Christmas Reflections 2024
In this online Christmas reflection, we are going to interweave music, readings, quiet prayer and reflections as we celebrate the coming of Christ this Christmas time.
I invite you to listen to this opening song as an invitation to you, no matter where you are or how you may be feeling.
Opening music: Come darkness, come light
Introduction
Music: When a child is born (sung by Sinead O’Connor and Danny O’Reilly)
Reading: How the Light Comes
The following track is a reading of the poem "How the Light Comes", by Jan Richardson, accompanied by the music "First Light" by Lisa Lynne. You can read the words of the poem below:
How the Light Comes
I cannot tell you how the light comes.
What I know is that it is more ancient than imagining.
That it travels across an astounding expanse to reach us.
That it loves searching out what is hidden,
what is lost, what is forgotten or in peril or in pain.
That it has a fondness for the body,
for finding its way toward flesh,
for tracing the edges of form,
for shining forth through the eye, the hand, the heart.
I cannot tell you how the light comes, but that it does.
That it will.
That it works its way into the deepest dark that enfolds you,
though it may seem long ages in coming or arrive in a shape you did not foresee.
And so may we this day turn ourselves toward it.
May we lift our faces to let it find us.
May we bend our bodies to follow the arc it makes.
May we open and open more and open still
to the blessed light that comes.
—Jan Richardson
Reflection Part 1
Chant:
I invite you to sing or pray along with the following chant:
Lyrics:
If in your heart you make a manger for this birth,
Then God will once again become a child on earth.
Reading: When you are silent, extracts from Karl Rahner
“The Message of Christmas is told to us from within by God,
at that point of the heart to which we should return.
It is told to us by the light of the Christmas grace. …
The Infinite has become nearness.
The descent of eternity into time,
of the infinite into the finite
takes place within you
when you are silent,
when you wait.”
Quiet prayer:
I invite you to take some time to become silent, to wait in openness and stillness, gently letting go of your usual fixations and allowing the ripples of your hearts to settle so that youcan reflect eternity in your hearts, and echo with Mary’s prayer: “My soul is like a still pool, and the face of Yahweh shines in it.”
You can use the timer below, that starts and ends with the sound of gongs.
Music
End the time of quiet prayer by litsening to the following Christmas carols.
James Finley describes how, in order to discover what is being born within us, we need to leave the clamour and superficiality of the inn and find our way in the dark back to the stable, to enter into the humility, the simplicity and the patience needed to discover the delicate nature of what's unfolding in our heart, to discover how God is being born in our life.
Reading: Seek me inside yourself, by St Teresa of Avila
"Soul, if by chance you forget where I am, do not rush around here and there.
If you want to find me, seek me inside yourself.
Soul, you are my room, you are my house,
you are my dwelling.
If, through your distracted ways, I ever find your door closed,
do not seek me outside yourself.
Seek me inside yourself."
Music:
Reflection Part 2
Ending prayer
Christ our Lord, Emmanuel,
You breathe your Holy Spirit upon us like a gentle breeze and tell us: 'Peace be yours.'
Opening ourselves to your peace,
letting it penetrate the hard and rocky ground of our hearts,
means preparing ourselves to be bearers of reconciliation wherever you may place us.
So come and lead us to wait in silence, to let a ray of hope shine through in our world.
Amen
~ Brother Roger of Taize
Ending music: Peace Child (Sung by the Indigo Girls)
Listen to this song as a prayer for peace, and let us hold in our hearts those who are devastated by war, loss and homelessness, praying a blessing for peace this Christmas time.
Lyrics:
Peace child
In the sleep of the night
In the dark before light
You come, you come
In the silence of stars
In violence of wars
Savior, your name
Peace child
To the world and the storm
To the gun and the bomb
You come, you come
Through the hate and the hurt
Through the hunger and dirt
Bearing a dream
Peace child
To our dark and our sleep
To the conflict we weep
Now come, now come
Be your dream born alive
Held hope, wrapped in love
God's truth
Shalom
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Sharon's book that was previously called "Contemplative Living" has been republished by AnamChara Books under the title "Deeper: Finding the Depth Dimension Beneath the Surface of Life". The Kindle version is available from Amazon, and the hard copy version can be ordered from loot.co.za or from your local bookshop through Ingram Distribution.