Preparing to Prepare

I woke early to bake a simple bread made with macerated dried cherries.  Tyler is downstairs practicing guitar. Jack is curled up beside me. He seems to be content to not be out walking at the usual time.  We had such a lovely quiet Thanksgiving.  We cooked and cleaned, napped, and then listened to jazz and talked.  I am grateful I do not feel compelled to answer the ever present clarion call to begin the competitive shopping season.

   

When Tyler and I married 31 years ago, the date was November 27, the day after Thanksgiving.  Since then, we have always celebrated our anniversary on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  It is an easy day to remember and an easy day to take off from our work duties. Often we go to the beach, but not this year.  More rain is predicted, and I don't think walking on uneven sand would do my knee much good.  For now, I am content to take in the silence and calm of this morning. 

This coming Sunday marks the end of the church year, with Advent beginning December 2. As the bread was baking, I turned to a book that truly is an old friend, "Blessings of the Daily, A Monastic Book of Days" by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette, published in 2002.  Brother Victor writes eloquently of the peace that Advent can bring us, if we accept the invitation: 

 

Once again, we arrive at the threshold of Advent and are invited by the Church to enter into the mystery that Advent represents. During these quiet four weeks that precede Christmas, the Church asks us to think, live, and pray in the spirit of Advent. But what is the mystery of Advent all about? Advent is that unique and privileged time of preparation for the great event commemorated at Christmas: the Incarnation of the Son of God and his humble appearance among us as a tiny child. 

   

Unlike Brother Victor, most of us do not live in a monastery, and too often, the four weeks before Christmas are full of activities, list making, worry and weariness. I like that as a church, we can remind one another and ourselves that there is also beauty and mystery to be experienced at this time. We light candles and sing special music. We spend at least a minute or two in communal silence, and we listen to the ancient stories told again.  We try to lift the words, hope, peace, joy, and love off printed pages and Christmas cards and live into them. As best we can, we ready our hearts, knowing that Christ is knocking at the door, even if our heart abode is rough hewn and stony. We learn again that angels sit right next to us.    

I am always grateful when Advent begins in December, rather than the first Sunday after Thanksgiving.  We can indeed prepare to prepare.     

Sunflowers

Yesterday was my day to visit the two retired doctors (they live in different communities.) They are continuing their journeys through frailty and fading memories, and I so appreciate their gentle presence. I was able to report to them that I had met a lively young doctor while visiting a skilled nursing community earlier that day.  They were both excited to know more about her. I think she is a kindred spirit of theirs for she seems to embody the same spirit that I sense they did in their work: that is, one of real engagement with the patients. I pray that one day she, too, will be able to look back on her practice with gratitude.   

In his entry for October 5 in Blessings of the Daily, Brother Victor writes that while arranging sunflowers in a vase for chapel, he recalled a passage from Centering by Caroline Richards.  I checked online and there is a book by the same title by M.C. (Mary Caroline) Richards.  This may be the book he is referencing, but I cannot say for sure.   

   

It was early fall...sunflowers were in bloom in my garden, their wide orange faces high in the air on spindly stems. It was the season of the harvest, of withering. It was seed time. And there is no air so intoxicating as that season's. I opened my door one early morning and looked out. All the sunflowers were turned toward the rising sun. The sense of outburst in the air was unmistakable, at the same time a sense of distillation. The seeds had all formed and were about to go their ways from the mother plant. My heart was indescribably full of the simultaneous experience of dying and bearing forth, of levity, of the oracle's message of Decrease and Deliverance, of ... growth through time, and the ultimate release of ... perfected powers through "death" - and all because of sunflowers.   

   

​And, I would add, old doctors and monks.   

  

Blessings on your journey.  ​

    

   

Psalm 51

"Create a pure heart for me, O God; 

renew a steadfast spirit within me. 

Do not cast me away from your presence:

take not your holy spirit from me. 

 

Restore in me the joy of your salvation: 

maintain in me a willing spirit. 

I will teach transgressors your ways, 

that sinners may return to you.    

  

For in sacrifice you take no delight; 

burnt offerings from me would not please you. 

My sacrifice to God, a broken spirit; 

a broken and humbled heart, 

you will not spurn, O God."

Psalm 51:12-19  

Ecumenical Grail Psalter   

   

Abba Poeman is one of the more well known desert fathers. Brother Victor tells us that August 27 marks the commemoration of Poeman the Shepherd, and in his entry he includes several of Abba Poeman's wisdom sayings. The one I am including here I edited for inclusive language.  

 

Abba Poeman said, "If someone has sinned and denies it, saying 'I have not sinned,' do not reprimand; for that will discourage. Instead say, 'Do not lose heart, but in the future be on guard.' Thus, you will stir the soul to repentance."  

 

Wisdom voices are difficult to hear these days, but the same was true in the time of the desert abbas and ammas, and certainly in the time of Benedict when the Roman empire was crumbling. Thus, they retreated so they could hear God's voice more clearly. Let us all take time to sit with God. We must refuse to be molded by language spoken to belittle, discourage, condemn, confuse, distract, and cover up. That is not the path of Christ and should not be the voice of any nation.