Brueggemann, Benedict: Christians living in the new year

Brueggemann, Benedict: Christians living in the new year

“The gift of Christmas contradicts everything we sense about our own life. Our world feels unsavable, and here is the baby named Jesus, ‘Save.’ Be ready to have your sense of the world contradicted by this gift from God.” Walter Brueggemann, Devotions for Advent, Celebrating Abundance, p. 67. Westminster John Knox Press 2017.

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We listen to the news. We become depressed. Every day something more terrible happens. We feel helpless, powerless. The gift of love, the gift of Christmas does bring hope.

I keep thinking about St. Benedict. The world is crashing all around him. Rome is being destroyed by Germanic invaders who have taken over his country. He tries to escape and become a hermit. It doesn’t work. He joins a community. He decides the community needs a new way to live together in love and consideration for others and develops The Rule of Benedict.

This of course is an over simplification of this part of history.

The beginning of the prologue to the rule is, Listen with the ear of your heart. This is the call I hear this Christmas season. We are being called to a more intentional living of the rule of Benedict in community.

I am presently beginning a review of the rule for a presentation for Community of Hope training and for Daughters of the King in the next few weeks. Community of Hope is a pastoral care program for non-ordained persons that is steeped in Benedictine Spirituality. The Daughters of the King are women in our congregation called to an intentional life of prayer. I give thanks to friends who decided on studying Benedictine spirituality in these two programs for the new year. They may think we are helping to train others. Maybe so, but in reality, we are all re-training in both of these programs for an intentional living in love and prayer in the coming new year.

Joanna. joannaseibert.com

Society of St. John: Offer Companionship on Tenth Day of Christmas

Society of St. John: the Evangelist: Offer Companionship on Tenth Day of Christmas

“As we approach the Christmas season, think of someone in your own life who is sad, or lonely, or hurting, and pledge to say or do something to help bring God’s healing love into their lives. Invite them for a coffee, or a meal. Pay them a visit. Phone them. Show them that they are not alone.” -Br. Geoffrey Tristram, “Brother Give Us a Word,” Daily Email, December 19, 2017, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, ssje.org

The Brothers of St. John the Evangelist offer us a reminder of gifts we have to offer for Christmas. There are 12 days of Christmas between Christmas Day and Epiphany on January 6. These should be slow down times for us where we can re-center. Many children are still out of school waiting for us to play with them. There is no better way to connect to the Christ born within us than connecting to the newly born Christ in children who have not developed any worldly masks of protection which also often hide Christ’s essence.

We all have neighbors and friends we have neglected because of our busyness. This is the time to offer to them our precious gift of time. Present with them is where the Christ Child has been born and is waiting to see us as well.

joanna. joannaseibert.com

Rohr: Blue Christmas

Rohr: Low Point, Blue Christmas

“At our low points, we are one step away from either enlightenment or despair. Without faith that there is a Bigger Pattern, and the grace to surrender to that Bigger Pattern, most people will move into despair, negativity, or cynicism. We need a promise, a hopeful direction, or it is very hard not to give up. When you have not yet learned what transformation feels or looks like, someone—perhaps some loving human or simply God’s own embrace—needs to hold you now because you cannot hold yourself. When we experience this radical holding, and even deep loving, this is salvation!”Richard Rohr

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, disc 10 (Franciscan Media: 2002), CD.

The holidays are often the hardest for those who have experienced the death of a loved one. Several congregations have Blue Christmas services to let them know that the church recognizes their loss.

I have been involved as a facilitator with an eight-week grief recovery group, Walking the Mourner’s Path for over fifteen years. Here we experience people near their lowest point after the death of child, a spouse, a parent, a brother, a sister, a partner. We do see despair, especially after tragic deaths, especially after the death of the young, but it always does change. Sometimes it is only a small transformation, sometimes it is huge. By just coming to the group, the participants have made a positive commitment to look for transformation, so they have already made a step forward in a new direction before they come. As facilitators, we are there to hold the group together, to encourage them, to listen to them, to hear them, to give them time to articulate where they are. We are vessels holding the group.

The healers are the participants themselves. They are the ones who know the most about despair. They are all at different stages of grief. They honor and embrace the each other’s place as well. They radically hold and support each other. They have been there maybe a year ago, maybe three months ago. They know the pain better than anyone else, and they can best talk about that road less traveled to recovery and resurrection, honoring the life of one they so loved. It is a privilege to be there seeing resurrection.

Each year I say less and less, for the wisdom comes from the group. This is just one more time that we see healing in community, and all we have to do is be present and look for and point out the God in each other.

This week I am having a Christmas and New Year’s lunch with a Mourner’s Path group who has still been meeting annually for over six years to continue to support and love each other especially during the holidays. They have seen Good Friday. They and I go this morning to hear their stories of incarnation and epiphany and resurrection.

Joanna. joannaseibert.com

Walking the Mourner’s Path Facilitator Training Trinity Episcopal Cathedral will host a two-day Walking the Mourner’s Path Facilitator Training workshop Feb. 28–March 1 for those who would like to lead groups. The early registration fee is $350 per person, or $250 each if two or more from the parish or organization attend. Contact the Rev. Deb Cooper at dcooper@trinitylittlerock.org or the Rev. Joanna Seibert at joannaseibert@me.com.