Dear All,
With the feast of the Epiphany celebrated & with the Baptism this weekend, we are emerging from the Christmas season & faced with some weeks of winter. That is the theme of today’s reflections: Winter. Unintentionally we seem to have drawn quite heavily from Joyce Rupp, a prolific writer, an American Servite sister. She urges us not to let Winter go by just looking forward to Spring – it is a rich season in itself during which there is much to learn.
However, Edward Hays cuts us a little slack by reassuring us that Spring will follow!
Our blessing is ‘Bless to us, O God’, from ‘Heavenly Peace’ – let us extend it to all who do find the extended hours of darkness, the relative lack of colour in nature, and the cold, difficult.
With our love
Winter teaches me patience:
Walk carefully on icy pavements.
Drive slower through snarled traffic.
Take more time to put on layers of clothes.
Wait for streets to be cleared of snow.
Be understanding about mail arriving late.
Winter strengthens my courage:
Go out into windy, freezing air.
Risk traveling on snowy roads.
Dress warmly and go for a walk.
Ski through woods, alone and free.
Be at peace in long days of darkness.
Winter brings me beauty:
Look up at the star-filled sky.
Pause to breathe the crisp air.
Vigil with steel-blue sunsets.
Marvel at frost etchings on windows.
Sink boots into soft, sensual powder.
Winter gives me silent hope:
Touch the terminal buds on branches.
Clear the snow and find green moss below.
Watch the sunlight fade, then linger longer.
Stand with the strength of evergreen trees.
Listen to birds chirping at the feeder.
Joyce Rupp
Season of Waiting
Winter is the season of waiting.
It requires great trust & a willingness
to believe that this angst will not last forever.
Even though all appears dead & void of movement
there is quiet growth taking place.
During the darkness, gestation occurs.
In the caves & hidden hollows of winter,
baby bears are born. In the frozen air,
branches with terminal buds secretly grow every day.
In the unmoving soil, flower buds are strengthened
for their future journey upward towards the sun.
In the frozen human heart, silent seeds of confidence
are prepared for amazing new growth.
Joyce Rupp
A Winter Blessing
Blessed are you, winter,
dark season of waiting,
you affirm the dark seasons of our lives,
forecasting the weather of waiting in hope.
Blessed are you, winter,
you faithfully guard a life unseen,
calling those who listen deeply
to discover winter rest.
Blessed are you, winter,
frozen and cold on the outside,
within your silent, nurturing womb
you warmly welcome all that longs for renewal.
Blessed are you, winter,
your bleak, barren trees
preach wordless sermons
about emptiness and solitude.
Blessed are you, winter,
you teach us valuable lessons
about waiting in darkness
with hope and trust.
Blessed are you, winter,
season of blood red sunsets
and star-filled, long, dark nights,
faithfully you pour out your beauty.
Blessed are you, winter,
when your tiny snowflakes
flurry through the air,
you awaken our sleeping souls.
Blessed are you, winter,
with your wild and varied moods,
so intent on being yourself,
you refuse to be a people-pleaser.
Blessed are you, winter,
when ice storms crush our hearts and homes,
you call forth the good in us
as we rush to help one another.
Blessed are you, winter,
your inconsistent moods
often herald spring’s arrival,
yet how gracefully you step aside
when her time has come.
Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr
Silent & stiff earth lies in state, the trees are bare & the songs of birds have left; gone too the chanting of insects.
Only the winter wind raises her voice, in chilling canticles of praise.
Wrapped, somewhere, in her burial shroud of snow, the earth
patiently awaits the warm touch of your spirit, O God, to rouse her
from the sleep of death, calling her to rouse & come forth from
today’s tomb of winter.
I proclaim the mystery of my faith, that spring will follow winter, that life will follow death.
May my trust in the coming of spring on this winter day be a sign of my faith in the resurrection of all life, that we will all share in the new life & eternal spring of your son, Jesus Christ.
Edward Hays