God of the watching ones, the waiting ones, the slow and suffering ones, give us your benediction, your good word for our souls, that we may rest.
- celtic advent blessing
this past saturday we entered into the season of “advent” in preparation for Christ’s birth. for those not as familiar with church-y terms, advent is the season of expectation, waiting, and hoping–all leading up to Christmas. this year at the refuge we will be following our advent tradition by using urban skye’s advent guide to bind this month together. this year the four weeks are focused on the celtic tradition; it’s called “thin places.” thin places are certain places where the distance between the human and the Divine feel particularly thin, where God feels near.
God touches us in all kinds of mysterious ways. one tangible way God’s spirit moves is through people–through the touch and love of an “anam cara”, which is the celtic word for “soul friend.” the passage this week from luke 1:39-45 focuses on mary, the mother of Jesus, and her interaction with her cousin elizabeth, who is the mother of john the baptist. they share a special bond, a connection. elizabeth validated mary in a moment she really needed it. the Bible doesn’t go into all the ins and outs of the relationship, but what rises is to the surface is that God touched mary through elizabeth.
this season is especially difficult for so many. lack of money, health, jobs, family are just a few of the reasons some dread this holiday. but here’s my hope for all of us–let’s intentionally strip away all of the man-made trappings of Christmas and focus not on what isn’t, but what is. to recall the beauty & mystery of the Jesus story–who came not as a powerful king but as a homeless baby in a dingy manger. that the “incarnation”–God made flesh–is real. available. now. through each other.
so this advent i hope we can cling to slivers of hope–the small, mysterious, sometimes almost imperceptible ways God is trying to show us love, hope, and peace in the midst of our circumstance. may we somehow experience a “thin place”–an intersection with God, an outburst of peace & hope, no matter how big or small.
and in the spirit of week one’s conversation, may we notice God speaking to us through people, through “anam caras”–soul friends. touching us through the unexpected phone call, the loving hug, prayers, the kind words, some tangible presence in a weird unexpected moment.
may we notice. may we let good in. may we receive. may we give. may we have hope.
i’ll close with the prayer that wrapped up our saturday evening together–it’s a friendship blessing written by john o’donohue:
may you blessed with good friends.
may you learn to be a good friend yourself.
may you be brought into the real passion, kinship, and affinity of belonging.may they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth, and light that you need for your journey. amen.
[...] at the refuge on saturday night, and you can read a little bit more about what we talked about on the refuge blog. and i also have a post up at communitas collective called let love be born in this place again [...]
i am currently traveling a difficult road with my close friend who is going through a very nasty divorce. we were talking at lunch today, post hearing, that in the last two years we have both bonded in a remarkable way.
it seems our place on this planet gets “thinned” during our most difficult times. God seems to have made us to more especially bond during our dark times ( think unwed mom in early jewish cutlure)
as always, thanks for leading us so well!
[...] read the 3 posts we have up at the refuge blog focused on the thin places – mine is called validation, jenny-silence (we did a really lovely indoor candle labryinth), and [...]