Category: Advent/Christmas

“God loves to light little lights”

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

When I found out that St. Peter’s keeps their Christmas tree and crèche up in the square until February 2, I decided (as our Superior) that we would keep our crèche in the chapel and all our Christmas lights up until then as well.   I always felt gypped that there were not 40 days to celebrate after Christmas as there are after Easter.  Then I discovered that February 2, the Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas), is indeed 40 days after Christmas.  So, to me, it makes total sense to keep those Christmas lights lit.  If you drive past our house right now, you will still see our candle lights in the windows. I personally love clusters of little white lights. When we begin the Salve Regina at the end of night prayer, the guitarist dims all the lights in our chapel.  During this season, that leaves only the Christmas lights and the sole candle lit before the icon of the Mother of God. Yet the chapel still seems bright.

In the beginning of his 1999 Christmas message, Pope Benedict spoke of how God “loves to light little lights.”  I found that particularly encouraging as I thought of all of us who are desiring to be God’s witnesses to hope.  May it encourage you as well, and may you call it to mind whenever you see Christmas lights and candles:

The liturgy of the Mass at Dawn reminded us that the night is now past, the day has begun; the light radiating from the cave of Bethlehem shines upon us. . . .
At first, beside the manger in Bethlehem, that “us” was almost imperceptible to human eyes.  As the Gospel of St. Luke recounts, it included, in addition to Mary and Joseph, a few lowly shepherds who came to the cave after hearing the message of the Angels. The light of that first Christmas was like a fire kindled in the night.  All about there was darkness, while in the cave there shone the true light “that enlightens every man” (Jn 1.9).  And yet all this took place in simplicity and hiddenness, in the way that God works in all of salvation history.  God loves to light little lights, so as then to illuminate vast spaces.

May we allow God to light each of us, little lights in this darkened world.

The Ageless Hymn

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

Our hearts’ longing:
  to sound Thy praises in fresh and untried ways,
To bring new pleasure to Thy ears
  on this Feast of Thy Birth,
  pouring at Thy feet rich ointment
   of fragrance sweet,
And crowning Thy head with golden garlands
  whose brightness is unvisioned.

But, alas, there is not song that is yet unsung
Or words unwritten to sound in Thy ears
Or gold of such wonder that is yet unseen.
There is nothing new found meet an fitting for Thee.

Except in Thee.
For You are the Praise and the Song and the Feast.
You alone are pleasing, and apart from Thee
  there is no beauty.
In You is every new song,
And a life lived in Thee is a crown on Thy brow.

So on this day when hearts burst forth,
And seek to find new ways to praise,
We gladly lose our lives in You,
  poured fully out at Thy feet.

And You, dear Christ, will be our Song,
  ageless and renowned,
The perfect Hymn of offering.

             26 December 1990
             Feast of the Incarnation

Let Him proceed from His chamber

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment
copyright Christel Holl

Turn to us, You who sustain Israel,
who sit above the Cherubim,
appear before Ephraim,
stir up your might and come.

Come, Redeem of the nations,
show the birth of the Virgin;
all generations admire it:
such a birth befits God.

Not from the seed of man
but through a mystic breath
God’s word became flesh,
and the fruit of the womb blossomed.

The womb of the Virgin swells,
but purity’s cloister remains intact;
the banners of the virtues are resplendent:
God is in His temple.

Let Him proceed from His chamber,
royal hall of purity,
as a giant of dual nature,
to run his path with alacrity.

His coming from the Father,
his return to the Father;
his passage even to the netherworld,
his return to the place of God.

You who are equal to the eternal Father,
gird up the trophy of the flesh,
strengthening with unfailing virtue
our body’s weakness.

Already your crib shines bright,
and the night spreads a new light
that no darkness can obscure.
and perennial faith shines forth.

St. Ambrose