Arise, shine, for your light has come… (Isaiah 60:1a) Then the Glory opens up, and the exposition begins…after the sheaves of night, the spirals of anxiety, here the triumph of love and the tears of joy – all the passion of our arms around the Invisible!… (Olivier Messiaen) Do you see a star unlike theContinue reading “20 Contemplations #20: Enlighten”
Tag Archives: 20 Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus
20 Contemplations #19: Sleep, Wake
I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking… (Song of Solomon 5:2a) The world sleeps, but still some wise men gaze out unto the beckoning sky, and some still wake to hear the door pounding, night humm- ing in active grace of years. No doubt, the gentleness of the stars willContinue reading “20 Contemplations #19: Sleep, Wake”
20 Contemplations #18: Anointing
In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness… God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. (Psalm 45:4a, 7b) Do not be deceived. He comes in meekness now to expose the proud. He sleeps among the donkeys and cattle now; soon theContinue reading “20 Contemplations #18: Anointing”
2o Contemplations #17:
…the music seems to come out of the silence like the colors come out of the night… (Olivier Messiaen) After such a climax, what reflection? Light refracts from His glory; sun and moon bow. Let all mortal flesh keep silent. Soon, very soon, we shall see His intention erupt in purposed rapture. Explosion of brightness dancingContinue reading “2o Contemplations #17:”
20 Contemplations #16: Consolation
With weeping they shall come, and with consolation I will lead them back… (Jeremiah 31:9a, NRSV) Noise. The ages seem to verge upon chaos. Yet crescendo is not crisis. What men of old saw has not failed. Four hundred years of silence did not climax now, to then leave us empty. He always spoke gentlyContinue reading “20 Contemplations #16: Consolation”
20 Contemplations #15: Intimacy
He comes near, able to touch, to be touched, and be wounded, to kiss and to be kissed: the grateful kiss, the sleepy child dismiss- ing himself to sleep; the mother’s kiss, a smudge on freshly-bathed cheek; the plotter’s grudge expressed in the curl of doubled lips, the final, false farewell, the fatal tryst. He comesContinue reading “20 Contemplations #15: Intimacy”
20 Contemplations #14: Wonder
…the astonishment of the Angels: for it is not in them (pure spirits), but in the human race, that God unites himself, and the Son of God incarnate “is not ashamed to call us his brothers.” (Olivier Messiaen) Flames of fire, yet only servants. They long to look into what we hold as child: God-made-flesh.Continue reading “20 Contemplations #14: Wonder”
20 Contemplations #13: Incarnate
It could be that the wildest, strangest things in the Bible were the places where it touched earth. (Marilynne Robinson, Lila) Our minds jump too easily: from cradle to grave – a Cross upon a hill. And yes, this is where it tends. Yet first the stable is where God, first time in wounded ages,Continue reading “20 Contemplations #13: Incarnate”
20 Contemplations #11: Communion
…Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. (Luke 2:19) I hold You; I bore You. Yet You cannot be held by me. The story told from first honours me but exalts You more: a dot at the start, impossibly small, yet burst- ing with life. How could this all be? IContinue reading “20 Contemplations #11: Communion”
20 Contemplations #10: Joy
Delight the Spirit feels in constant burst: Delight in Three, delight in all that’s good. And as the Son descends, is born, is God, Delight the Spirit feels at last, at first. Joy of Spirit fractures Earth’s rehearsed Ways of being happy. Earth gives a nod To God, then walks the path that Adam trod.Continue reading “20 Contemplations #10: Joy”
The Consolations of Writing 