parousia to wait with patience in hope by faith in the return of the One who is and was and is to come
is to look beyond our toil and pain throbbing with anticipatory, nervous restlessness aching emptiness and frigid darkness vibrating with primordial Spirit the essence of our very being woven together tenderly with delight
https://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/marek-piwnicki-6R4_-gYdS8k-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg16002560Selah Centerhttps://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SELAH_FINAL.pngSelah Center2022-12-22 04:00:002023-02-10 14:28:05Advent Day 26
…Learning to trust what emerges, So that gradually You may come to know That deep in that black hole You will find the blue flower That holds the mystical light Which will illuminate in you….
John O’Donohue A Blessing for Loneliness
About thirty years ago, a new tradition began at Christmas time. In the Western Hemisphere, the night of the Winter Solstice, Blue Christmas becomes a time to honor the sadness that accompanies the season. On this day, we acknowledge those who no longer celebrate the Christmas season with us in person. Entering into a ritual of quietness, we light candles in remembrance. It’s a time to grieve amid celebration for the season.
This year, Blue Christmas touches close to my heart. Several deaths in the last few months have impacted me, most significantly a dear friend of thirty-two years and my mother-in-law of my late husband. I celebrate this Christmas without them, and it’s not easy to do so. While I can still enter the joy of the season, my heart is heavy with grief upon grief. This realization holds my attention nearly every day. Tears well up from deep inside.
I use the word “honor” in sadness purposefully. Sadness does not take away the joy from the season. Just as Mary and Joseph experienced joy and sorrow on their journey, from hearing from the angels, trying to find a place to stay for the night, and giving birth to baby Jesus. Holding both is a paradox. And I am reminded there is sadness and joy in the life story. I want to make a note of this reality and honor it.
The poem by John O’Donohue, A Blessing for Loneliness, invites me into what the darkness of grief and sadness offers. Ending with the “blue flower” in this blessing, he captures my imagination with mystical allure. In Romantic poetry, the blue flower symbolizes the artistic and emotional striving for the infinite. Connecting to Blue Christmas, I remember my longing for the infinite, even amid my sadness. Can I trust that what emerges, whether in the grief or the joy of the season, will be a gift from God? I find solace in knowing the pain I feel is equal to my love for those I miss. And could it be, from the darkness, I might know light?
This is the hope of the season and our lives; a light has been brought into the world. I celebrate the light while honoring the darkness. My prayer on the longest night of the year is to continue to learn what it means to trust God in whatever happens, whether sadness or joy.
https://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/laura-hope-ZEno6N9U08k-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg17072560Mary Pandianihttps://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SELAH_FINAL.pngMary Pandiani2022-12-21 04:00:002023-02-10 14:31:55Advent Day 25
I understand the waiting of Advent, the wanting, the waning hope. Aching for justice, mercy, and love while experiencing division, judgment, and hate. We pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” like the Jews of Mary’s time praying for the Messiah. We pray and wait for the powerful and mighty to save us. Who would have thought that God would deliver the Messiah not from the mountaintop but from inside a human? That was unexpected.
Now, we have this annual practice of the whole church waiting expectantly for Jesus to come from inside Mary during the Advent season. Candles and choirs and scripture readings. But back then, most people didn’t know the Messiah was coming so soon. They had work and oppression and Laws on their mind. They had hope for the Messiah in the same way we do. Perhaps thy kingdom come, someday, later, in the future. But today, we have work to do, battles to fight, and morality to uphold and defend.
Mary was another teenager who got pregnant before marriage. I imagine she was shunned and judged and deemed less than. Few suspected the Spirit had entered her, that Jesus was alive within her. How might the conversations, the interactions have changed if the neighbors had known that God was so near?
I recently created art with a teenage girl, an amazing artist. She was kind, inquisitive, protective, and she made me laugh. She was also a six-year veteran of the juvenile justice system. And pregnant. I imagine she is shunned, judged, and deemed less than. I can hear the neighbors discussing virtue and choices and patterns of behavior. What if we knew the Holy Spirit was living inside her? What if we believed Jesus was alive within her? Would our conversations and interactions change with God so near?
Would we travel great distances and bring the child gifts? Do we?
What if, in all our conversations and interactions, we behaved as if we believed God was alive in each of us? What if we kept the Law and loved one another?
Anyway. I understand the waiting. The wanting. The waning hope.
Let’s surprise everyone with God’s Love delivered once more from inside a human. You. Me. Thy Kingdom Come.
https://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/alexander-grey-W7cPLHOa0eQ-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg17072560Selah Centerhttps://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SELAH_FINAL.pngSelah Center2022-12-20 04:00:002023-02-10 14:42:53Advent Day 24
By John Kiemele, The Rolling Ridge Retreat Center and the Selah community
Light streaks across galaxies, time and skies
Eyes blink, feet stop, hearts squint
Light squeezes through shadows in slivers and shards
Knots unravel, twists unwind, turns unbend
Light bursts through and holds her face
Pains pause, injustice sighs, tensions fade
Light cries joy and goodness and enduring peace
Gentleness clears her throat, forgiveness reaches, wisdom shimmers
Light from the stars draws light through all scars
Darkness shudders, dreams widen, love winks
Light comes on purpose
Light creates lift
Light renews life breath by breath
beat by beat
hope upon hope
Editor’s Note: John Kiemele founded the Selah Center in 2006 and served as its Executive Director until 2018, when he moved with his wife, Marissa, to live in New Hampshire. John is the program director at the Rolling Ridge Retreat Center in North Andover, Massachusetts. Marissa continues to practice medicine. Selah Center is part of a growing international movement centered around contemplative living. DRB
https://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1364px-Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg10801364John Kiemelehttps://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SELAH_FINAL.pngJohn Kiemele2022-12-06 04:00:002022-12-10 23:17:24Advent Day 10
O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth Long lay the world in sin and error pining ‘Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn Fall on your knees; O hear the Angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born O night, O Holy night, O night divine!
Soul Felt Its Worth
By Sandy Shipman, Selah Companion
She struggles with perfection, wants every detail just so. It sounds like criticism. The counselor says to love.
Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
Anxiety fills his mind. Overwhelms. He lashes out. The counselor says to love.
Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
She wants answers. Clarity. Solutions. Fix it! The counselor says to love.
Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
He wants peace and retreat. Life interrupts. He withdraws. The counselor says to love.
Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
She wants obedience. Conformity. Goodness. The counselor says to love.
Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
He wants respect, honor, legacy. The counselor says to love.
Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
She wants, he wants, they want, yearn, ache, grasp, fight, flail. The counselor says to love.
Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
https://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/benjamin-voros-u-kty6hxcqc-unsplash-1.jpg427640Selah Centerhttps://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SELAH_FINAL.pngSelah Center2022-12-05 04:00:002022-12-04 21:02:26Advent Day 9
ON THIS SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT, we light the candle of peace. A state of being that means tranquility, mental calm, and serenity. We bring our request before God in asking for peace, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. Christmas is typically a time of celebration and joyous expectations.
Anticipating the Christ
By DeboraBuerk Editor, Here & Now & Selah Companion
Advent.
[ˈadˌvent] (noun).
Old English, from the Latin
adventus ‘arrival’
and from advenire,
from ad- ‘to’ + venire ‘come’.
Synonyms: arrival, birth, approach, nearing.
For Christians, Advent is a time spent preparing for Christmas. For many of us, this can include decorating our homes, putting up a Christmas tree, creating an Advent calendar, writing Christmas cards, gathering with family and friends for dinner, and giving gifts.
The word Advent originates in Old English from the Latin word “adventus,” or “coming”—the arrival of God in human form, umbilical cord, and all.
While some are tempted to think of Christmas as an event to be observed at the end of the calendar year, they would miss the origin and meaning of Advent.
We don’t know when the period of preparation for Christmas, now called Advent, began. It existed from about 480, with the Council of Tours in 567. What we know and celebrate is a time of preparation for Christmas Day, when we celebrate the birth or beginning of the Christian liturgical year.
Advent anticipates the “coming of Christ” from three different perspectives:
The physical Nativity in Bethlehem
The reception of Christ in the heart of the believer
The eschatological second coming
This third meaning, I believe, was the focus of the early church—to wait for Christ’s second coming. This, however, has become downplayed among today’s Christians.
What if our focus
was to shift to waiting
for Christ’s
second coming?
What if our focus shifted to waiting, anticipating, and preparing for the King’s return to earth, the defeat of Satan and sin, and peace on earth? Now that would be something to anticipate and celebrate.
So this Advent season, as you decorate for Christmas, sing the carols, and light the advent wreath, try to anticipate—look forward to Christ’s return and, with it, peace on earth. What if we wished each other a “Blessed Advent” as a prelude to “Merry Christmas?”
In doing so, we can simultaneously give and receive the love of God to each other—as we anticipate and draw near his birth.
I wish you a joy-filled Advent for all of us in the growing Selah community.
https://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/here-now-for-advent-christmas-header-3.png5001500Debora Buerkhttps://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SELAH_FINAL.pngDebora Buerk2022-12-04 04:00:002023-02-09 04:39:48Second Week of Advent
Pauses hold possibilities, hope, healing, and perspective. Encounters engage all of who we are with the one who created us. Growth happens in love which moves us towards wholeness through the freedom of God’s abiding presence.
This is the invitation Selah offers through its unique charism—the gift given to others—the pause, the encounter, and growing together. Our intention statement below reflects the space from what is to what can be, a new moment, pregnant with the power of the Spirit who imbues life, abundant life:
Selah is a welcoming community
that PAUSES,
ENCOUNTERS the Spirit through
contemplative practices, and
GROWS TOGETHER toward wholeness
and loving others.
Our name, Selah, is birthed out of noticing the value of pausing before responding. From the Hebrew Psalms and Old Testament books, Selah means to lift up within a song of praise and in times of lament. It gives space between one stanza and another to offer breath amidst what is given.
By being a “welcoming community,” we reflect the value of hospitality that welcomes those who want to come to the table of what we offer and who we are. These values reinforce that we believe all belong to God, and as a community, we hope to accompany those who want to know God in deeper and more meaningful ways.
For the verbs, we choose “pause,” “encounter,” and “grow together”—verbs that sustain our priorities of what it means to be part of Selah.
Pause.
Encounter.
Grow Together.
Pausing offers the opportunity to be present to those around us, to ourselves, and God.
Encountering means that God is already present in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, along with the ongoing work of the Spirit, who is the Divine presence. Through spiritual practices, we find the necessary scaffolding to prepare our hearts, minds, and bodies for God’s presence.
The pausing, the practicing, and the awareness that comes with contemplation flourish in places where we gather with others to share in the presence of God. Our hope through pausing, encountering, and growingtogether leads us to greater wholeness and loving others.
This contemplative life is not meant for ourselves alone. In the fullness of God’s loving embrace, we can extend ourselves in uncomfortable and challenging places, knowing that the stretching and risking lead to healing for wholeness, reflecting in the person God has created us to be.
Through this intention, we listen for God’s invitation to this place of wholeness and loving others. Knowing that it is not by our efforts, we live into God’s embracing love and grace that beckon us into deeper places of community with one another, ourselves, and God. In a world of rhetoric and noise, a place of speed that over-speaks and interrupts, a society that wants certainty without its gift of mystery, Selah offers a posture of listening through the pause, encounter, and growth.
And yet…waiting is at the heart of this season called Advent. We anticipate the joy of once again celebrating the Light that has come into the world. Receiving that good news with joy requires preparation. Advent allows us to join others and God while we wait and prepare. In the waiting, can we also be alert to the wondrous light that seeks to shine through every ordinary moment? Advent is a time to pay careful attention to that gift of Light.
https://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/phil-hearing-ctq8qzfbqrs-unsplash-2-1-scaled.jpg25601707Mary Pandianihttps://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SELAH_FINAL.pngMary Pandiani2022-12-03 04:00:002022-11-28 16:50:21Advent Day 7
The value of intentionally approaching the season with a prayerful heart lays a foundation for encountering God in the mystery of the birth of God’s son, Jesus Christ.
Rather than falling prey to the frenzied expectations of gift giving and holiday gatherings that lose the meaning of Christmas, take this day to sit before the Holy One in quietness and rest. Whether in centering prayer or journaling or any combination of spiritual practices, the time spent with God opens you up to enter into the season with a centered heart.
Starting with a community who agrees to accompany one another on this quiet day, you’ll be given some tools to use as you want. Then for four hours, you can stay on Zoom in the silent presence of others or rejoin us for the closing time. We will end our time together by sharing how we intend to move into the Advent season
https://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/annie-spratt-GU7x7X1N48c-unsplash-4-scaled.jpg25601708Selah Centerhttps://selahcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SELAH_FINAL.pngSelah Center2022-11-26 04:57:182023-02-10 15:18:15Not Only for Christmas
