#ADVENT – LIGHT GROOVES

Posted on December 20, 2019 by Virginia

“My faith is brightest in the midst of impenetrable darkness.” Mahatma Gandhi

Advent is about Light in the darkness. There’s a famous proverb that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.  As we see the beautiful lights decorating our homes and cities, may they remind us to choose Light, because lighting a candle in a dark place is a choice, oft times a challenging one.

Darkness doldrums can definitely pull us down. Instead of complaining, however, we can choose to have faith and walk in the Light.

We can choose to be Light.

Light of Christ, illuminate us …. that we may be Your light in the night of this world.

grace, peace & LIGHT grooves

Virginia : )

“Arise and shine for the Light of the world is come…”  Isaiah 60:1

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Christmas (all year ’round) Love

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Virginia

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill

On this 19th day of Advent Virginia is contemplating her Nightmare Before Christmas ornaments. As blogged previously (click here: Happily Ever After @ Halloween) Skeleton Jack fails spectacularly taking over Christmas, but (spoiler alert) with Sally’s love and support he rescues the real Santa Claus in the nick of time.

“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”  Bob Hope

grace, peace & all year ’round love

Virginia : )

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#ADVENT : Fragrant Courage

Posted on December 18, 2019 by Virginia

On this 18th day of Advent Virginia is contemplating the fragrance of courage, the kind that keeps pursuing the love of God even when things get thorny.

“Be courageous, my daughter. There are both spiritual and bodily rose bushes. In the latter the thorns are constantly present and the roses wither, but in the former, the thorns pass but the roses persist.” Padre Pio (Saint Pio of Pietrelcina)

“God oft times doesn’t give a lot of answers but just keeps telling us who we are. God just keeps inviting us into that place where love is alive and where God is Love.” Richard Rohr, OFM

grace, peace & fragrant courage

Virginia : )

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#ADVENT: Altered (“Altar’d”) States

Posted on December 17, 2019 by Virginia

Last Monday my brother and I picked up his (fixed & healthy) car in Beckley, WV. (re: Life is a Gift post.) Due to weekend commitments we zoomed there and back again in one day through torrential rains and dense fog in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia.

When we stopped in Short Pump (Richmond) for dinner, I saw this slightly skewed tree in a window of a shop called “Altar’d State.” Fit my mood at the end of a long day (we left home @ 6:15AM and returned at 9:15PM.)

I’ve never seen an Altar’d State store before, but this “altered” Christmas tree with the off-kilter star on top resonated.

Sometimes our holidays don’t go as we planned. Sometimes our lives don’t go as planned. Sometimes alternative paths and “Plan Bs” set our hearts askew.

But, here’s the thing about Advent and Christmas. When everything has altered from what we know, God is here for us, with us – in us – with love to carry us into the new.

Even if our stars are a little askew…

grace, peace & “altar’d” states

Virginia : )

“When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a Light unto me.” Micah 7:8

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#ADVENT : Open Doors, Open Hearts

Posted on December 16, 2019 by Virginia

On this 16th day of Advent (with Christmas less than 10 days away) we may be scrambling to squeeze in more than a tick or two in our prayer closets. But Advent is a time to open the doors of our hearts wider, to put a big “Welcome” wreath out for Jesus…

“Lord, let us place wreaths on the doors of our hearts, so that the Holy Spirit may enter in and take up lodging…”  Henri Nouwen

“Pray while you work and work while you pray… the duty of the moment is our strategic place. One day at a time. We have this day in which to open our hearts like doors, and take in everything that we can… Christ wants us to be an Icon of Himself, to be people of faith.”   Catherine Doherty

grace, peace & open doors, open hearts

Virginia : )

2nd photo: Ave Maria Chapel, Lake Garda (Italy)

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Gaudete Sunday: Rejoice! Rejoice!

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Virginia

On Gaudete Sunday of Advent we are called to ‘Rejoice!’ as we continue waiting for Christmas. All during the holidays we sing carols about joy, we look for joy, we try to be joyful. Sometimes we confuse joy with merrymaking and all-smiles happiness.

But, joy is so much more.

“Joy is the noblest human act.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Joy is not bubble-head happiness that depends on what happens. Joy comes from within the heart, sometimes deep within when the horribles squash and pummel our hope muscles to near-oblivion.

Joy chooses to have faith in God’s love, mercy, and grace to carry us through tough times. Joy sustains our hurting hearts (however deep our hurts may be.)

Joy does not mean pain-free living, but does not let pain drive us to darkness. Joy chooses to follow the Light, even when it’s hard at times to see the dimmest flicker.

Joy finds value in the rubble of decimated lives, because those lives are valuable. Joy comes from a well of Love transported on wings of compassion that lift up the brokenhearted.

Joy finds and grows roses in the rubble of our lives (and rubble that surrounds us), watering them with extra helpings of faith, hope and love.

At the end (and beginning) of the day, joy is a choice.

“Joy is not simply a matter of temperament. It is hard to be joyful – all the more reason why we should make it grow in our hearts. Joy is prayer; joy is strength; joy is love; joy is a net of love by which we catch others.” Mother Teresa (Saint Teresa of Calcutta)

Joy comes in all shapes and sizes, and Joy is what this season of Advent is all about.

Light coming into darkness. Love incarnated. Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Joy is possible, because Jesus Christ is.

grace, peace & JOY

Virginia : )

“Is my joy based on circumstances, or is my joy based on something within that no one can take from me or give to me?” Richard Rohr, OFM

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#ADVENT – Dark Nights (of the Soul)

Posted on December 14, 2019 by Virginia

Today we remember Saint John of the Cross (1541-1591), a Spanish saint known for documenting his “Dark Night of the Soul.” Misunderstood, mistreated, and maligned – John of the Cross came to know the dark intimately while imprisoned for his progressive faith. Yet through the depths of his experiences he came to a deeper understanding of the incredible heights of God’s love.

May we learn from his example to seek God even when we feel abandoned and don’t understand: God’s love is with us in the darkest places of our lives.

“In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God.” Saint John of the Cross

“The endurance of darkness is the preparation for great light.” Saint John of the Cross

“Where there is no love, put love, and you will draw love out.”  St. John of the Cross

grace, peace & Light (in darkness)

Virginia : )

Photos: Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

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#ADVENT – Love and Cheer

Posted on December 13, 2019 by Virginia

On this 13th day of Advent Virginia is contemplating love and cheer…

“Christmas will always be, as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand.” Dr. Seuss (from “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”)

We must do our bit standing heart to heart, even with folks we may disagree with, a little? Oh, and extending our hands to folks we don’t usually hang out with? Folks who may need Christmas cheer to melt Grinch-like hearts with Love (the capital “L” kind.)

The kind of love and cheer that’s not store-bought, but heart-brought.

grace, peace & heart-brought cheer

Virginia : )

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of Love.”  Hamilton Wright Mabi

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#ADVENT – Roses & Persevering Faith

Posted on December 12, 2019 by Virginia

Today (12 December) is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (click here for more details in last year’s post.) When a cantankerous bishop asked peasant Juan Diego for a sign, Our Lady of Guadalupe provided out-of-season roses in December.

“Indeed, ‘God… has done great things in me…’ Our Mother’s whole heart is manifested in the words of the Magnificat. They are her spiritual testament. Each of us has to look at his and her own life with the eyes of Mary – what He did in her, He did for us, and therefore did it as in us. Mary’s words give us a new outlook of life. The outlook of an excellent and persevering faith. A faith which is the light of daily life. Of days sometimes tranquil but often stormy and difficult. A faith, which, finally, lightens up the darkness in each one of us.”  Saint Pope John Paul II

grace, peace & persevering faith

Virginia : )

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#ADVENT – Patience, Patience, Patience!

Posted on December 11, 2019 by Virginia

On this 11th day of Advent, Virginia is contemplating patience as a discipline (not an easy thing for impatient redheads…)

“Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not a waiting passivity until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow; later and somewhere else. Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.” Henri Nouwen

grace, peace & PATIENCE

Virginia : )

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