Christmas I, Midnight, December 25, 2022, Heaven's Voices

Christmas I, Midnight

Matthew 1:18–25 

[Now is proclaimed the beginning of the entire Gospel, according to Matthew in the first chapter.] 

The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way: Mary, his mother, was betrothed to Joseph. But before they were aware of having come together, she conceived a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, however, her husband, who was an upright man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, was considering whether he should quietly set her free [or, decided to consider all this a mystery.] As he was pondering this, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared before him in a dream and said to him, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because that which is to be born of her is conceived out of the power of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall give him the name Jesus, that is, the Bringer of Healing, for he it will be who will heal his own of their error and guilt." 

All this took place so that the word of the Lord, spoken by the mouth of the prophet, might be fulfilled: 

"A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, that is, God in our midst."               

Now when Joseph rose from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord directed him, and he took Mary to himself as his wife, and he knew her not until she bore her son, and he gave him the name Jesus. 

Christmas I

Midnight, December 25, 2022

Matthew 1:17-25 

A diamond in its natural state is dark and stained; it gives little clue of what lies in its depths. Not until it is cleaned, cut, and polished can the light within it begin to shine forth.  

Jesus’ conception was shrouded in darkness, awkwardness, and mystery. Like a diamond in its natural state, the conception of the Christ Child causes consternation. Joseph is not sure what this unaccountable conception means. Has Mary’s jewel of innocence been stained? Or is there a greater mystery at work here, something precious that requires her to be handed back to the temple authorities for safekeeping? 

Joseph ponders the awkwardness. 

And in answer, the heavens open. Tones sound forth. A bright angel speaks to him, saying in effect: ‘Do not be afraid of this situation. All the darkness of this diamond mystery will be chipped away. All the awkwardness will ultimately be set to rights. Remember the paradox of the prophecy? A virgin brings God into our midst.” * 

In night’s darkness, the star radiance of an angel pierces Joseph’s gloom. Joseph hears and listens. From night’s darkness, he rises up in understanding, ready to guard and protect the light-filled but as yet unmanifested jewel entrusted into his hands. 

Adam Bittleston captures the angelic voice that speaks to us today from the Gospel, the good news from the realm of the angels:

Jan de Kok

Darkness of night

Stars fill.

Silence of night

Music breaks.

 

Midnight words

Promise the coming

Humble, hopeful

Of man’s true healer.

 

Hear well, O Man

Lift up your heart

In deep darkness

To heaven’s voices.*

 

Hearing, we rise; our understanding opens into the starlight, as into the night of the sense’s darkness there streams here, now, tonight, the healing light of the Spirit’s Grace. For Christ is conceived every year anew. He is conceived as the God in our midst. He shines in us like the starlight in the diamond. 

*Isaiah 7:14

** “Advent,” by Adam Bittleston, in A Window Into Worlds 

www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd Sunday after Easter 2022, Strength to Deeply Love

 2^nd Sunday after Easter

Sanz-Cordona

John 10:1-16
 
"Yes, the truth I say to you: Anyone who does not go into the sheep through the door, but breaks into the fold elsewhere, is a thief or robber. Only he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.
 
"To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep respond to his voice. He calls each one by name, according to its nature, and he leads them out into the open. When he has brought them out, he walks before them, and the sheep follow after him, for they trust his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but rather flee because they do not know the stranger's voice."
 
Thus did Jesus reveal himself to them in pictures, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

 
Then Jesus went on. "Yes, the truth out of the spirit I say to you. I AM the door to the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them.
 
"I AM the door. Anyone who enters through me will find healing and life. He learns to cross the threshold from here to beyond, and from there to here, and he will find nourishment for his soul. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But I – I have come that they may have life, and overflowing abundance.

"I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Whoever works for wages and is no true shepherd, whose sheep are not their own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep, and flees while the wolf snatches them and scatters them. For they are only hirelings and care nothing for the sheep.
 
"I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. I know who belongs to me, and my own recognize me, just as my Father recognizes me in the depths, and I know the being of the Father; and I offer my life for the sheep.
 
"Other sheep have been entrusted to me who are not of this fold; I must also lead them. They too will listen to my voice, and one day there will be one flock, one Shepherd."
 
2^nd Sunday after Easter

May 1, 2022
John 10:1-21
 
A doorway is an opening that leads from one space to another. The door can either open or close off the access. In our everyday lives, we encounter many doors; not only the physical ones in rooms and buildings but also the portals between one state of soul and another.
 
One such doorway is waking and sleeping. At night we are meant to move calmly and easily through the doorway of sleep. The doorway to our earthly concerns closes behind us, and we move out into the starry pastures where our souls are nourished, and our bodies refreshed. And then, at the right time, we are called back to our earthly home.
 
But fear and worry, clinging to earthly concerns, can hold us back at the gateway to sleep, or bring us rushing back too soon.
 
At the beginning of our earthly lives, we stood before a similar portal. We were called into life, onto earthly fields. And at the end, we will be called back again to our heavenly home.
 

William Dyce

Christ is the one who calls us to both our homes, the earthly one and the heavenly. For He Himself is at home both here on the earth and in the starry expanses. He is the one who leads us to the thresholds of sleep and of life. He is the one who opens the door. Day after day, night after night, life after life, we can follow His call. He walks in the spirit ahead of us. We can trust in the calling of His voice. For His is the voice that summons our deepest self. His is the voice of nurture, the voice of the purest, most accepting, all-forgiving love. 
 
So, as a ‘sleep aid’ we can say the following prayer:
 

May the events that seek me
Come unto me.
May I receive them
With a quiet mind
Through the Father’s ground of peace
On which we walk.
 
May the people who seek me
Come unto me.
May I receive them
With an understanding heart
Through the Christ’s stream of love
In which we live.
 
May the spirits which seek me
Come unto me.
May I receive them
With a clear soul
Through the healing Spirit’s Light
By which we see.*
 
 
And then we can awaken from the Good Shepherd’s nourishing fields of sleep, the kind of sleep that
 
I sleep where I will
wake with the
strength to
deeply
love….**
 
 
*Adam Bittleston, "Against Fear," in Meditative Prayers for Today. Available at https://steinerbooks.presswarehouse.com/browse/book/9781782504672/Meditative-Prayers-for-Today
 
**Theresa of Avila, (1515-1582), “Clarity is Freedom” in Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 279

2nd Michaelmas 2021, Healing Spirit's Light

 2^nd 3^rd or 4^th Michaelmas

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, 6:10-19 

What it comes to in the end is this: grasp the power that streams to you in the experience of Christ in the soul and the powerful regency of his pure spiritual strength. 

Put on the power of God as one puts on full armor so that you may stand against the well-aimed attacks of the adversary. For our struggle is not to fight against powers of flesh and blood, but 

against spirit beings mighty in the stream of time,

against spirit beings powerful in the molding of earth substance,

against cosmic powers whose darkness rules the present time,

against spirits who carry evil into the realms of the spiritual world. 

Therefore take up the full armor of God that you may be able to stand your
ground on the day when evil unfolds its greatest strength and victoriously withstand it. 

Stand firm, then, girded with the truth, like a warrior firmly girded. Connect yourself with all in the world as is justified in the spiritual world, and this connection with the Spirit will protect you like a strong breastplate. 

And may Peace stream through you, down to your feet, so that on your path you spread Peace, as the message that comes from the realm of the angels. 

In all your deeds, have trust in God. This trust will be like a mighty shield; with it,  you can quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 

Take into your thinking the certainty of Christ’s healing deed. It will protect your head like a helmet. 

And the Spirit, which has become living in you, you shall grasp as one grasps a sharp sword. The sword of the Spirit is the working of the Word of God. 

May this armor clothe you in all your prayers and supplications so that in the right moment, you raise yourself in prayer to the Spirit. To this end, direct your spirit-strength in all your efforts of soul and your intercessions for all who would know Christ’s healing power. 

Feel yourself united in prayer with all other bearers of the Spirit. Take me into your prayers so that when I open my mouth, the strength of the word will be given to me.  Then I can courageously and openly bring the knowledge of that holy mystery that lives in the message of the Gospel, for which I am a priestly messenger enchained. Out of the Gospel itself, there streams to me the free strength to speak with the courage I need. 

2^nd Michaelmas

October 10, 2021

Gospel: Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 6: 10 – 19

In this reading, we are presented with the image of a strong warrior. He stands upright, stands his ground, withstands. He spreads, not destruction, but Christ’s peace, which radiates from him down into the ground, guiding his path.

His power comes from Christ, who is truth itself, the real, true reality beyond illusion, beyond death.

The warrior shields himself with trust in God. His head and thoughts are helmeted with the certainty of Christ’s healing deed on Golgatha so that he can be sure to survive beyond death.

He grasps and takes hold of the Word of God, who is Christ the Creator Himself.

In this posture of defense, the warrior protects himself from fear, from doubt, and from hatred. All of these are dark spirit beings of our time. Becoming spirit warriors, we put on the armor of God, the armor of peace, of truth. We clothe ourselves in the certainty of Christ so that we may withstand the attacks of these beings, who are trying to conquer our souls. We may hear the voice of the spirit-warrior in the prayer against fear by Adam Bittleston:

 

May the events that seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a quiet mind

Through the Father’s ground of peace

On which we walk.

 

May the people who seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With an understanding heart

Through the Christ’s stream of love

In which we live.

 

May the spirits which seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a clear soul

Through the healing Spirit’s Light

By which we see.*

 

* Adam Bittleston, "Against Fear," in Meditative Prayers for Today

 

2nd Advent 2020, May We Be Strengthened

 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th Advent

Mark 13:24-37 (Madsen)

Collot d'Herbois

In the days after those hardships, the sun will be darkened, the moon will no longer give its light, the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers of the heavenly spheres will be thrown off course. Then the coming of the Son of Man will be visible in the realm of the clouds, invested with power, illumined by the light of the revelation of the world of spirit. And he will send out the angels to gather in all those who feel themselves united with him, from all four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

Learn from the parable of the fig tree: When the sap rises through its branches, and it puts forth leaves, then you see that summer is near. So also when you see these things coming about, you shall be aware that the revelation of the Son of Man is near, at the very door. Yes, I say to you: Even before the time of human beings now living shall have come to an end, all this will begin. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. No one knows anything about that day or that hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Be observant and be awake, for you do not know when the time will be. It is like when a man goes on a journey and leaves his house. He gives his servants authority, gives each one his task, and tells the doorkeeper to be alert. So you, too, be alert. You do not know when the master of the house will come, whether in the evening or at midnight or at cockcrow in the morning. Take care that he does not find you sleeping if he comes suddenly. And what I say to you applies to all human beings: Be alert!

2^nd Advent
December 6, 2020
Mark 13:24-37
 

Living things are always changing. The plants change form from seed to shoot to leaves, from leaves to blossom and fruit and seed. The living light of the sun is in constantly changing flux. These changes affect our experience.
 
Every year at this time, Christ slowly descends once again toward the opportunity for an intimate connection with humankind. Because He is Life itself, His approach stimulates change, change in the cosmos, change in our souls. One natural reaction to great change is anxiety.
 

The gospel encourages us to recognize in advance that our anxiety is caused in fact by the approach of Christ, the giver of Life, the refresher of our life’s true meaning. He is the giver of transformative change. We are encouraged not to just smother our unease with excess of food and drink. Rather we are encouraged to practice a state of vigilant, strengthening prayer.
 
Christ is seeking an encounter with our wakeful spirits, to take place during the days and nights of Christmas. We may pray that
 
…we be strengthened from the founts of will that bear us toward freedom;
 that we be illumined from the founts of wisdom that warm the inmost heart;
 that we feel peace from the founts of love which bless human work.*
 
*Adapted from the Intercessory Prayer in Meditative Prayers for Today, Adam Bittleston. Available here.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st Trinity III, 2020, Metaphorical Masks

1st Trinity

Mark 8:27 - Mark 9:1

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there, he asked the disciples (and said to them), “Who do people say that I am?”

They said to him, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say, Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets.”

Then he asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?’

Alexander-Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht

Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

And he began to teach them: “The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed, and after three days he will rise again.” Freely and openly, he told them this.

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, “Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature.”

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples and said to them, “Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of their own soul will lose it, but whoever gives their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, their soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that they damage their soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can they give as ransom for their soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels.”

And he said to them, “The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here, there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit.”

1^st Trinity

July 26, 2020

Mark 8:27-Mark 9:1

Both people and things wear metaphorical masks. The ugly bug in the garden turns out to be a beneficial. The carpenter building your cabinets turns out to have a Master’s in literature. If you can see beyond the surface, the world is full of surprises.

Peter and Christ 

Christ Jesus wore the mask of a poor, homeless itinerant preacher and healer. It took a flash of moral intuition for Simon Peter to catch a glimpse of what vastness lay behind the mask. He caught the flash of the Messiah, the Son of God.

The world itself wears a mask, much of it pasted on by our own way of perceiving it and thinking about it. And so, although he caught the greatness of Christ, Peter rejects Christ’s prediction of what he will do and suffer. It is too radically different from Peter’s expectations. And so he pastes a mask of human reasonableness onto the vastness of a truth he cannot comprehend.

Sometimes we too have a flash of insight. It can be fearsome. What seems to matter to Christ is that we not set ourselves in opposition to what must be; that we surrender ourselves to what He means to have happen in the world, no matter how frightening or repulsive or puzzling the mask may seem to us. We need to be able to say in the words of Adam Bittleston:

 

May the events that seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a quiet mind

Through the Father’s ground of peace

On which we walk.

 

May the people who seek me

Stephen B. Whatley

            Come unto me;

May I receive them

With an understanding heart

Through the Christ’s stream of love

In which we live.

 

May the spirits who seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a clear soul

Through the healing Spirit’s light

By which we see.*

 

---

*Adam Bittleston, Meditative Prayers for Today.  Order here.

World Healing, May 1, 2020

Prayer for One's Country (adapted)
Adam Bittleston
 
O Christ, Thou knowest

Fra Angelico

The souls and spirits
Whose deeds have woven
This land’s destiny.
 
May we who today
Are bearers of this destiny
Find the strength and the light
Of thy servant Michael.
 
And our hearts be warmed
By Thy blessing, O Christ,
That our deeds may serve
Thy work of world healing.


This appears as a "Prayer for Britain" in the 1966 edition of Meditative Prayers for Today by Adam Bittleston. It does not appear in the current edition, available at http://shop.steinerbooks.org/Title/9781782504672 . This much-loved collection can be used as a kind of breviary. From the description: 

Growing into the daily use of these meditative prayers makes us conscious of how we stand in great world rhythms. We learn to follow the alternation of waking and sleeping, the ordering of the seven days of the week, and the course of the seasons, as gifts of heavenly powers gradually become known to us. 

This is a small, elegant guide to aid meditation.

C O N T E N T S:

Introduction 

PRAYERS:
Evening and morning
The week
The year
Earth
Against fear
For one who has died
Intercessory prayers
For children
The guardian angel
Blessing on a house
For a journey
For the peoples of the world
Grace before meals
Thanksgiving 

A note about the Lord's Prayer

2nd Sunday after Easter 2020, Come Unto Me

2^nd Sunday after Easter

  John 10:1-16

“Yes, the truth I say to you: Anyone who does not go into the sheep through the door, but breaks into the fold elsewhere, is a thief or robber. Only he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep respond to his voice. He calls each one by name, according to its nature, and he leads them out into the open.

When he has brought them out, he walks before them, and the sheep follow

Yong Sun Kim

after him, for they trust his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but rather flee because they do not know the stranger’s voice.”

Thus did Jesus reveal himself to them in pictures, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Then Jesus went on. “Yes, the truth out of the spirit I say to you. I AM the door to the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them.

I AM the door. Anyone who enters through me will find healing and life. He learns to cross the threshold from here to beyond, and from there to here, and he will find nourishment for his soul. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But I – I have come that they may have life, and overflowing abundance.

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who works for wages, and who is no true shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep, and flees while the wolf snatches them and scatters them. For he is only a hireling and he cares nothing for the sheep.

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. I know who belongs to me, and my own recognize me, just as my Father recognizes me in the depths, and I know the being of the Father; and I offer my life for the sheep.

Other sheep have been entrusted to me who are not of this fold; I must also lead them. They too will listen to my voice, and one day there will be one flock, one Shepherd.

2^nd Sunday after Easter

April 26, 2020

John 10:1-21

Jorge Sanz-Cordona

A doorway is an opening that leads from one space to another. The door can either open or close off the access. In our everyday lives we encounter many doors; not only the physical ones in rooms and buildings, but also the portals between one state of soul and another.

One such doorway is waking and sleeping. At night we are meant to move calmly and easily through the doorway of sleep. The doorway to our earthly concerns closes behind us, and we move out into the starry pastures where our souls are nourished, and our bodies refreshed. And then, at the right time, we are called back to our earthly home.

But fear and worry, clinging to earthly concerns, can hold us back at the gateway to sleep, or bring us rushing back too soon.

At the beginning of our earthly lives, we stood before a similar portal. We were called into life, onto earthly fields. And at the end we will be called back again to our heavenly home.

Christ is the one who calls us to both our homes, the earthly one and the heavenly. For He Himself is at home both here on the earth and in the starry expanses. He is the one who leads us to the thresholds of sleep and of life. He is the one who opens the door. Day after day, night after night, life after life, we can follow His call. He walks in the spirit ahead of us. We can trust in the calling of His voice. For His is the voice that summons our deepest self. His is the voice of nurture, the voice of the purest, most accepting, all-forgiving love. 

So, as a ‘sleep aid’ we can say the following prayer:

May the events that seek me

Come unto me.

May I receive them

With a quiet mind

Through the Father’s ground of peace

Jorge Sanz-Cordona

On which we walk.

May the people who seek me

Come unto me.

May I receive them

With an understanding heart

Through the Christ’s stream of love

In which we live.

May the spirits which seek me

Come unto me.

May I receive them

With a clear soul

Through the healing Spirit’s Light

By which we see.*

And then we can awaken from the Good Shepherd’s nourishing fields of sleep, the kind of sleep that

I sleep where I will

wake with the

strength to

deeply

love….**

*Adam Bittleston, Against Fear, in Meditative Prayers for Today. Available at http://shop.steinerbooks.org/Title/9781782504672

**Theresa of Avila, (1515-1582), “Clarity is Freedom” in Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 279

Against Fear

Adam Bittleston

 

May the events that seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a quiet mind

Through the Father’s ground of peace

On which we walk.

May the people who seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With an understanding heart

Through the Christ’s stream of love

In which we live.

May the spirits which seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a clear soul

Through the healing Spirit’s Light

By which we see.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

Prayer for Those Who Are Sick

Dear All, 

Bradi Barth

It is important to pray for all who are suffering during these times. Here is a short intercessory prayerby Adam Bittleston you could pray on behalf of those who are ill. 

 

May the Good Shepherd lead him/her/them

Into peace of heart

Into hopeful thinking,

Into patient strength of will;

Health of body

Harmony of soul

Clarity of spirit,

Now, and in the time to come.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd Michaelmas 2017,

Archangel Michael, Arild Rosenkranz

Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 6: 10 - 19
2nd, 3rd or 4th Michaelmas
 
What it comes to in the end is this: grasp the power that streams to you in the experience of Christ in the soul and in the powerful regency of his pure spiritual strength.
Put on the power of God as one puts on full armor, so that you may stand against the well-aimed attacks of the adversary. For our struggle is not to fight against powers of flesh and blood, but against
spirit beings mighty in the stream of time,
against spirit beings powerful in the molding of earth substance,
against cosmic powers whose darkness rules the present time,
against spirits who carry evil into the realms of the spiritual world.
 
Therefore take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand your ground on the day when evil unfolds its greatest strength, and victoriously withstand it.
Stand firm, then, girded with the truth, like a warrior firmly girded. Connect yourself with all in the world as is justified in the spiritual world, and this connection with the spirit will protect you like a strong breastplate.

And may Peace stream through you, down to your feet, so that on your path you spread peace, as the message that comes from the realm of the angels.
In all your deeds have trust in God. This trust will be like a mighty shield; with it,  you can quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Take into your thinking the certainty of Christ’s healing deed. It will protect your head like a helmet.

And the spirit, which has become living in you, you shall grasp as one grasps a sharp sword. The sword of the spirit is the working of the Word of God.

May this armor clothe you in all your prayers and supplications so that in the right moment you raise yourself in prayer to the spirit, and at the same time practice wakefulness in inner loyalty.
Feel yourself united in prayer with all other bearers of the spirit—also with me, Paul, so that the power of the word will be given to me when I am to courageously bring the knowledge of that holy mystery which lives in the message of the gospel.

2nd Michaelmas
October 8, 2017
Ephesians 6:10-19
 
This is a time of struggle. Outer events play like battles, battles of words, warlike behaviors, grievous wrongs. Behind these, there stand spiritual beings and spiritual forces at work, both positive and negative.
 
As the reading today says: our struggle is not to fight against powers of flesh and blood but

Newbatt

against mighty and powerful spiritual beings. For us as individuals, this means that ours is not a battle of aggression, but a battle of defense against negative spiritual forces seeking to attack our hearts and our thoughts.
 
We are to stand firm by grasping and clothing ourselves with the power that streams to us from Christ. We are to trust that no matter what appears to happen outwardly, He is the Way, the path that our human evolution is to take. He is the Truth—the very Being of Truth itself, a firm foundation for all we see and do. Clothing ourselves in His truth, our thinking is clear, and our hearts can stream peace; our words can illuminate darkness and evil.
 
It is a season of growing darkness. Our task is to remain inwardly upright and awake. We are the soldiers, the guardians who keep watch, the witnesses. We are those who are to activate the Christ force in the world. As Adam Bittleston says:
 
We need in the strife of our day
The eternal Peace of the Word of God.
Seeking this Peace with our whole being
On the path which leads from the nightmare
Of endless chaos,
Into the order of heaven
And to the Father of all things—
We shall meet Michael
Who reveals how Christ
Awakens Man
That he may serve God. *
 

 

---

*"Michaelmas II”, Adam Bittleston, in Meditative Prayers for Today. Available here.

Also visit www.thechristiancommunity.org