Dear All,
This year on Sunday in the Church, somewhat unusually, we are celebrating the feast of ‘The Exaltation of the Cross’. I have always found this a bit mystifying – exalting the cross? But I suppose it is something to do with how darkness can lead to light – how pain seems to be a necessary part of life & how we can come through pain to joy – how the cross led to resurrection and so on. Anyway, this week we have chosen reflections that in some way speak a little of all these seeming contradictions. I hope it all makes a bit of sense to you.
This week we will have a blessing from Sacred Weave, ‘Let the Peace of the Father’.
Love to you all
And still I also believe that absence might lead to the awareness of a new presence. Lately, I have found much comfort in the words of Jesus: “It is for your good that I leave, because unless I leave my Spirit cannot come.” Jesus’ leaving meant that he would become more intimately present to us, that he would unite himself in a new way with us. Because of his death we can say: “Not I live but Christ lives in me.” I have a feeling that this is not just true of Jesus, but in and through Jesus of all people who leave us. In their absence we can develop a new intimacy with them and grow. We even can become more like them and fulfill their mission in life until the day comes that we too have to leave so that our spirit can stay with those we love. In this way mourning can slowly turn into joy, and grief into rebirth.
For the Darkness of Waiting
Janet Morley
For the darkness of waiting
of not knowing what is to come
of staying ready and quiet and attentive,
we praise you O God:
for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.
For the darkness of staying silent
for the terror of having nothing to say
and for the greater terror
of needing to say nothing,
we praise you, O God:
for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.
For the darkness of the unknown future
for the terror of unpredictability
and for the greater terror of opening ourselves
to that which is unfolding,
we praise you O God:
for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.
For the darkness of loving
in which it is safe to surrender
to let go of our self-protection
and to stop holding back our desire,
we praise you O God:
for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.
For the darkness of choosing
when you give us the moment
to speak, and act, and change,
and we cannot know what we have set in motion,
but we still have to take the risk,
we praise you O God:
for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.
For the darkness of hoping
in a world which longs for you,
for the wrestling and the labouring of all creation
for wholeness and justice and freedom,
we praise you O God:
for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.
Joys Are Hidden in Sorrows!
Nouwen
Joys are hidden in sorrows! I know this from my own times of depression. I know it from living with people with mental handicaps. I know it from looking into the eyes of patients, and from being with the poorest of the poor. We keep forgetting this truth and become overwhelmed by our own darkness. We easily lose sight of our joys and speak of our sorrows as the only reality there is.
We need to remind each other that the cup of sorrow is also the cup of joy, that precisely what causes us sadness can become the fertile ground for gladness. Indeed, we need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.
Our Suffering God
Look at the man who is pierced and broken and you see the love of God radiating out to you. You feel the warmth and the newness streaming through you. Every time you look at your struggles, your pain, and your anguish as the burden you have to bear, see your struggles as being struggled with right there on the cross by the Son of God. Your struggle becomes a light burden because it is the burden of God and God has suffered for us.