May Christmas find you where you are.
A Blessing for the Night.
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Holy Night 2024, MN, USA
Dear Cloister family,
On this Eve of Christmas we want to extend our warm wishes to each of you who have traveled with us throughout the year, and to you, who have just found your way here. Thank you for being here with us. And thank you for supporting this growing community of fellow pilgrims on the deeper path.
Today we want to offer our blessing to all who long for a quiet moment to enter the “Silent night.”
I have been always drawn to that silent part of the “silent night.”
To the empty streets of Christmas in Bethlehem, after the TV stations packed up and the tourists went home. To the empty streets in the tourist towns when people meet in churches and at candle lit Christmas dinners. To the empty Christmas markets, when the crowds and vendors go home and quiet takes back the night.
There were no Halleluja choruses when Mary pushed the baby into the hay. Only the helping but inexperienced hands of her beloved drying off the child. And then a sigh of relief when the newborn took his first breath and sent a tender cry into the night, echoing in the empty and unlit streets of little Bethlehem.
Oh, Bethlehem, symbol for an aching world, how we long for a light in all the dark. For the silence of the fear mongers and war lords. For a silent night, when our worrying heart can get some rest.
O wondrous night. When a new life is born. Divine wonder coming from a woman’s womb. Oh wondrous joy washed in the pangs of birth, unknown to men. Oh wondrous night, when time stands still, suspended between life and death, birthing new hope.
O wondrous night, when transcendence breaks in and the Divine enters our longing world.
Where is your Bethlehem tonight?
A Christmas blessing
Here is our blessing for you, dear fellow traveler, as you enter this holy night:
May Christmas find you where you are
Do not be afraid of the night
for night is
when the light shines brightly
do not be afraid of the silence
for it is the silence
in which God speaks
do not be afraid of the solitude
for it is the open space
where Divine grace enters
do not be afraid of the journey
for it is the journey
that draws us home
You are not seeking Christmas,
Christmas is seeking you.
AF
And may Christmas find you where you are, Almut, with Chuck and little one
Join our 12 Days of Christmas Contemplations 2024: "Into the depth."
What if Christmas isn't a season but a journey? Walk with us from Christmas Eve all the way to the threshold where the old and the new year meet until we arrive at Epiphany, refreshed and renewed. As a paid subscriber you will receive our daily contemplations in your inbox like a precious Christmas gift waiting to be unpacked in your own pace and time. Looking forward journeying with you through this sacred time.
About Cloister Notes
A letter for dancing monks and weary pilgrims in the intersection of psychology, philosophy and spirituality. Contemplations on being human to deepen your path, nourish your heart and build wisdom within.
About Almut
Almut Furchert, Dr. phil., Dipl. Psych., OblSB is a German American psychologist turned philosopher turned writer, traveler, photographer, retreat leader and mother of a kindergartener. She has taught and published on authors like Kierkegaard, Buber, Frankl, Yalom, Edith Stein, and Hildegard of Bingen. Almut is also a Benedictine Oblate and lives with her family in a little college town in MN.
Merry Christmas! Thank you for blessing us with your loving messages, poems, and photos now and throughout the year.
Merry Christmas, dear Almut, Chuck and the little one.