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Epiphany
Words: Joan Chittister in The Liturgical Year: the spiraling adventure of the spiritual life
Image: Chiefs Come From the East to See Jesus by John Giuliani
We're Following The Star, 6
David:
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
T. S. Eliot
from The Four Quartets
Image: Table of the Magi by David Orth
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
......And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
T. S. Eliot
from The Four Quartets
Image: Table of the Magi by David Orth
I think my epiphany is 61 years in the making ...a very very slow epiphany: The star is family ...the star is old friends (like Jesus and Mary) ...the star is new friends (like David and Robin) ...the star is love. LOVE!
Image: La Sagrada Familia - The Sacred (or Holy) Family by James Mangum
just saying so
sometimes makes all
the difference
the star is always there
to be followed to be
watched
just saying so
reminds us
commits us
Image: Just Saying So by C. Robin Janning
Overcome By Light
Christmas—the light that shone upon a manger—was also, the ancients knew, the light that led them on beyond it as well. If God is truly with us, has been manifested among us, companions us as we go, knows our pains and our hopes, then life is not a dark forest from which there is no exit. It is a darkness, however dark, that is always overcome by light.
Words: Joan Chittister in The Liturgical Year
Image: Photograph "Afternoon River" by The Rev. Scott Fisher
We're Following The Star, 5
Christmas now. It’s not just one star, but many stars. Too many stars to count. It is a great light pulsing, beaming from every direction. Light for the Christmas that is born in every heart …in every dawn that pushes away the darkness.
David:
David:
A new year arrives during these twelve days of Christmas, bearing a spark that promises enough light for all ...however and in whichever direction we travel.
I Saw Visions
“while I was among the exiles” Ezekiel (1:1) wrote
“the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.”
we must rebuild
our small habits and
inclinations to include
each morning’s nativity
each evening’s stars
and heavenly choirs
seen even in exile
from the portal
of a heart opened
so wide so deep
so far
Image: As I Saw the Living Creatures by Dan RiiS Grife
Christmas Day
In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1: 4-5
Image: Mary Gives Birth to Jesus by John Giuliani
Christmas Eve
But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2.19)
Over the previous nine months, Mary has entertained an archangel, said yes to becoming the mother of the Son of God, made the journey to visit Elizabeth, and lifted up a song of hope that has endured across centuries. She has waited with Elizabeth, made the journey back home, and traveled with her husband Joseph to Bethlehem to be included in the registration ordered by Emperor Augustus. She has labored to give birth to her son, enfolded him in strips of cloth, laid him in a manger, and welcomed those who came to marvel at what had come to pass.
Luke tells us that in response to their amazement, Mary treasures these words in her heart. Luke’s description conjures an image of a woman who, amid the tumult of angels and signs and visitors and miracles, holds all these happenings in a place of stillness. Among the memories of nine months of adventures she never could have imagined, Mary embodies a sense of wonder that is quiet and deep and wise.
Words: Jan Richardson at The Advent Door: “Revisiting The Secret Room”
Image: “Mary Treasures All These Words” by C. Robin Janning
Advent, Day 25
Dear God, the troubles of our world have left many of us speechless. We don’t know how, in the numbness around jobs lost, illnesses we don’t have the resources to cure, a planet imperiled by the accumulated effects of our greed, and the seemingly endless presence of war and violence, to say our prayers. We are lighting candles, though – in our Advent wreaths, quietly, in side chapels of our churches, in our rooms where no one else but You can see. The candle flame is our prayer, wordless but filled with meaning, with petition, hope, and faith. And the candle flame is your answer to our prayer. You lighten our darkness, O Lord. Amen
Words: The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, Eighth Bishop of California
Image: Georges de La Tour
Advent, Day 24
through fields the shadows creeping
and cities pause to rest
Let us, as night is falling
on God our maker calling
sing praise to God who loves us best.
The radiant sun has vanished
its golden rays are banished
from deepening skies of night
But, Christ, the sun of gladness,
dispelling all our sadness
shines in our hearts with warmest light.
Now all the heavenly splendor
breaks forth in starlight tender
from myriad worlds unknown
And we, this marvel seeing,
forget our selfish being
and know a beauty not our own.
Words: Paul Gerhardt (17thC)
Image: Photograph "Hidden Advent Angels" by The Rev. Scott Fisher
Advent, Day 23
Singing/near and far/Singing/to raise the morning star.”
Words: Bruce Cockburn
Image: Benedictus by Jan Richardson
Fourth Sunday of Advent, Day 22
Image: photograph by Diane Walker
We're Following The Star, 4
David:
But now I feel well on down the road …
So (whispering softly to the gentle,
Frightened bird of our fluttering hearts),
Be still, and know the
vast varied darknesses of God.
Do not flinch from any Truth
breathing out whatever breath.
Jim:
Epiphany: A Christian feast celebrating the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi.
Advent began on my birthday this year. The next day, November 30, Robin, David, and I began “following the star.” Today, December 13, my epiphany arrived with the first line of Robin’s poem: “It’s about Mary.” What should have been obvious to me for many years became obvious. My art has always been about Mary.
I have painted her and carved her hundreds of times. With and without the Christ child. Each time my art takes me away from her, she calls me back. Her image calms me; comforts me. Despite all my doubts about so-called traditional religion, her hold on me has never loosened.
I was a psychology major in college, but came to believe all of it was a crock. Except for the theory of the mother-son dynamic. I was not close to my mother, or should I say, she was not close to me. So, I suppose that Mary became my surrogate mother. I was raised in the Catholic church and began attending Catholic school when I was five. So I saw Mary a lot. At a most impressionable age and during a most trying time, I saw her almost daily. The incredible statues, paintings, stained glass windows. She always had a beatific smile…just for me.
So today I will start my new carving. A giant cypress knee in which I can already see Mary holding baby Jesus in her arms. It is going to be a good day.
Robin:
it’s about Mary
right now
this star we follow
about finding
the transformation
point where
we say yes
like she said
yes
I feel a little out of touch again
And exhausted and wind burnedBut now I feel well on down the road …
So (whispering softly to the gentle,
Frightened bird of our fluttering hearts),
Be still, and know the
vast varied darknesses of God.
Do not flinch from any Truth
breathing out whatever breath.
Jim:
Epiphany: A Christian feast celebrating the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi.
Advent began on my birthday this year. The next day, November 30, Robin, David, and I began “following the star.” Today, December 13, my epiphany arrived with the first line of Robin’s poem: “It’s about Mary.” What should have been obvious to me for many years became obvious. My art has always been about Mary.
I have painted her and carved her hundreds of times. With and without the Christ child. Each time my art takes me away from her, she calls me back. Her image calms me; comforts me. Despite all my doubts about so-called traditional religion, her hold on me has never loosened.
I was a psychology major in college, but came to believe all of it was a crock. Except for the theory of the mother-son dynamic. I was not close to my mother, or should I say, she was not close to me. So, I suppose that Mary became my surrogate mother. I was raised in the Catholic church and began attending Catholic school when I was five. So I saw Mary a lot. At a most impressionable age and during a most trying time, I saw her almost daily. The incredible statues, paintings, stained glass windows. She always had a beatific smile…just for me.
So today I will start my new carving. A giant cypress knee in which I can already see Mary holding baby Jesus in her arms. It is going to be a good day.
Robin:
it’s about Mary
right now
this star we follow
about finding
the transformation
point where
we say yes
like she said
yes
Advent, Day 21
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced
The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.
Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
So every trace of light begins a grace
In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
"Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream
For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking."
Words: "O Oriens" by Malcolm Guite
Image: Estuary by Roger Hutchison
Thanks to Diane Walker who introduced me to the poetry of Malcolm Guite.
Advent, Day 20
Skies, and be perfect! Fly, vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full!
The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.
Charm with your stainlessness these nights in Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed by starlight.
Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over all our
solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets' stately setting,
Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!
Words: Advent by Thomas Merton, written in 1946
Image: Annunciation (Detail) by Ruth Councell
Advent, Day 19
gentle Word of grace.
Ever-loving and sustaining is the
peace of God’s embrace.
If we falter in our courage and
we doubt what we have known,
God is faithful to console us as a
mother tends her own.
In a momentary meeting of eternity and time.
Mary learned that she would carry
both the mortal and divine.
Then she learned of God’s compassion,
of Elizabeth’s great joy,
And she ran to greet the woman
who would recognize her boy.
We are called to ponder myst’ry
and await the coming Christ,
To embody God’s compassion
for each fragile human life.
God is with us in our longing
to bring healing to the earth,
While we watch with joy and
wonder for the promised Savior’s birth.
Words: a hymn by Jeannette M. Lindholm titled "Unexpected and Mysterious," which appears in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2006)
Image: "Incubation," the first panel in an eight-piece work titled "Tabula Rasa" by Linda Witte Henke
Advent, Day 18
the thin, thin place
where the veil
gives way.
Or call it this:
the path we make
when we go deep
and deeper still
into the dark
and look behind to see
the way has been lit
by our rejoicing."
Words and Image: From As on a Day of Festival by Jan Richardson
Advent, Day 17
Words: Megan McKenna in "Spiritual Writings on Mary" by Mary Ford Grabowsky
Image: Secrets of Czestochowa's Madonna by Gerard Di Falco
Advent, Day 16
Words: From an Advent sermon by The Rt. Rev. Carol Joy Gallagher
Image: "The Annunciation" by The Rev. James Curtis
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