counsellor, Mighty –God,

            Eternal- Father, Prince-of –Peace.

            Wide is his dominion

            In a peace that has no end.( Is. 9: 5-6 )

We long so much for this peace that ‘has no end’. We long for it for ourselves, our families, our communities, our friends and for the world at large. We want Isaiah’s prophecy, which says;

            For all the footgear of battle,

            every cloak rolled in blood,

            is burnt,

            and consumed by fire

- we want that to be realised now, without further delay. The Gospel tonight further reinforces this message of peace when it says:

            And  suddenly with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host,

            praising God and singing:

 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to

                        men who enjoy his favour’

This theme of peace abounds everywhere in the Christmas Liturgy tonight and tomorrow. In the entrance antiphon, Jesus is personified as peace itself as it says:

            ‘ True peace has come down to us  from heaven’

On the very first weekday of Advent, and on all Mondays in Advent, I was very struck by the post communion prayer, again referring to peace; it says:

“Come, O Lord, visit us in peace, that we may rejoice before you with a blameless heart.”

In all these quotes humanity and God are linked together because peace is a gift bestowed on us by God  the Father, through and in his son Jesus Christ

The truth of Isaiah’s words come to mind:

     You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

     Trust in the Lord for ever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. ( Is.26)

             

This is really  to say that our peace, our inner peace is dependent on our relationship of trust in God. It is the fruit of a personal relationship with  Jesus. We are not alone. God, gentle and humble, is with us, watching over us and guiding us. Jean Vanier teaches us in his book, Finding Peace, when he says : “ As we learn to  relax and trust in love we become free of the walls and barriers that imprison us in fear, prejudice, hostility and guilt. We are filled with a new joy, a new life, the very life of love.

Sometimes when I feel my own inner  peace is disturbed I remind the Lord of his promise in St. John’s Gospel, when he says:

            Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you.

            A peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.

In speaking about peace St. Thomas quotes St. Augustine in defining peace as the tranquillity of order. Peace consists in the calm and union of our desires and is twofold in that there is perfect peace and imperfect peace.

Perfect peace, he says, consists in the perfect enjoyment of God which causes all our desires and tendencies to be united and at rest in one. This perfect peace is only possible in Heaven.

Imperfect peace, on the other hand, is the peace  which we can have in this world. It is imperfect because, even though the soul’s principal movement is to rest in God, there still remain certain obstacles, both within and without, which disturb our soul’s peace. St. Thomas goes on to say that peace is the effect of charity since charity means that we love God with our whole heart by referring everything to him, all our desires become focused on loving God in Himself and we know that love is always a unifying force.

I have come to understand that ‘the peace which God gives is not a freedom from the storms and conflicts of life, but a mysterious strength and comfort amid the storms; not the removal of pain, but the bestowal of a precious gift. The gift is God himself, the comforter, the one who stands alongside us.

Also peace is not just the work of governments or armies or diplomats but the task of each one of us. We can all become makers of peace. Peace  must begin with myself, within my own heart and from there radiate outwards. This is in fact possible because tonight we celebrate what God, in his infinite love for us, has done by sending Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to dwell among us and in our hearts, as the teacher and source of peace.

 The kingdom of God is within us but there, it has to grow and spread. In that process we may experience the apocalyptic chaos and disruption and the Messianic peace and harmony – and everything in between! Our lion may have to learn to  lie down with our lamb! And then after coping with my own lion what about coping with the lions in everyone else around me!?

 The following medieval verses recognised this inner world and the transformation Christ’s coming brings:

            You shall know him when he comes

            Not by any din of drums,

            Not by anything he wears,

            Nor by the vantage of his airs;

                        Not by his gown,

                        Nor by his crown,

            But his coming known shall be

            By the holy harmony

            That his presence makes in thee.

May all of us experience this holy harmony, this peace, fruit of the Holy Spirit, and true effect of charity, gift of God to be received by faith, as we celebrate  with thanksgiving the great mystery of Christ’s incarnation, of his coming among us and within us, as the Prince of  Peace. Amen

Advent and Praying for Peace

As we sit here in this warm comfortable Chapel, feeling safe and secure as we pray, people elsewhere are dying, people are being persecuted, and people are being displaced. We could go on and on. Life is very different for so many. Acutely aware of the need for peace, Fr Bruno, the Master of our Order and the Commission for Justice and Peace have proposed that we make the season of Advent, as we await the coming of the Prince of Peace, a period of intense prayer for peace in our war torn world and of solidarity with our Dominican brothers and sisters involved in preaching in situations of injustice. This Advent our focus is on Columbia where there are Dominicans working to support the implementation of the Peace accord that was signed in 2016.

We know that peace can come about, that agreements can work. We have seen it happen in Northern Ireland and in our lifetime we have seen the fall of the Iron Curtain. Persistent prayer works. The holy rosary is a mighty weapon against the forces of evil.

But a hymn I learnt as a child in school echoes in my heart, challenging me. It goes ‘let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me’. We have to be instruments of the peace we want to see reigning in our world. In the light of this morning’s Gospel Chapter 11 of St. Luke’s gospel struck me with great force. Whatever house you enter first say peace be to this house. And if a person of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him, but if not, it shall return to you. Somehow we have to prove the earnestness of our prayer for world peace by our willing to work for peace wherever we find ourselves- in our families, our community, our workplace, our neighbourhood. We have to come to each encounter with peace in our hearts and a desire to share that peace with the other person. But if we meet with hostility, coldness, indifference or any other negative response we have to allow our peace return to us. We are not to allow ourselves to be robbed of our peace. No one can do that to us. It is our choice, MY choice. If I allow myself to be disturbed, what will happen, the next person will come along, perhaps someone in great need of a smile, a kind word, a gesture of peace and I will miss that opportunity to serve Jesus in a troubled person. Jesus has come unexpectedly and I don’t see him because I am in a stupor, preoccupied, wallowing in my self-righteousness, being a victim soul.

Before turning off the light these nights I am reading a collection of memories that the Scripture Scholar Megan McKenna had of her grandmother. By happy coincidence or providence I came to a chapter headed Cuba 1960 last night. Megan at the age of fifteen had her secure, safe, sheltered life life turned on its head by the Cuban Missile crisis. It was her first encounter with the horrors of war. The dawning reality in her peaceful childhood of evil, of death, intended, immanent, planned and executed, of war intruding into her life, as she puts it, and it left her paralysed with fear. She couldn’t eat or sleep. She lay on her bed in despair until her Nana came to her. Her Nana’s wisdom is as pertinent now as it was 57 yrs ago and I found it worth taking to heart a salutary reminder that if I am not part of the solution then I am part of the problem.

She told her was that if she believed in God she had no right to despair. God made us all. And we are all of us without exception made in his image and likeness. God didn’t make us to give up on anyone  He made or on any situation. She reminded this  fifteen year old that she couldn’t blame anyone  for what others do, without taking a long hard look at herself first and realising that what was wrong with the world was wrong with her too. We are all human beings and anything any one else can do no matter how terrible , we are given the circumstances just as capable of doing. But it is also true that we are also capable of doing all the good that is being done in the world. If God hasn’t given up on me then I cannot give up on the world. I look to myself, to his mercy to me, and hope is restored. There can be peace on earth. Conversion happens.

Happy Christmas

We wish all our readers a grace-filled and peaceful Christmas and we share with you  a Christmas reflection:

Christmas Eve Reflection during Vespers

  

The theme of my reflection, on this Christmas Eve night, is ‘ Peace’. Conscious of the lack of peace in Syria, Iraq, Africa,  the Holy Land and in various other countries of the world and bearing in mind especially the lack of inner peace in ourselves at times  and so prevalent in people in general, I was led to ponder the title given to Jesus before his birth, that of Prince of Peace,  in the book of the prophet Isaiah, which will be read tonight at Mass:

            For there is a child born for us,

            a son given to us

            and dominion is laid on his shoulders;

            and this is the name they give him:

            Wonder – Counsellor, Mighty –God,

            Eternal- Father, Prince-of –Peace.

            Wide is his dominion

            In a peace that has no end.( Is. 9 )

We long so much for this peace that ‘has no end’. We long for it for ourselves, our families, our communities, our friends and for the world at large. We want Isaiah’s prophecy, which says;

            For all the footgear of battle,

            every cloak rolled in blood,

            is burnt,

            and consumed by fire

- we want that to be realised now, without further delay. The Gospel tonight further reinforces this message of peace when it says:

            And  suddenly with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host,

            praising God and singing:

 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to

                        men who enjoy his favour’

This theme of peace abounds everywhere in the Liturgy tonight and tomorrow. In the entrance antiphon, Jesus is personified as peace itself as it says:

            ‘ True peace has come down to us  from heaven’

On the very first weekday of Advent, and on all Mondays in Advent, I was very struck by the post communion prayer, again referring to peace; it said:

“Come, O Lord, visit us in peace, that we may rejoice before you with a blameless heart.”

In all these quotes humanity and God are linked together because peace is a gift bestowed on us by God  the Father, through and in his son Jesus Christ

The truth of Isaiah’s words come to mind:

     You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

     Trust in the Lord for ever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. ( Is.26)

             

This is really  to say that our peace, our inner peace is dependent on our relationship of trust in God. Peace is the fulfilment of our deepest needs. It is the fruit of a personal relationship with the Eternal. We are not alone. God, gentle and humble, is with us, watching over us and guiding us. As we learn to  relax and trust in love we become free of the walls and barriers that imprison us in fear, prejudice, hostility and guilt. We are filled with a new joy, a new life, the very life of love.

Sometimes when I feel my own inner  peace is disturbed I remind the Lord of his promise in St. John’s Gospel, when he says:

            Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you.

            A peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.

In speaking about peace St. Thomas quotes St. Augustine in defining peace as the tranquillity of order. Peace consists in the calm and union of our desires and is twofold in that there is perfect peace and imperfect peace.

Perfect peace, he says, consists in the perfect enjoyment of God which causes all our desires and tendencies to be united and at rest in one. This perfect peace is only possible in Heaven.

Imperfect peace, on the other hand, is the peace  which we can have in this world. It is imperfect because, even though the soul’s principal movement is to rest in God, there still remain certain obstacles, both within and without, which disturb the soul’s peace. St. Thomas goes on to say that peace is the effect of charity since charity means that we love God with our whole heart by referring everything to him, all our desires become focused on loving God in Himself and we know that love is always a unifying force.

I have come to understand that ‘the peace which God gives is not a freedom from the storms and conflicts of life, but a mysterious strength and comfort amid the storms; not the removal of pain, but the bestowal of a precious gift. The gift is God himself, the comforter, the one who stands alongside us. However, receiving God’s peace is not automatic; it requires the work of faith.

Also peace is not just the work of governments or armies or diplomats but the task of each one of us. We can all become makers of peace. Peace  must begin with myself, within my own heart and from there radiate outwards. This is in fact possible because tonight we celebrate what God, in his infinite love for us, has done by sending Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to dwell among us and in our hearts, as the teacher and bestower of peace.

 The kingdom of God is within us but there, it has to grow and spread. In that process we may experience the apocalyptic chaos and disruption and the Messianic peace and harmony – and everything in between! Our lion may have to learn to  lie down with our lamb! And then after coping with my own lion what about coping with the lions in everyone else around me!?

 The following medieval verses recognised this inner world and the transformation Christ’s coming brings:

            You shall know him when he comes

            Not by any din of drums,

            Not by anything he wears,

            Nor by the vantage of his airs;

                        Not by his gown,

                        Nor by his crown,

            But his coming known shall be

            By the holy harmony

            That his presence makes in thee.

May all of us experience this holy harmony, this peace, fruit of the Holy Spirit, and true effect of charity, gift of God to be received by faith, as we celebrate  with thanksgiving the great mystery of Christ’s incarnation, of his coming among us and within us, as the Prince of  Peace. Amen

Happy Christmas to all our readers

We wish all our readers of this blog the peace and joy of Christmas

Christmas reflection

 



“God sent His Son born of a woman to enable us to be adopted as sons” – can we ever grasp the depth of this mystery which we celebrate tonight? Eternity will not be long enough to plumb its depths.

I would like to reflect a little on Mary’s role in this mystery of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of God.  “She is the one who opened her heart to faith and her bosom to her Maker” as we read in St Bernard during the week.  She put her young life at the disposal of her Creator – and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  But Mary’s role did not end there – she continued to ponder the Word in her heart and accompanied her Son to the foot of the Cross where she received another mission from His dying lips: “Mother, behold your son!” Yes Mary is to continue to bring forth Christ in all those entrusted to her until the end of time.

St Paul wrote to the Galatians: “My children, I am going through the pain of giving birth to you all over again, until Christ is formed in you – how I wish I could be there with you at this moment and find the right way of talking to you.” (Gal 4:19).  How these words can be applied to Mary – our gentle mother who longs to see Christ coming to birth in each of her children.  But like her Son she will not force herself on us – she waits patiently for our free response.  She knows from her own experience how powerful a free response to God’s invitation is. 

We may ask ourselves what this invitation may be?  At the foot of the Cross Mary heard those other words: “I thirst.”  Jesus thirsts for our love; He thirsts to be born again in each of our hearts and lives this Christmas. He thirsts that we can hear His word of love in the silence of our hearts; that we recognise Him in whatever guise He presents Himself at each moment of the day.  He thirsts that we believe in His love for each of us just as we are, even when we feel unworthy.  A few years before her death Mother Teresa of Calcutta wrote to her sisters and perhaps her words can speak to us again tonight: “Because Mary was there on Calvary she knows how real, how deep is Jesus’ longing for each of us.  Ask her to teach you …  her role is to bring us face to face with the love in the Heart of Jesus Crucified.  Hear her pleading: ‘Listen to Jesus’ thirst’ - let it be for each of us a Word of Life.” In our second reading tonight St Paul tells us that Christ “sacrificed himself for us in order to set us free and purify a people who would be his very own and have no ambition except to do good.” (Titus 2:14).  Yes Jesus thirsts for us to be his very own, He thirsts for our love, He thirsts that we believe in His personal love for each of us.

As the Word was formed in Mary’s womb through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are now invited to rest in her womb and by the power of the Holy Spirit be transformed there ever more perfectly into the image of Christ.  By remaining close to Mary we allow her to accomplish her mission in us by allowing her to form us into other Christs, into great saints, as sons in the Son, beloved of the Father.

 

 

Second Sunday of Advent Year A

 

While reflecting on this Sunday’s Readings I was attracted towards the First Reading from Isaiah- towards the peace and harmony portrayed and established between animals, nature and in this instance little children –to quote some lines;

The wolf lives with the lamb

…with a little boy to lead them.

The cow and the bear make friends.

The infant plays over the cobra’s hole;

into the viper’s lair

the young child puts his hand.

And then the following beautiful words bring us consolation and hope in the midst of our war torn, violent and suffering world:

They do no hurt, no harm,

on all my holy mountain,

for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters swell the sea. 

If only this were the present reality! Yet, Advent is the season of hope and we are called to keep this hope alive. These beautiful words of Isaiah paint a panorama of the harmony that reigned at the dawn of creation, only to be broken by sin and  they also describe the messianic peace that will come about with the coming of the Messiah- of Jesus, our Saviour. John the Baptist asks us to prepare his way by seeking a change of heart – by repentance.

What struck me especially in this passage from the Old Testament were the three references to children – the little boy, the infant and the young child- children not adults were part of these scenes of peace and harmony. In connecting this  to the repentance and  change of heart recommended in the Gospel I was reminded of Jesus’ saying in Matthew 18:3 “ Unless you turn ( or have a change of heart) and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”. Or the passage in Luke ( 9:46-48)when an argument started between the disciples about which of them was the greatest and Jesus taking a little child, setting him by his side and saying anyone who welcomes this little child in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me. For the least among you all is the one who is the greatest.

What is this saying to me, to us? What can I learn from this?  What are some of the attributes of little children that Jesus had in mind? Would it be perhaps that little children are free because they are not locked in an ivory tower of worldly wisdom? They are free because they are open to receive. Karl Rahner notes that to think in terms of spiritual childhood, as Therese of Lisieux did when she proposed her Little Way, suggests openness – an openness to becoming true disciples of Jesus Christ.

Little children show they are free also by the way they live in the present moment, open to all and everyone around them: without trepidation in regard to the binding forces of the past or in a restricting fear of the future. I noticed that that passage is written in the present tense, even though it can also be interpreted for past and future events. Are we not all called to live in the present moment with full awareness of God’s presence both within and around us.

We could all gain so much if only we followed the way of childlike simplicity advocated by Jesus, the way of humility and trust that He himself modelled – daring to become the one the Lord calls each one of us to be; a vulnerable little child, one who both dares to show love and to allow one’s self to be loved, as only a little child knows how.

Then with all our defences down we can be sure of God’s favour, as in the words of this Sunday’s  psalm;

He, (God) shall save the poor when they cry

and the needy who are helpless.

He will have pity on the weak

and save the lives of the poor.

Lord, teach us all the way of spiritual childhood in simplicity, trust and humility of heart. When we are tempted to want to be in control teach us to realise that we are truly being held by you and cared for, by you. May we always find our true security in you.