Advent: Preparing a Crib in the Heart

” This morning as I dressed, a practice from my childhood days flashed into my mind. I think it was Sister Emily who started us on in the fourth grade. We were to prepare a place for Jesus in our hearts. So many masses made a gold bedstead; so many communions a fluffy down mattress. Other practices produced sheets, blankets, pillows, etc. The central thing – and I forget what it did, was to pray four thousand times – one for each year Adam’s son had waited, the prayer: ‘Jesus, son of Mary, come and take birth in my heart.’ Thus, Advent became for us a time of constant prayer.”

–M. Basil Pennington, OCSO, in “Jubilee, A Monk’s Journal

This Advent, will you have time to prepare a crib for the child Jesus ? Or, will you, like the people during Jesus’s time, have no place in the inn within your heart?

Prayer of Pope Francis for protection from COVID 19

The Monk Within

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“Monks reach for the heights. They also seek their apartness in other ways.

“There is something of the monk in each one of us. Not to be neglected in this apartness is that precious cell in the heart. There is deep within us a place apart. Perhaps if we begin to explore it we will discover we have made it into a bit of a storeroom. Perhaps it is even so crammed with junk we can hardly get in or close the door. Saint Benedict in his Rule reminds monks: “The oratory should be what it is called—a place of prayer. Let nothing else be done or kept there.”

“But one does not have to go to the heights or the depths to find a place apart. Anyone who has penetrated an inner-city Carmel with its high walls, its grilles, and its curtains, knows how much even in the midst of a teeming city a monastic community can set itself apart and create a climate of apartness.

“We may have to do some housecleaning. But we do have this place within where we can at any moment retire, close the door (as our Lord said), and enjoy for that moment a place apart. Get to know that inner cell. You will come to love it, and it will come to be a true friend. When you are harassed or weary you will begin to experience it reaching out to you, beckoning: Come apart and rest awhile. In its deep, cool darkness, sometimes illumined by a light not of our making, a moment can be a refreshing step into eternity, a coming home to the solitude of God.

” There are many “places apart” for each one of us: those we create, those we find, those created for us. Each is a gift and has its gifts for us. Seek and you shall find. Taste and see!”

–M. Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O.

Pennington M. Basil. A Place Apart: Monastic Prayer and Practice for Everyone . Liguori Publications.

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Advent 2016

Amidst uncertainties, wars, famine and political unrest in many parts of the world, Advent ushers in a season filled with hope…

“This Advent, join Loyola Press for a special online Advent experience. Following a traditional Advent calendar format, the experience invites you to slow down this season and discover the quiet moments of Advent hope.

Authors and bloggers Vinita Hampton Wright, Joe Paprocki, Becky Eldredge, James Martin, SJ, and others share resources to nurture your spirituality at this busy time of year.”

You will find this year’s Advent Calendar from Loyola Press here

A Single Sampaguita Blossom

The small, fragrant white blossom is the national flower of the Philippines. The sampaguita (jasminum sambac) is a hardy shrub with a multitude of blossoms at any given time.  As a young plant, the sampaguita is fragile and the blossoms oftentimes appear singly.

Artists, All…

When does one call one’s self an artist?  That’s a question I asked myself when I read about Kat Sloma’s Liberate Your Art 2016 Postcard Swap.

I had been taking some photos with my small digital camera and adding textures to make them look like photo paintings. I wondered if what I had been creating could qualify as art – could I humbly attach the word artist to my name? In the beginning I doubted, but after mailing several postcards, I did feel liberated as an artist…yes indeed, this swap helped free not only my artwork, but my artist-self as well.

Nature Altars

Nature altars are like mandalas that we create in the outdoors. It is a spontaneous activity that does not require planning. All that you have to do to create a nature altar is go to a place of nature (or your backyard), look around and gather materials that you can use to create your nature altar.

Shedding

The Acacia trees(acacia pycnantha)  in the Philippines are shedding. These large deciduous trees are 30-40 meters tall, and their trunks reach up to two meters in diameter.

When the Acacia trees shed their leaves, people say they look like dead trees. I see differently – I am mesmerized by the hidden beauty that are finally exposed when the Acacia sheds its leaves.