All in 12 Days of Christmas 2020
Birthing the holy is not an easy task. No Spa treatment has it on the menu. But it is the heart of Christmas after all. A humble stable. Birth pangs and exhaustion. A little tender cry of hope. A child. A newborn. Immanuel. God with us...
On this first Sunday in the New Year we invite you to a time of non-doing. Invite gratitude, practice joy, be present.
We will always fall down. Indeed, it is necessary. But grace is available to not despair, to gently cradle hope and to get up again and continue. The gentle powers, and even our own perseverance, are more evident in how we get up again than in how long we manage to walk without falling.
A warm welcome to you into the new year! On such a day, we do not recommend any heavy spiritual lifting or deep meditation. We propose instead a New Year’s walk to clear the mind and to welcome your body into the new year. Follow this by imbibing Hildegard von Bingen’s spiced wine to warm your hands and heart. There is a recipe at the very end of this reflection.
With this image of the sun breaking into the Sacred Heart Chapel at Saint Benedict's monastery, MN on New Year's Eve we greet you one last time in 2020. Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen (By gracious powers wonderfully sheltered) is a much-loved hymn that is widely sung in German speaking lands at the turn of the year. May it grant you peace and consolation at the end of this year…
Instead of simply saying good riddance to this Annus Horribilis, we invite you for a time of gracious recollection and redemption. You can do this by walking in silence, by looking back on the reflections of this 12 day journey so far, or by taking some time to look with kindness on your life using the practice we provide.
Today we muse on the difficulties and distractions of the way before us and we invite you to deepen your heart, and to (re)visit or practice some aspect of this shared journey. Do not lose heart, dear one. Take courage.
We live in challenging times, thrown back more than usual onto the small communities of our household. You may have suddenly found yourself becoming a caretaker or a parent again. Or found yourself lonely and longing for someone with whom to share your solitude. So now more than ever we need to practice the art of solitude and especially to learn how to share places of solitude.
