Light someone else’s inner candle

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A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle- Erin Majors

Grant us a vision, Lord
To see what we can achieve
To reach out beyond ourselves
To share our lives with others
To stretch our capabilities
To increase our sense of purpose
To be aware of where we can help
To be sensitive to your Presence
To give heed to your constant call.

 (David Adam)

A very meaningful way to journey through Advent is by finding time for reflection, creating prayerful moments in our days, moments of stillness, where we wish to direct our attention to God and allow Christ to enter our reality, to light our inner candles and bring light in areas of our lives where we most need it. But it might also be good and even Christ-like if we could find opportunities to step out of ourselves and encourage someone who we think needs light lit in their lives. When we can find balance between a reflective and active preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas, our Advent journey becomes more wholesome.

Take time to notice someone: a friend, a family member or a child who might benefit from your company, greet strangers with a smile, talk to a man or a woman who is homeless, clean your wardrobe and bring things you no longer use to a charity shop, visit an elderly person who might be lonely at this time, say a prayer for people that no one prays for or see what situation moves your heart and respond to it according to your means. Do not take these suggestions as a burden on yourself in what is most likely already a busy season for you. Rather know that in the moments in which we affirm another person’s dignity, moments when we encounter others heart to heart, we meet God in them as well. When we light someone else’s inner candle, our own inner light is relit too.

In the song Be Thou my Vision there is a verse in which we sing,  “Be Thou my dignity, be Thou my delight”. As we bring Christ’s light to each other, sometimes merely by our presence, let us be clothed in His light, robed in His dignity, aware of His delight, knowing that ‘together’ we journey through Advent, together we walk this walk of light.

Iva Beranek
Dr Iva Beranek is the Ministry Facilitator for the CMH: Ireland

Let Christ light your inner candle

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Light of the world,
Enter into the depths of our lives.
Come into the dark and hidden places.
Walk in the storehouse of our memories.
Hear the hidden secrets of the past.
Plumb the very depth of our being.
Be present through the silent hours,
And bring us safely to your glorious light.

(David Adam)

We just entered into Advent; a time of grace, a time of renewal in which we prepare the way for the Lord. The four weeks of Advent are a preparation for Christmas, but they also remind us that Christ comes to us every day, in everyday events of our lives. As Christ comes to us this Advent season, may He find our hearts ready to receive Him.

One of the ways that we can journey through Advent is by coming to know areas in our life where we need a Saviour. We can find short moments in a day where we will pause, stop what we are doing, direct our attention towards God, reflect on our lives and invite Christ into our reality, as well as seek to recognise where He is already present in our days. As we light an Advent candle each Sunday, let us be reminded that Christ lights His light in our hearts too.

candle3lantern

It may be a good exercise to try at the end of each day, or at the end of each week, to think of one area of our lives we are grateful for, an area where God’s light is most obvious and give thanks for it, and to think of another area where we need God’s grace and light the most, and offer it to Christ. By doing that we know that we are not alone, the Lord is with us as He promised. Jesus’ love embraces all of us in all that we are. When we invite Christ into our daily lives, into our struggles, light may increase within us, so that now we can celebrate the light newly lit in our lives.

Iva Beranek
Dr Iva Beranek is the Ministry Facilitator for the CMH: Ireland

Thanksgiving

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Today is a day of Thanksgiving in my country of origin. I won’t be eating any turkey or pumpkin pie today, but I am spending some time in gratitude. This prayer by William Barclay (1907-1978) reminds me of particular people for whom I am especially thankful, and for things I don’t always think of in a spirit of gratitude.

O God, our Father, we thank you for this day.
We thank you for those who have given us guidance, counsel, advice and good example.
We thank you for those in whose company the sun shone even in the rain, and who brought a smile to our faces even when things were grim.
We thank you for those in whose company the frightening things were not so alarming, and the hard things not so difficult.
We thank you for those whose presence saved us from falling to temptation, and enabled us to do the right.
We thank you for those whom it is joy to be with, and in whose company the hours pass all too quickly.
We thank you for happy times to be to us for ever happy memories.
We thank you for times of failure to keep us humble, and to make us remember how much we need you.
Most of all we thank you for Jesus Christ, who in the daytime is our friend and our companion and who in the night is our pillow and our peace.
Hear this our evening thanksgiving for your love’s sake.

Today He will hear you

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This poem reminds me that our God is a welcoming God whom we can find in the present moment. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

God never says 
you should have come yesterday. 
He never says 
you must come again tomorrow. 
But today, 
if you will hear His voice, 
today He will hear you. 
He brought light out of darkness, 
not out of a lesser light; 
He can bring your Summer out of Winter 
though you have no Spring. 
All occasions invite His mercies, 
and all times are His season.

—John Donne 

Listening to God

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We may not be used to silence, it may not be our natural way of being because we live in the world filled with noise, and yet it is precisely in the moments of stillness that we can hear the voice of God speaking to us gently, as He spoke to Elijah in the cave. In 1 Book of Kings 19:11-13 we read:

The Lord said to Elijah, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

God was in the gentle whisper, or as some translations say, ‘in the sound of the sheer silence’. Some level of interior silence lets us hear God. I think sometimes we may be afraid of what God may tell us, ask of us, but we need to keep in mind that our God is a loving, good God, and that His will for us is our wellbeing. Finding moments of stillness also lets us come to God and rest in His presence. In silence we give room for God to speak to us, sometimes beyond words. In silence we know, even for a brief moment, that the God of the universe wishes to speak His words into our lives, into our hearts, and even more profoundly He shares His presence with us. 

When we integrate these moments of stillness in our busy lives we allow ourselves to rest with God, to enjoy His presence and we give Him permission to speak to us, if He so wishes. We can do so in a prayerful setting, finding a sacred space where we come to God in prayer. However, we can also find stillness when we wait for a bus or on a traffic light, and in various moments of the day. We can pause for a short while, direct our awareness towards God, still ourselves interiorly, and listen. And if we don’t hear anything it is good to know that God is there listening to us. We can then just ‘be’ with Him, enjoying His presence throughout our days.

Iva Beranek
Dr Iva Beranek is the Ministry Facilitator for the CMH: Ireland

Ballyhaise Service of Healing

A Service of Healing takes place in Ballyhaise Church, Co Cavan on 24th November 2013 at 8pm. The preacher will be Bishop Ferran Glenfield. All are warmly welcome.

Author Arlene Ussery: A Novel Path of Healing

Author Arlene Ussery will be speaking in the Christ Church Cathedral Crypt on Friday, 8th November 2013, from 7 to 9pm, on interacting with novels and healing insights. There is no charge for admission, but donations are welcome. For further information, please contact our Ministry Facilitator, Iva Beranek (iva[at]ministryofhealing[dot]ie).

 

Celebrating All Saints

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Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
Grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through Christ our Lord. Amen

(From the Collect of the Day)

Saints are friends we have in heaven. Most of us probably have a favourite saint, or a few. We take inspiration from their lives and their example may offer support and guidance for us, especially at times when our faith is challenged by the ups and downs of life. Who we spend our time with can influence who we become; friends, both living and those in heaven, can make a lasting impact on our lives. On the feast of All Saints, we celebrate lives of ordinary people, known and unknown, who were like lighthouses in their time, reflecting the glory of God with their lives. Knowing that numerous saints have walked before us, we know that we are not on this journey on our own. That is, in a way, what we mean by believing in the communion of saints.

In the last few years that I have been in Ireland, I have met people who are living saints. I realised that I didn’t consider them saints because they were doing something ‘extraordinary’, nor were they perfect. They were in fact ‘only’ living the Gospel, as best they could. I saw something courageous and yet gracious in who they were, though they would probably deny it, if someone tried to affirm it in them. They gave their ‘yes’ to God, and they meant it, and I know it was a costly choice. I presume that they had to renew that commitment in the silence of their hearts many times. What is more, it showed in their lives, you could see it, even if they could not.

Naturally, sanctity is not a thing of the past. Saints still walk among us. We all probably know a few. Maybe they are a family member or a friend or even, God-forbid, someone whom we might consider ‘an enemy’. I believe that a saint is someone whose life shows that God exists, which may often not be very deliberate or intentional, but it may come rather natural to some people. In a way, it is more about God than it is about them.

All of us who have embarked on a spiritual journey are ‘saints in the making’, which at times can be a challenging process, mainly because it involves transforming our own way of being into a Christlike way of living. An invitation to be saints, as the Bible calls all Christians, may be somewhat like a healing process as sometimes healing will involve leaving behind our ways of acting and letting God teach us His way of acting and being in the world. This is something we can learn from the saints. Of course, it is a lifelong task, which will require cooperation with God’s grace. When you think of it, it is impossible to be a saint; we can never be one merely by our own efforts. Holiness is a gift of God, because only God is truly holy. Paradoxically, the further we are on the path of holiness the more truly human we will be; for “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)”

 

Iva Beranek
Dr Iva Beranek is the Ministry Facilitator for the CMH: Ireland

And isn’t it true?

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The Cork University Maternity Hospital’s Annual Service of Remembrance is later this evening (Friday, 11th October 2013, 7pm). I’m reminded of this poem by Pádraig Ó Tuama from his collection Sorry for Your Troubles (thanks again, Richard, for the recommendation).

And isn’t it true for all of us

and isn’t it true for all of us
that we need someone
to watch us when we leave
and when we need
to make our own
way home,
when we’re making something we can’t see,
or when we’re shaping up to be
a person that can feel
a hundred sorrows and still
get through the day
who could dream a hundred horrors
and make it anyway,

isn’t it true for all of us
that we need a guiding
other,
maybe mother, maybe lover,
maybe nothing other than a stranger,
who could see our fear,
and with kindness then, unfold a welcome,

isn’t it true for all of us
that we need our secrets told
and that without another
to bear witness to the children
that were never born,
and would never be a grown-up
we would be alone and lost and cold,
there would be childish hungers left
inside of us,
needing to grow old.

Prayer Ministry Training

A Dublin & Glendalough training programme for prayer ministry begins this month on 26th October 2013, to be held at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. The programme is open to those within the Dublin & Glendalough dioceses who feel a calling to prayer ministry. No prior theological training is necessary; however every applicant must have their rector’s support and recommendation. Information and application forms have been mailed to all Dublin & Glendalough rectors.

If you are interested in taking part, please first contact your rector. As the date is approaching quickly, we ask that applications and recommendations be submitted as quickly as possible.

If you are in another diocese and would like to find out how such training can be offered where you are, please contact the central office.