At The End Of The Year
As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch
them.
The days when the veil lifted
And the soul could see delight;
When a quiver caressed the heart
In the sheer exuberance of being here.
Surprises that came awake
In forgotten corners of old fields
Where expectation seemed to have
quenched.
The slow, brooding times
When all was awkward
And the wave in the mind
Pierced every sore with salt.
The darkened days that stopped
The confidence of the dawn.
Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret
sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.
We
bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.
-John O’Donahue
Hope is coming; love is coming. A shining realm of peace and wholeness
is, truly, coming. We have a season in which to give our faith a workout,
in which to exercise our hope muscles. Some years make that exercise more
difficult than others. But it’s Advent now, and, as people of faith, we are
called upon to exercise our hope. - Vinita Hampton Wright, Advent Again—Time for Practicing Hope
Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen: “It is Advent again. In his sermon this morning, Oscar Uzin said: ‘Be alert, be alert, so that you will be able to recognize your Lord in your husband, your wife, your parents, your children, your friends, your teachers, but also in all that you read in the daily papers. The Lord is coming, is always coming. Be alert to his coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.’” –Gracias! A Latin American Journal
Lord
Jesus,
Master of both the light and the darkness,
send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.
We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.
We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.
We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.
To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!”
—Henri
J.M. Nouwen
Joy requires us to hold onto the reality of the world’s brokenness in one hand and the love of God in the other”. To rejoice, he said, “is to lean into the longing for God’s perfect shalom to break into our suffering world and make things right, a longing that compels us to participate in God’s good work and that drives us to anticipate and enact shalom everywhere we can while also admitting our desperation, our helplessness, and need for a savior. -Father Rich Weyls
Rather, we allow ourselves to be
embraced by Advent’s true story. We trust the One who promises to be God with
us, even amid our many searing pains. We relinquish our life into the hands of
the One who promises to hold us tight–and to one day undo every sorrow, mend
every wound, and make the whole earth aflame with love’s fire. -Winn Collier
That is my prayer this New Year’s Eve.
Bless
you, 2021, for all we learned, loved, and even lost.
We look with
expectation to the gifts of 2022.
-Diana Butler Bass
