3rd Advent 2016, Vision of Color

3^rd Advent

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

About time spans and right moments, dear brothers, I have no need to write to you. You know very well yourselves that the Breaking of the Day of Christ comes like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘Now peace reigns and all stands secure, then suddenly catastrophe breaks upon them, like the birth pangs of a woman with child, and there will be no escape for them.

You, however, dear brothers, are not to remain in darkness, so that the breaking of day will not surprise you like a thief. For you are sons of light and sons of the day. Our being is not filled with night and darkness. So let us not sleep like the others, but rather cultivate an alert and sober state of mind. Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk are likewise of nightly nature. But since we belong to the brightness of day, let us be sober, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, our head armed [protected] with the hope of healing...May God himself, however, the source of all Peace, hallow and heal your whole being. May your complete and undivided being,

Spirit

Soul, and

Body

remain pure and unclouded at the coming in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You may trust in him who calls you. He it is who also lets you reach the goal.

David Parker

3^rd Advent

Dec 11, 2016

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

When sunlight passes through a clear crystal, its hidden colors are revealed. They shine forth in a certain order: the boldness of red, the radiance of yellow, the depth of blue. And there are also the more subtle colors, harder to see – luminous turquoise and delicate violet – that seem to fade in and out of visibility.

The Spirit Sun is approaching our souls. We are to make ourselves clear and unclouded, like a crystal. In this way, His Light can shine into us. It can refract within our souls as courage, radiance and inner depth. Other more delicate qualities can begin to emerge.

And like a crystal, we can radiate these soul colors out into the world. Bold radiance, combined with depth and delicacy. So in the words of John O'Donohue:

Let us bless

The imagination of the Earth.

…

And how light knew to nurse

The growth until the face of the Earth

Brightened beneath a vision of color.*

 John O'Donohue,  "In Praise of the Earth," in To Bless the Space Between Us

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3rd Advent 2015, Laboring in Travail

3^rd Advent

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

About time spans and right moments, dear brothers, I have no need to write to you. You know very well yourselves that the Breaking of the Day of Christ comes like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘Now peace reigns, and all stands secure, then suddenly catastrophe breaks upon them, like the birth pangs of a woman with child, and there will be no escape for them.

You, however, dear brothers, are not to remain in darkness, so that the breaking of day will not surprise you like a thief. For you are sons of light and sons of the day. Our being is not filled with night and darkness. So let us not sleep like the others, but rather cultivate an alert and sober state of mind. Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk are likewise of nightly nature. But since we belong to the brightness of day, let us be sober, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, our head armed [protected] with the hope of healing….May God himself, however, the source of all Peace, hallow and heal your whole being. May your complete and undivided being,

Spirit

Soul, and

Body

remain pure and unclouded at the coming in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You may trust in him who calls you. He it is who also lets you reach the goal.

3^rd Advent

December 13, 2015

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

In the last weeks of pregnancy, a woman often slows down. If her preparations are done, she is often peaceful, waiting. But as the date nears, she may get restless. And when labor begins, it brings turmoil and anxiety.

Catastrophic personal events, as well as world events, bring turmoil and anxiety. Many are those who suffer. Yet it may be that these events are in fact birth pangs. Humanity is laboring in travail to bring forth a new version of itself.

We are laboring to bring forth enough sons and daughters of light, who shine in the inner and outer darkness; sons and daughters who are calm and self-possessed, whose hearts overflow with trust and love. Such sons and daughters look forward in anticipation of the healing of humankind, because they know that Christ is near. He is seeking to be born again within human souls and hearts.

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4th Advent 2014, Yes

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

About time spans and right moments, dear brothers, I have no need to write to you. You know very well yourselves that the Breaking of the Day of Christ comes like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘Now peace reigns, and all stands secure, then suddenly catastrophe breaks upon them, like the birth pangs of a woman with child, and there will be no escape for them.

Christ the Divine Physician

You, however, dear brothers, are not to remain in darkness, so that the breaking of day will not surprise you like a thief. For you are sons of light and sons of the day. Our being is not filled with night and darkness. So let us not sleep like the others, but rather cultivate an alert and sober state of mind. 

Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk are likewise of nightly nature. But since we belong to the brightness of day, let us be sober, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, our head armed [protected] with the hope of healing….May God himself, however, the source of all Peace, hallow and heal your whole being. May your complete and undivided being, Spirit, Soul, and Body, remain pure and unclouded at the coming in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You may trust in him who calls you. He it is who also lets you reach the goal.

4^th Advent

December 21, 2014

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

You may have had the experience window shopping: you see the reflection of others in the glass; and you may have a particular experience of someone; perhaps one arouses a bit critical. And suddenly you are shocked to realize that you are looking at yourself.

At this season of the year we may be inclined think that somehow our deepest desires will be fulfilled; that we will be surrounded by the warmth and love of family and friends; that we will be contented. And so we may be surprised or even shocked that we may at the same time feel ourselves to be intensely alone, isolated and unfulfilled. And one of the uncomfortable revelations comes from catching an objective glimpse of ourselves.

What comes to our aid is our own objectivity. We can be helped by shedding light on the untruthfulness of our own illusions and delusions, on our own deceptive egotism. And we can set our sights instead on the image of the Coming One. The One who was present at the creation of the human being, who walked the paradisal garden amid the freshness of creation, He who is our higher self and our true being, He is drawing near. He is willing to enter into our tarnished circumstances. He is willing to enter the fallen domain of the heart, just as He once was born into degraded surroundings on earth. For he came, he continues to come, to hallow and to heal. The poet says:

Let the stable still astonish.

Straw–dirt floor, dull eyes,

Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;

Crumbling, crooked walls;

No bed to carry that pain,

And then, the child,

Rag-wrapped, laid to cry

In a trough.

Who would have chosen this?

Who would have said: “Yes,

Let the God of all the heavens and earth

Be born here, in this place?

Who but the same God

Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms

Of our hearts

And says, “Yes,

Let the God of Heaven and Earth

Be born here –

In this place.[1]

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[1] Leslie Leyland Fields, “Let the Stable Still Astonish”