This is a day to focus on the possibility of new life. In what ways can you cooperate, or even stimulate, new life? And in what other ways do you perhaps stall its coming?
This is a day to focus on the possibility of new life. In what ways can you cooperate, or even stimulate, new life? And in what other ways do you perhaps stall its coming?
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The concept of "new life" as theme of Advent was new to me this year -- so I found this meditation by Scott Cairns about the beauty of budding flowers in the desert wasteland particularly meaningful. Often in the past, my friends and I have jokingly called this season Ad-Lent -- as it sometimes seems to be a time of spiritual pruning! Last week, however I had the privilege of singing the communion piece (Gregorian chant) for the first week in Advent at my church. One theme that ran throught the piece was the land bringing forth fruit. This seems to have layers of meaning -- creation praising God -- Mary giving birth to Christ -- as part of humankind or the "world" bringing forth the divine Christ incarnate -- and of course the fruit of our own inner transformation and healing. Although the theme of new life is often associated with Easter, I'm looking forward to seeing this season of Advent as a time of new growth.
The "intermittent dryness" and "paralysis" that Scott speaks of almost always comes from inside me - that is how I stall new life - by allowing the desert in me to expand, by refusing the sometimes painful redirections from God that bring internal growth. The source of new life is and has always been allowing + asking for conviction in my heart - not worrying about the "evils in the world (and)..."my own neighborhood". If I make the (infrequent!)choice to point the finger at myself, and hear what God has been trying to tell me, the evils I perceive around me diminish and lose their strength. This is not natural by any means - I will fight for years to avoid the conviction - but always end up back in the desert looking for a way out.
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