Author: HRPC Office

Sharing a suggestion from a nine month “journey to the quiet” that I began in September.  You might appreciate this opportunity to explore contemplative prayer in the last moments before you sleep on Christmas Eve!  Give this a try:  “This week, on Christmas Eve, right before you drift to sleep, take a few minutes to be absolutely still.

Breathe deeply.  Relax into prayer.

Allow the melody of Silent Night to become a prelude to a spacious place of emptiness where you meet God in the quiet.

Hum the melody slowly.  Pause after each line to breathe more deeply and relax more completely.

At the end of the carol, simply let go.  Of the music.  Of any words.  And even, if you can, of any thoughts.  Just for a few sacred moments.

Relax into the awareness of Emmanuel, God-with-you.

May you sleep in heavenly peace, and wake into Christmas joy.”

 

May Christmas joy be yours every day.

– Pastor Deborah

As you prepare for your Christmas celebrations, take a few minutes to read Luke 1:26-55 and then use this prayer for your reflection…

And then you

We arrange our lives as best we can,
to keep your holiness at bay,
with our pieties,
our doctrines,
our liturgies,
our moralities,
our secret ideologies,
Safe, virtuous, settled.
And then you –
you and your dreams,
you and your visions,
you and your commands,
you and our neighbors.
We find your holiness not at bay,
but probing, pervading,
insisting, demanding.
And we yield, sometimes gladly,
sometimes resentfully,
sometimes late…or soon.
We yield because you, beyond us, are our God.
We are your creatures met by your holiness,
by your holiness made our true selves.
And we yield. Amen.

– Walter Brueggeman