Tag: advent
A little bit of poetry… by Jocelyn
For those of you who were at the service this past Sunday, here is the text of the poem I read as part of the meditation; I wrote it as my final project for an arts course at my undergraduate university and just felt it fit well with this week’s theme of wandering, identity, and belonging…
Dirty, beautiful, strange, familiar
The city is the cocoon from which I emerged
A long time gone,
The prodigal son
Or daughter
Every city still feels like my own,
Still feels like my home
Prodigal not by my own decision
Every parting an incision
On the flesh of my heart
Too long gone I feel claustrophobic
Feel smothered
Like a child too long mothered
By an oppressive parent
The city, every city–my city–
Striking in its contrasts
Its rich, its poor, its ugly beautiful pasts
Its freedom, its oppression
All the cause of my obsession
I love each place
I can’t help having a taste
For all it has to offer
Every nation and race
Wish I had come of age
On this stage
With every turn of the page
With every turn of the corner
Crossing invisible borders
Don’t look at me and say
Where you belong you should stay
You look through me, not at me
Your vacant eyes looking past me
“If you’re not from here don’t come here”
I see the words in your eyes
As you cut me down to a size
That fits in your little world
But I am rootless and free
Can be who
And what
And where I think I should be
Don’t try and reprimand
A thing you don’t understand
What you never learned to comprehend
Every two years a new land
I am California, Colorado, Florida, D.C.
I am Boston and L.A. and every city I see
If art is an expression of self
Is the reflection of self
Then listen to me as I tell
How I see my life
And my love
And my perception of self
In every face on the street
How every city I meet
Opens up a new world
That extends out of the old
I have no luxury of hometown
No one place to settle down
I am a city girl that has been displaced
A casualty of just the way I was raised
To be unattached
So the pain doesn’t last
To be independent and strong
So when I have to move on
The change doesn’t kill me
Doesn’t break me and fill me
And now twenty years later
I have found a way to cater
To the lost feeling inside me
By choosing to find me
Myself and my home
In every place that I go
My soul in every city, not one
So I don’t have to feel so alone
So that before long
I can feel I belong
In a place that from my birth I had no claim on
So think and feel what you will
But do not doubt what you’re told
And that I tell what I feel
And that the city
Every city
Any city
Is my home
The why and the where and the reason I roam
The reason I hope
That I will one day no longer be a nomad
And finally become someone with a land.
Mary, call waiting & the kingdom of God
At the Moot alt eucharist service on sunday, we explored the much maligned story of Mary in the story of the incarnation in the season of advent from a justice perspective.
Please do listen to the podcast of the reflection and homily.
Advent 4 All I have done is leading to this
In this moment before Christmas, I post Lambs Gorecki which is full of passion, as we reflect on Mary’s commitment to saying Yes to God’s plan. For the one we have waited for.
The Mockingbird is leaping for Advent
‘beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. the least we can do is try to be there.’ annie dillard
In light of the comments on advent and taking time to notice things and listen to the life around us, I thought I’d draw your attention to an advent blog that I’m involved in. It was put together by a friend of mine in Belfast and has contributors from all around the world including myself. He has simply asked us all to be attentive to the world around us during advent. It’s an experiment in spiritual attention to the presence of God all around us in every day and we do it during Advent as a preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas. His prayer is that we will all be impacted by the immense presence of God in the world. It begins, and maybe ends, in simply witnessing to an experience of grace in our day. It may simply be the statement of an address or location, or it may be an extended meditation or a poem, it may be a photograph or a piece of video, whatever it is that speaks a blessing into our lives during Advent, bearing testimony to it on the blog, and we’ll see if we can accumulate a daily witness until Christmas Day itself. The days of the Advent season provide ample time for good habits of attention to take hold and grow in our lives.
Click on the title above to go straight to the Blog and feel free to add your own comments as we enter advent. Last night I was reading Andrews description of the Moot Service with the clock face and wishing I had been there. And reading the TS Eliot poem it seemed somehow appropriate for an advent blog and I have posted it there.
blessings
M
UNION [grid blog :: advent 4]
union::god::humanity
jesus – gods union with humanity
gods link-up with us
plugging his ipod into humanities powerbook and downloading his tunes
creating a sublime mix, full of different beats
a fusion of black/white, north/south, rich/poor, male/female
bringing union between us and god,
bringing union to ourselves,
bringing union to our communities,
bringing union.
[grid blog :: advent 3] – source
Well my advent post is a little late, but never mind.
Have been rather depressed at the state of Christmas this year – seems like my festive mood has been soured by the rather bullish advertising and corporate groups who seem intent on grabbing my money by hijacking and subverting the story of the birth of the christ.
I really like my picture, sums up my thoughts at this late advent stage, somehow I need to remove all the brash and intrusive things that surround the birth of the messiah. I need to get beyond the rush or present buying and encounter the stillness of that cold night, the pain Mary would have gone through in delivering the boy into the world, I need to rediscover again the rather embarrasing story fo Jesus’ birth, a boy born out of wedlock (into ‘sin’ as some would put it today) from a family line made up rather dubious characters to say the least (see Matt 1).
Yesterday I popped home to see my family, and got to hold my little nephew for an hour or two. Seeing life in its infancy is amazing. His life is pregnant with possibilities, the future quite open but he has little concern for that and is rather more interested in a roll of tape spinning on the floor. With the birth, life and death of Jesus our lives become pregnant with hope again, remembering Jesus’ birth should fill my heart with hope of the possibility of new life, even with my tired knackered body. I hope this year I can make room, remove the branding, forget the rush, and spend a little while thinking in hushed silence and awe, trying to get back to the source of it all.
[grid blog :: advent 1]
A little advent liturgy as my contribution to the grid-blog.
Come Lord Jesus, Maranatha.
Come Lord Jesus, do not delay.
Among the poor
among the proud
among the persecuted
among the rich
Christ is coming.
Come to make all things new.
In the private house
in the market place
in the wedding feast
in the judgement hall
Christ is coming.
Come to make all things new.
With a gentle touch
with an angry word
with a clear conscience
with burning love
Christ is coming.
Come to make all things new.
That the kingdom might come
that the world might believe
that the powerful might stumble
that the humble might be raised
Christ is coming.
Come to make all things new.
Within us
without us
among us
before us
in this place
in every place
for this time
for all time
Christ is coming.
Come to make all things new.
