O God, enlarge my heart

Savior is Born by Estonian artist Ain Vares

Diane posted a prayer at Faith in Community that I cannot resist sharing here:

Advent Prayer
O God:
Enlarge my heart
that it may be big enough to receive the greatness of your love.
Stretch my heart
that it may take into it all those who with me around the world
believe in Jesus Christ.
Stretch it
that it may take into all those who do not know him,
but who are my responsibility because I know him.
And stretch it
that it may take in all those who are not lovely in my eyes,
and whose hands I do not want to touch;
through Jesus Christ, my savior. Amen

Prayer of an African Christian
With All God's People, World Council of Churches, 1989
From the book Bread of Tomorrow, ed. Janet Morley, Orbis Books 1992


It puts me in mind of that glorious passage in Isaiah:
Sing, O barren one who did not bear;
burst into song and shout,
you who have not been in labor!
For the children of the desolate woman
will be more than the children
of her that is married,
says the Lord.
Enlarge the site of your tent,
and let the curtains of your habitations
be stretched out;
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread out
to the right and to the left,
and your descendants will possess the nations
and will settle the desolate towns.
(Isaiah 54:1-3)

Our hearts, our dreams, our visions, our hopes are all so small. God calls us to enlarge them all, to make room for the new, to make room for more.

The Theotokos is called Platytera, More Spacious [than the heavens], because she contained in her womb the Creator of all things. We too are called to be God-bearers as Christ dwells also in and among us.

There is so much enlarging to be done.

From Pepper Marts came this prayer to point us beyond Tuesday:

The Work of Christmas


When the star in the sky is gone,
When the Kings and Princes are home,
When the shepherds
are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins -
To find the lost
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner
To teach the nations
To bring Christ to all
To make music in the heart.

-- Howard Thurman

Be kind to yourselves these last few days before the Feast of the Incarnation.

Keep space for God.

God will enlarge us; we need to say, "Yes."
--the BB

Sunday reflections – Advent 4

In 1960 Uruguayan Bishop Federico J. Pagura wrote a hymn: "Bendito el Rey que viene en el nombre del Señor." In 1973 Fred Pratt Green translated it. It may be found as Hymn # 74 in The Hymnal 1982, where it is set to the tune Valet will ich dir geben, aka St Theodulph, familiar to many who have sung it for years on Palm Sunday with the text "All glory, laud, and honor."

Blest be the King whose coming is in the name of God!
For him let doors be opened, no hearts against him barred!
Not robed in royal splendor, in power and pomp comes he:
but clad as are the poorest - such his humility.


Blest be the King whose coming is in the name of God!
By those who truly listen his voice is truly heard.
Pity the proud and haughty, who have not learned to heed
the Christ who is the promise and has our ransom paid.


Blest be the King whose coming is in the name of God!
He only to the humble reveals the face of God.
All power is his, all glory! All things are in his hand,
all ages and all peoples, till time itself shall end!


Blest be the King whose coming is in the name of God!
He offers to the burdened the rest and grace they need.
Gentle is he and humble! And light his yoke shall be,
for he would have us bear it so he can make us free.

--the BB

Sunday evening reflections

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
my God, I put my trust in you; *
let me not be humiliated,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
Let none who look to you be put to shame; *
Show me your ways, O LORD, *
and teach me your paths.

First Sunday of Advent, Year A
Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

As we enter this new year Advent bestows a listening space, a waiting space, an expectant space. Each day, from now until the winter solstice, takes us (in the northern hemisphere) deeper into the darkness. We should not fear this. Just as it was in profound stillness that Elijah heard God's voice, so in profound darkness we may come closer to the blinding glory and presence of God. Let us embrace the still time, the dark time, the waiting time with hearts attentive to the voice, the presence, the light of God. As we becalm ourselves, sit, wait... God can capture our attention afresh.

When that Voice speaks, let us attend to it. When that Light shines, let us walk in it. When that Presence makes itself known, let us rejoice and trust in it.

Ever and again we set out. We never, this side of glory, come to an end of beginnings. Now begins the Church year, the annual cycle of grace. Once more we step into the unknown, into God's future. We start over. And over. And over. Yet all our beginnings and endings, each step of our journey is in and through the one who is Alpha and Omega.

Let us then lift up our souls to God with fervent expectation, open and ready to receive grace upon grace.
--the BB

Image: Introit "Ad te levavi" from Gregorian Missal for Sundays (Solesmes, 1990) superimposed on an image of Christ enthroned (the image name is "ChristOttoIIIBig," suggesting a gospel book associated with HRE Otto III, but I could not locate the image again today in order to give credit).

At the end of the year

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

It is early evening, a cold and dark November evening, and at sunset the day after tomorrow one Church year will end and another begin.

The hinge of our years, the center of our days and nights, is the ineffable Word spoken into the void, the Light that darkness never understands and cannot overcome: Christ.

Since I have explicitly stated that this is a pagan-friendly site, one may assume my vision of the Christ is a cosmic one. This is also a Muslim-, Hindu-, Buddhist-, Taoist-, indigenous-friendly site as well. I have been formed in one tradition and I have questioned and redefined but never left it. Like a banyan tree, I may have grown from one root but have since put down others. I am nourished from many traditions, as the title of this blog indicates.

My own tradition is betrayed and distorted and misused. And which faith has not been? Yet I believe within it and live from it. I seek its deep truths, not its shallow betrayals. I hope to live from the heart of the Holy, not from some rabid sectarianism. So one need not feel excluded here if I speak from within my own conceptual framework.

I just want to share a little tale, one that has been mentioned here before.

In summer of 1997 I spent two weeks in Durham, living in the University dormitory that was once the Bishop's Castle, and walking across the Green to Durham Cathedral and the shrine of St Cuthbert and the tomb of the Venerable Bede. One day we met with the Cathedral Librarian. he took us to the Muniments Room where treasures are kept and allowed us to carry some of the manuscripts from the vault, through the cloister, and into the library. There we could examine them. Being the largest person in our group I carried the largest book, one that was in a wooden box. Mother Columba and I chanted the Te Deum because it seemed the thing to do processing through a cloister.

When I opened the box I saw a manuscript bound in white goatskin. I opened it. It was the Durham Gospels, one leaf of which is pictured here. I had seen photos. I knew what I held in my hands. This was a book from which the Holy Gospels had been proclaimed in the worship of the community at Lindisfarne, the Holy Isle. I felt a tangible link with that worship, those years of service, that bastion of holiness, that island of saints.

While websurfing today I came across this photo and wanted to share this with you.

Blonde and blue-eyed because depicted by Saxons, I am guessing. So long as we don't consider Saxons normative there is nothing wrong with this. I have written an icon of a Cambodian Christ who looks, well, like Buddha. We must not limit Jesus but we must also meet him in our own place and time. He takes flesh, as the Word has ever taken flesh, in our midst.

So this is my pre-Advent meditation. May the Word surprise you, startle you, exalt you, bless you, overturn you, raise you up again, and transform you. You never know what you may find as you turn a page.
--the BB