How silent, how still the cold crisp air
As snow, newly fallen gently caresses my uplifted face
And I cease all thought to simply
Drink in, in the silence of this night, the wonder
Of your unconditional love, O God, your unfailing presence.

As I tread through newly fallen, untouched snow,
Gaze at trees now barren yet bravely standing
Tall, unwilling to let winter have its way
Providing shelter to nestling squirrels, winter birds,
While still holding the promise of rebirth within their snow laden branches.
Winter, winter, how beautiful your stillness, your silence,
O God, as we leave behind a year filled with blessings:
Joys and sorrows, unfulfilled hopes and dreams;
We welcome this new year with joy and with anticipation
That your will be done on earth as in heaven,
That all who hunger may be filled,
That all who have nowhere to lay their head may find shelter
That all who live in fear may be reassured, may know your justice and mercy;
That all who live in pain may be held in the palm of your hand and know your love;
And lastly, O God, I pray that I might be a part of it all.

Amen

        

On a cold winter day I received an email that was vibrating with enthusiasm. The email was sent with an attached photo of a mute swan painted upon a harp named "Grace" from California. Sarah Schwartz is a certified therapeutic harpist and cellist. She and her harp partner, Melanie Brown, play beautiful, soothing music for patients, staff and visitors at Marymount and Medina Hospitals and Holy Family Hospice here in NE Ohio. As a performing duo, they are known as "Vessel Of Light". Melanie and Sarah see the harp as this vessel, and also every person that they play for. They are graduates of the International Harp Therapy Program based at the Hospice of San Diego and also graduates of the Sacred Art of Living and Dying Program under the direction of Richard Groves of Bend, OR.

 

Sarah had come across one of the ministry prayer cards and wrote to tell me about her work with Melanie: which is to bring the sound of hope, peace, beauty, and love to people in hospice and hospital settings.  Both St. Francis and Mother Theresa are two people whose lives, words and deeds inspired their desire to serve people through the healing power of sound on an instrument that unites the spiritual realm with the physical:  "On Earth As It Is In Heaven"  as they tell their listeners.   

 

Sarah related a story to me from the mid 90's when she was a hospice volunteer. One day she was having lunch with an elderly female patient who lived on a farm. As they broke bread together, Sarah suddenly saw in her mind's eye a forested pool.  Into it glided a beautiful swan who then lifted its wings heavenward. Her husband, a Lutheran pastor, 

commented to her when she arrived home, that perhaps she had seen the patient's soul, for that is what the patient had been sharing with her. To outward appearances this woman had lived a hard life without many worldly comforts.  Yet Sarah was struck by the beauty that was hidden beneath the outer covering. People are not always what they appear to be. She thought of the words of Jesus, "As you do this to the least of these, my brethren, you do it unto Me." Shortly thereafter the patient completed her earthy life and died.

 

On a bitterly cold day I met Sarah and Melanie and as they shared their story. I was deeply touched to learn of this unique and compassionate ministry. We all have grown children and are fair-haired, but these two women belied their age as they glowed with radiant beauty. I felt I had met two angels. They feel they are quite human and understand it is the power the instrument carries that causes people to project an image of angels upon them.The harp is deeply rooted in the human psyche, 5,500 years old and originated in Africa. It was played for the Pharaohs Egypt and from there traveled to the Hebrews and the Greeks. They feel blessed to be able to carry the sound of peace and beauty to people in physical, emotional and spiritual pain. Beauty is healing. 

 

You can read more about Harp Therapy, stories and quotes from those who have experienced it and purchase their harp CDs at their web site:  www.HarpVesselOfLight.com

 

Our 'hope and healing' ministry will also include a CD of their soothing harp music in our gift baskets for cancer patients in 2010.  

        

You Lord are Love.

Teach me how to love whom my heart loves.

Show me how to trust the embrace of Your mysterious ways,

In a faith that moves mountains,

In a vision that sees the beauty of love.

Let me hear Your voice in the silence,

for Your voice is sweet and You are lovely.

 

The winter is past, the rains are over and gone.

Harden not my heart.

Let love grow in humble soil,

Sowing the seeds of patience and kindness.

Prune any envy or boastfulness, arrogance or rudeness within me.

Allow love to grow without insistence on my own way, without irritableness or resentment.

Your love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but always rejoices in the sunlight of truth.

It is with You God that love bears all things, believes in all things,

hopes for impossible things and endure all things.

 

Flourish my garden with faith, hope and love as a lily among thorns;

the fragrant bloom is always Your abiding love.

Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved.

Amen

(Based on Song of Songs and 1 Corinthians 13 Scripture)

 

        

Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life by Abbot Christopher Jamison

In May, 2005, BBC TV first aired a series entitled, “The Monastery.”  It followed the day-to-day challenges of five ordinary men living among the monks of Worth Abbey, England. 

 

For forty days and forty nights, the men exchanged their commonplace day-to-day lives for St. Benedict’s sixth century Monastic Rule.  Viewers were surprised to discover that the cloistered monks were very practiced in responding to contemporary needs, not in spite of their Benedictine spirituality, but because of it.         

 

Abbot Jamison was asked to compile a book outlining Benedict’s Rule due largely to the great success of the television series.  Worth Abbey was overwhelmed with retreat requests and prayer inquiries.  This astounding interest confirmed for the Abbot that “our founder, St. Benedict, still has lots to say to people today.”    

 

Finding Sanctuary expands on the prime Benedictine virtues of silence, obedience, and humility to include contemplation, community, spirituality, and hope.  Monastic life “reshaped the hearts and minds” of the five men.  They learned to speak to God from their hearts and ask His intent for their lives.  God’s answer came in their understanding to “profoundly listen.” 

 

Jamison explains, “Real delight in life comes from the acceptance of realities other than one’s own—the reality of the other person’s needs and the reality that some things should be accepted as they are.”  We are all invited to pray—speaking to God as friend—that we, too, will hear His invitation of love, peace, and sanctuary. 

 

Author’s bio:  Joanne Bennardo writes from Ohio.

        

Behold the Beauty of the Lord; Praying with Icons by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Henri Nouwen, in his gracious writing style, invites us to pray with him as he meditates on four of his favorite icons.  He begins by explaining the rudimentary difference between art, for art sake, and icons.  The latter are inspired through prayer, for prayer. 

 

This symbolic, yet artistic, form of preaching the gospels can be traced back to the fourth century. However, it was between the twelfth and sixteen centuries that iconography made its impact within Byzantine spirituality. 

 

As spiritual tour-guide, Nouwen divides this prayer companion book into four chapters, one for each icon.  There is also a convenient flip-out photo of each icon to view while reading.

 

Previous to praying before an icon, Nouwen urges us first to“listen” and then to “gaze.” Nouwen instructs, “The words in this book come from my own gazing at these icons.”  Through his “gaze,” he offers a bounty of suggestions in which the icons “will begin to speak of the unique way in which God has chosen to love you.” 

 

For example, in the icon, “The Savior of Zvenigorod,” Nouwen describes the symbolic relationship of color to theology.  Nouwen explains Jesus’ blue colored cloak to be representative of His humanity, inviting us to focus on His dual nature.  As human, He “warns us against our inclination to destroy,” but as divine, He embraces us with “love [that] is stronger.” 

 

Henry Nouwen’s observations affirm God’s message of love and compassion for His children—manifest through Nouwen’s gifted words and the beauty of the ancient icons.             

 

Author’s bio:  Joanne Bennardo writes from Ohio.

        

Health and healing-Right now our ministry prayer cards are at two of the Cleveland Clinic Hospitals in the Cleveland area and we hope to have them downtown this year. The cards are given to patients and their families, and health care providers --offering spiritual comfort and beauty during difficult times. At the end of the year we will expand our ministry Christmas baskets to about fifty or more baskets as part of the "Myriam Project" for a friend's mother who has cancer.  We also will be working with a beautiful young woman and school teacher, Francesca DiFiore, who helped out this year with a financial contribution and a special delivery of a basket. This year she will be an even bigger part of the project as we begin preparing the baskets in the fall, and she remembers her mother, Debbie DiFiore, who died from breast cancer.

Prison Ministry-We began the donation of Christmas cards and mother's day cards at the end of 2008, with a miraculous story of forgiveness working in my life and a letter from Sing Sing Prison on the same day. Padre Ron has been instrumental in getting those cards out to the prisoners to send home to their families. The project not only places God's beauty in a place devoid of beauty, but gives the prisoners an opportunity to write home to their loved ones touching hurting family members who suffer shame and loneliness when a loved one is incarcerated. This project will be expanded to a second prison Padre Ron ministers at in New York.

Religious Education-Retreats and workshops on discovering God's beauty in places of darkness of suffering is an important part of our outreach. Last November I gave a3 day retreat in Kentucky and I was truly the one blessed by the wonderful participants that attended. 2010 will include speaking in California, Kentucky, Ohio and (hopefully) Texas to religious communities, civic groups, schools, and retreat centers.Please check our web site if you are interested in a speaker for your next occasion. A stipend to the ministry is requested.

Prayers-This is perhaps the heart of this ministry. Thanks to Lynn's idea and expertise we began our prayer request site in 2009.We currently have 12 volunteers who prayer for the requests coming in.  If you have a prayer request let us know and you will be put on our prayer request site. If you can volunteer to pray daily for the requests please let us know. Gift cards along with a prayer card will also be available this year, to be sent out from our ministry in your name.

        

My sister went out to California to see my Dad on Christmas. She called me after Christmas chatting on her cell phone outside in seventy degree weather. I answered from inside my igloo in Ohio, looking out at my deck with three feet of snow on the ground and more on the way. The heavy icicles that are hanging from our bending gutters all the way to the ground feel like my melting expectations of the holidays.

Missed connections, a harsh comment instead of kindness, silence instead of communication, judgment instead of compassion, anxiety instead of security, I watched and I waited and as I put away the Christmas ornaments this year I couldn't seem to shake the lingering disappointment and sadness. It was not the kind of disappointment I had when I was kid, the let down after all the excitement and fun, it was of a different kind. I have been thinking about the word 'disappointments' which the dictionary defines as an emotional reaction to unmet expectations.

The definition reminded me of a quote by Father Richard Rohr I heard over twenty years ago. It went something along these lines, "Americans are the only ones who expect constant and instant happiness. We are the richest and most powerful country in the world and Americans expect life to make them happy all the time. They are let down by the smallest of difficulties. While in third world countries where survival for the basic necessities of life; food, water, shelter, safety leaves people happy when their most basic needs are met."  I am certainly one of those who have been richly blessed all of my life in that I do not go hungry or homeless and I do not live under a political regime. I was born in a country where I have lived my life with the privilege of great freedoms.

I asked myself, I asked God what my disappointment was about? Certainly I have much to be grateful for. All of my most basic needs are more than met, yet on an emotional level we all struggle for the basic necessities of knowing we are loved, knowing we matter, being heard, having dreams and hope, knowing our life has meaning.

I married into a large family with communication so vastly different than my family of origin that the comparison of California's seventy degrees and Ohio's three feet of snow probably is a pretty good analogy. The landscape of two vastly different terrains of family have challenged me in unexpected ways. This Christmas I visited with many nieces and nephews--most of them now young adults. I watch their struggles as they each attempt to carve out their way in the world. Church, prayer, faith are not a part of their world, but a daily part of my prayers for all fifteen of them. Like all families, there are difficulties and heartaches. Yet with the blessings of good health, education and youth I had expected less heartache, more joy. I floundered with disppointment.

I expected to connect better, but felt rendered mute. I expected to celebrate, but was left grieving. I expected to be better than I was, but saw clearly my own inadequacies. I expected to energetically engage in the festivities, yet I was tired. And dare I say it, I expected God to shine His beauty, His strength, His power, boldly and brilliantly at Christmas time. Where was God's wisdom, brilliance and beauty in my family, in my community, in the world? Where was He hiding this Christmas?

Then I went to Midnight Mass. At the front of the church there was a lowly manager with the Christ child, reminding me again of the way in which God had come into this world. In every way I am sure He was disppointed with the lot of humanity and the welcome He received. He came humbly, quietly, in silent vulnerability.

Late last night, unable to sleep I read a chapter in Ronald Rolheiser's book, "A Holy Longing". In a page that seemed to be written for me, speaking directly to all the disappointment of Christmas and the disappointments of life for each of us the words rang out in beautiful peals of truth and presence. I closed the book and wept. I did not weep with disappointment, but with gratitude. God's beauty is shining out in the impossible circumstances of each of our lives. It is these very moments that Christ is born again in each of our hearts....

"God's power does not overpower anyone or anything. It lies muted, at the deep moral and spiritual base of things. It does not overpower with muscle, or attractiveness, or brilliance, or grace, as does the speed and muscle of an Olympic athlete, the physical beauty of a young film star, or the gifted speech or rhetoric of the brilliant orator or author. These latter things--muscle, swiftness, beauty, brilliance, grace--reflect God's glory, but they are not the primary way God shows power in this world. God's power in the world has a very different look and a very different feel to it.

What does God's power look like? How does it feel to feel as God in this world?

If you have ever been overpowered physically and been helpless in that, if you have ever been hit or slapped by someone and  been powerless to defend yourself or fight back, then you felt how God feels in this world. If you have ever dreamed a dream and found that every effort you made was hopeless and that your dream could never be realized, if you have cried tears and felt shame at your own inadequacy, then you have felt how God feels in this world.

If you have ever been shamed in your enthusiasm and not given a chance to explain yourself, if you have ever been cursed for your goodness by people who misunderstood you and were powerless to make them see things in your way, then you have felt how God feels in this world.

If you have ever tied to make yourself attractive to someone and were incapable of it, if you have ever loved someone and wanted desperately to somehow make him or her notice you and found yourself hopelessly unable to do so, then you have felt how God feels in this world.

If you have ever felt yourself aging and losing both the health and tautness of a young body and the opportunities that come with that and been powerless to turn back the clock, if you have ever felt the world slipping away from you as you grow older and ever more marginalized, then you have felt how God feels in this world. ..

God never overpowers. God's power in this world is never the power of a muscle, speed, a physical attractiveness, a billiance, or a grace which blows you away and make you shout; "Yes! Yes! There is a God." The world's power tries to work that way. God's power though is more muted, more helpless, more shamed, and more marginalized. But it lies at a deeper level, at the ultimate base of things, and will, in the end, gently have the final say."*

Yes God will gently and powerfully have the final say in His muted, brilliant, gentle power and beauty.

       

*Rolheiser, Ronald. The Holy Longing: The Serach for A Christian Spirituality (Doubleday, 1999), p. 186-7.

        

Father James Behrens is a Trappist monk at Holy Spirit Monastery in Conyers, Georgia. He is also an author and photographer. His writings on simple ordinary events of life reflect God's unfailing love and beauty in our lives.

 

Richie in the Gas Station 
 

We are nearing the Feast of the Epiphany, a feast with a beautiful and moving story with rich symbolism. It is the story of the Magi. They move across desert sands. A Star moves above them. The Star settles over Bethlehem and the Magi are moved to worship the Child Jesus and offer Him precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Herod the King is moved by jealousy and fear and summons the Magi, who are moved by an angel to make no mention of the Child, and to move out of the area as soon as possible. They recede back to where they came from, never to be heard from again across their own sands or the sands of time. 

There is lots of movement in the story. And right up to this very day, we too look for movements in out lives to give us some assurance that we are heading in the right direction, toward God, toward what is really good. 

It is not always easy to find. The stars above twinkle in their stillness. An occasional shiny tiny thing makes its way across the night sky, but those things are satellites, some of which beam movies. There are shooting stars and the occasional comet, but we know what they are as they streak across the night sky. They are not meant to be followed. They vanish real fast and we are left looking about us for guidance. Anne Landers is in heaven. Tarot readings may cost more than we can afford in these hard economic times. People normally do not read animal entrails anymore. Astrology may have suffered a major setback with Nancy Reagan and her starry-eyed celestial readings. Palm readings, fortune telling, tea leaf readings, Ouija boards and the like are all out there but I have never heard of anyone who beat the odds in Vegas by checking out tea leaves or seeking the future on their palms. 

I was thinking about these things this morning. It was very early and I was sitting in the back of the church in the darkness. To my left was our big Christmas crèche, surrounded by little lights. The Kings are on their way….the statues will be placed there when the Kings are carried tenderly from one of our storage rooms to their special places near the manger.

I was thinking about how stars do not move anymore and yet how we yearn for what the Kings found and how they found it (Him). 

Are we to be left bereft of whatever sure goodness lay ahead? We have, in Mr.Bob Dylan’s words, and the Martin Scorsese documentary “No Direction Home” yet we have to move ahead somehow. What is that song by U2? Something like “And I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” I have seen the video. Since then, they have found millions of dollars and fans. Maybe they cannot write a song like that anymore. 

Anyway, if the lights of the stars cannot be trusted to move us along, we have to look somewhere and maybe that is what the story of the Magi is really all about. In short, the Child they adored had already gifted them with the very love within them, but of course they did not know that yet. It would take smart theologians to figure it out and the Kings were already under the sands by then.But it takes time to figure things out. Especially things that have to do with human destiny and the divine movements within its flesh and blood framework. 
So, we are left to look about us and I think that is the right place to look.Stars above have given way to stars below. And there are many of them. 

I must give George H. W. Bush his due here. 

"I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. I will go to the people and the programs that are the brighter points of light,and I will ask every member of my government to become involved. The old ideas are new again because they are not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice,commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in." —George H. W. Bush, 1988 

There. 

Richie owned a gas station. I met him many years ago, through a friend of mine who was a friend of his. My friend’s name is Frank. One day Franks said to me “Let’s go see Richie” and we drove to the gas station, parked the car on the street and walked into the gas station office. Richie sat behind the desk and smiled at me and rose and shook my hand in a warm welcoming way and then sat down. We chatted about all kinds of things – for he was very, very easy to chat with. And he was funny….had some of the best one-liners which I ever heard but which are unprintable here.

 
After a while I noticed something. Richie sat there and we chatted away for over an hour and during all that time the only time he left his chair was to get us coffee. There was a kid he had hired who pumped the gas when customers drove in. And now that I think of it, New Jersey is the only state in the United States where there are no self-serve gas stations. You have to be attended, or tended to, waited upon. And that kid did that many times while Richie entertained us with one story after another. I asked my friend much later if Richie ever really worked and my friend said no…he pays the kid to pump the gas and sits there all day chatting with friends and giving them free coffee. I did find out later that he will work on certain cars for free….but he did not advertise that. 

He was a real nice guy and a very kind one. He stands out for me when I think back on my past and people who have lit the way for me. His goodness was attractive and attracting…there was a daily parade of fans and friends who found their way to that small office and whiled away the hours. 

The Epiphany nears and the Kings will make their way up from our basement, with the kindness of human help. And they will find their right and proper place, with the kindness of human help. They are quite portable and move easily, unlike their long ago true life forebears.

 

Desert crossing is tough, star or no star. 

I will look at them week and, in a sense, they will be looking back at me across the, uh, sands of time.. Maybe Richie will come to mind again. A star that burned bright and even served free coffee. The Kings will offer fabulous gifts to the Child and the Child will offer even more fabulous gifts to them….the gifts of human kindness, love, hope and the capacity to offer these to each other every day and night of our lives. It makes the crossing wondrously easy, all these stars that have traveled from afar and come to rest below, one of which is sitting in a gas station waiting for his friends to come. 
 
-- James Stephen Behrens, O.C.S.O. 
Monastery of the Holy Spirit 

        

"God Knows Grandparents Make a Difference" by Priscilla J. Herbison & Cynthia Herbison, a wonderful book is one in the series of “God Knows”publications.  Companion themes encompass everyday roles from parenting and marriage to care-giving and grieving.  It is often said that if we live long enough,we will wear a variety of hats. 

 

In reading the titles of the “God Knows” series, I identify as wife and mother.  But I have also been a care-giver and a grieving daughter. All these roles have been blessings from which I have experienced God’s love, mercy, and healing, but I acknowledge my hat as grandmother as one of my favorites. 

 

I know I’m not alone. A few weeks ago, I witnessed a grandmother and her young grand-daughters playfully dancing in the aisles of a local drugstore.  Similarly, last summer at a family gathering,I, as “Princess Grandma,” was the one wearing the paper crown.  Grandparents, who have the opportunity to share in the ordinary day-to-day fun, are whimsically unabashed; openly celebrating the glory of God.

 

However, the reality for many grandparents is much different.  Possibly, they find it necessary to parent their grandchildren. Maybe, their grandchildren have special needs.  Perhaps, divorce or geography separate them from their grandchildren. 

 

The authors delve into these realities, as well.  They offer faith-filled counsel to nourish grandchildren in God’s love.  God’s blessing of a family’s next generation calls us to surrender into God’s presence of the moment.  In His divine presence, we are graced to love—often, without understanding. 

              

Author’s bio:  Joanne Bennardo writes from Ohio where she and Granddad anticipate the Christmas twinkle in the eyes of Katie and Emily.  Praise God.  

        

Henri Nouwen was a Dutch priest and prolific writer who died in 1996.  His humble writing style has been inviting and inspiring spiritual journeyers for decades. 

 

I count 'With Open Hands' by Henri J.M. Nouwen as one of God’s blessings needed as much today as when it was first printed in 1972.  News concerning vitally needed health care reform, set within a crumbling economic climate, complicated by additional massive troops deployed to Afghanistan, only speaks of some of the darkened aspects of today’s culture. 

 

What is a Christian’s role in the daily turmoil and chaos?

 

Nouwen leads us to the answer: a fruitful prayer life, one that fully embraces the needs of our world.  First,he asks if we pray with “clenched fists.” He explains that God welcomes our “hate, bitterness and disappointment,”if that is what we are honestly feeling. This authenticity leads to the indwelling peace of God where we accept who we are—with all our past hurts and future goals—freely able to surrender“with open hands.” 

 

No longer are we motivated to “defend” our lives, but to receive ourselves as “gifts.”  Though the outside world remains a mire of challenges, God, “in the center of our lives,”provides a new perspective of hope. 

 

Henry Nouwen, like the Old Testament prophets, reminds us to pray to our loving Father, “the source of all life.”  In prayer, we plead for direction, not stumble in the “shame of our weakness.”  Through prayer, God’s presence unfolds in the “turmoil of the world, in the distress and joy of our neighbors, and in the loneliness of our own hearts.” 

              

Book Review by Joanne Bennardo