Dear All,
So, we move on to the 2nd week of Advent. I hope Week 1 has given you a good start. In these coming weeks we are giving you a variety of ‘takes’ on this season & we hope one or more will be meaningful for you – even ‘challenging’!
Tomorrow we will have our second of four Advent Reflections on zoom and we hope you can join us. The reflections are at 5.30pm every Sunday in Advent and the link will be the same for all; no registration – just come!
Zoom link for ALL Advent Reflections:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86310896698?pwd=TWJOdEhDUW9EVHJQZ0ZubmRlQ2VWdz09
Meeting ID: 863 1089 6698
Passcode: 356819
The blessing this week is ‘Blessed to me, O God’ from Heavenly Peace. May it bring you & your family many blessings.
With our love
The second week of Advent starts with a call from John the Baptist to repent. As we start a liturgical year, it feels right to spend some time thinking back to the times when we have not got things quite right. The times when our actions have hurt others or had negative consequences. Whether that is for the people closest to us, for our community or for our world.
It’s worth us as Christians remembering the times when we have placed our needs over the rights of our sisters and brothers living in poverty. The times when we have prioritised convenience over protecting the environment.
But repenting is more than saying sorry. It is about changing our ways, trying to live differently. We are called to straighten paths, by looking at what is crooked and unjust in our world and playing our part in transforming these systems and situations for the good of all.
The process should not be one that adds a burden but rather lightens it by enabling us to let go of debilitating guilt and worry and open our hearts to the love of God.
The Disturber Joyce Rupp.
Wake us up
To what needs doing,
And what needs undoing.
Wake us up
To what must be let go,
And what to draw closer.
Wake us up to what enlarges love
And what diminishes it.
In all parts of our life,
Disturb and wake us up!
RE-ENCHANTED Peter Millar.
Within these fragmented days,
a gentle invitation
threads through our lives,
reminding us that all is sacred
and rooted
in a love that knows no bounds
And with that quiet knowledge we re-enchant our times,
taking risks on holy ground:
hearing God’s heartbeat in our global discomfort,
halting our harshness in our work for justice,
loosening our souls as our fears are named,
Recognising new markers
in the passion of our prayers.
Re-enchanted,
we journey freely,
re-imagining God’s presence
with re-awakened minds;
discovering afresh that surprising healing Word
which today, so powerfully,
illumines our poverty of understanding.