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Going Slow |
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I love the Advent Morning Retreat—a time of wonder and quiet to settle into the season. The group that gathered to take part in the retreat this year moved into wondering that carried us to lots of different places, as all good wondering does!! And the personal reflection deepened our time together.
At one point, we wondered together about what it might have felt like to be the very last people coming into Bethlehem that night. What a counter-cultural notion for our “me first” century!
Mary and Joseph help us remember times when we have been last and all of the feelings associated with being last.
During the personal reflection times on Saturday morning, I began remembering times in my life when being slow or trying to keep up made me sad, angry, and ashamed—and then made me want to just give up and not go on. And I wondered if Mary and Joseph felt this way on the road to Bethlehem that night.
Then in our group time, someone mentioned how busy the road must have been with everyone going somewhere to be registered. Another participant said, “Wow!! I have never thought of the story that way! I always imagine Mary and Joseph, alone with their donkey, with no one else around.”
Well, artists and Christmas card creators have helped us in thinking of their “aloneness.” And certainly, their aloneness is one way to enter into this amazing story.
But this year, thanks to the retreat, I am wondering about their journey in a new way. Who was with them? It seems likely that others were walking slowly too, perhaps with their own burdens, perhaps with young children, perhaps to keep Mary and Joseph company.
This challenges my imagination about this journey to Bethlehem that was then and is now. And it allows me to remember times in my life when being slow allowed me to feel deeper connections --with those around me in body and spirit,-- with myself, --with nature, --with God. This helps me to remember when going slow gave me the energy to keep going. And so now I am wondering if Mary and Joseph felt this way on the road to Bethlehem that night!!
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Entering into the Mystery of Advent |
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Happy New Year!! Advent begins the Church Year, and the first thing that we are invited to do is to wait. Advent is all about waiting.
We are a people waiting in the darkness. This dark time invites us to look at the tempo of our hectic lives and to observe how it is a manifestation of our being unable to wait. Advent is a time to consider that waiting time is not the same as wasting time. I was blessed to be was eight month’s pregnant with my firt child during Advent. That year, I was able to comprehend what this waiting was about in a whole new way.
Still our 21st century minds lure us into thinking that waiting is not practical. Perhaps not, but waiting IS a great mystery. Waiting is necessary to all that is becoming. Nothing of value comes into being without a period of incubation. As Gandhi has said, “Things of quality have no fear of time.” So great mystery always challenges us to unhinge from our worries about time.
Keeping Advent can also be a rehearsal for all the other times in our lives that we must wait. Small children often say, “I can’t wait.” Advent is the liturgical season of expanding our capacities for waiting and to learn about waiting as a spiritual discipline.
Historically, the Advent color was purple, like Lent, and Advent has a more penitential feeling. At St. Clement’s, we now use the color blue—like the robes of the pregnant Mary, waiting for the birth of her son. The blue of Advent reminds us of the anticipatory nature of this waiting season.
I believe that the waiting of Advent invites us to hopefulness. You don’t wait without expectation. In the darkness, we light a candle, then two, then three, then four. In the darkness, we prepare to be dazzled by a star, the voices of angels, a baby. |
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Welcome! |
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From time to time you'll find stories and news here about our many Christian Formation programs at St. Clement's. From infants through adults, we have a vibrant program that engages people in faith journeys. Wherever you are in your faith journey, please join us! |
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Christian Formation blog