Prière de Noël avec Brother Marcel S. C.

Notre ami et frère Marcel, toujours si savoureux, nous invite à célébrer Noël, à le chanter et à le prier avec les lièvres, les écureuils et les fourmis, sur les montagnes et dans les plaines, aux bord des fleuves tumultueux et des ruisseaux silencieux, sous la lumière du soleil levant et dans le froid et coloré silence des galaxies, depuis le Big Bang jusqu'au dernier pétard de nos fêtes... C'est une invitation à un rassemblement universel pour la célébration des temps nouveaux toujours en reprise. Soyons-y dans cette nuit qui nous rappellera nos joies d'enfant, les ardeurs de notre jeunesse, les émerveillements à Mascherone, nos multiples cheminements dans la quête d'un sens, toujours là et toujours à réinventer. Une vue d'ensemble qui sûrement, des racines au Zénith de l'univers et de la connaissance, comblera notre Nabi, un fourmillement d'images de voyage qui titillera les genoux et les chevilles de notre insatiable globe trotteur Capelli Rossi , une pétarade de sons et d'harmonies qui fera crépiter les doigts de notre Bomax sur les claviers de ses multiples orgues. Soyons-y, c'est un MUST.

Florian 

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Merry Christmas everyone!  May Christmas day/time have a very special meaning and joy for you.   Traditionally we stand before the crib, and so we should, to ponder the Christmas story and hopefully the bigger story of which it is a part.      

            What we celebrate at Christmas is the beginning of a wonderful story, that of Jesus, not only as an infant, but especially as the person who spoke so clearly about God his father, who brought humankind a new way of being human, a way closer to God’s idea of his love in creation and in his beloved humans.  This is the bigger story, which tells of God and his creation, of the value and beauty of all his creation.

           Perhaps this “Canticle of Creation” can be part of our Christmas prayer:

                                                In the beginning, Lord God,

                                                You alone existed; eternally one

                                                yet pregnant in the fullness of unity.

                                                Full to overflowing,

                                                You, Father of All Life, exploded outward

                                                in a billion bits and pieces.

                                                           Your Words became flesh,

                                                whirling in shining stars, shimmering suns

                                                and in genesis glimmering galaxies.

                                                You, my God, spoke,

                                                and your Words became flesh:

                                                in sun and moon, earth and seas,

                                                mountains and gentle hills,

                                                rolling rivers and silent streams.

                                                You, my God, spoke,

                                                and Your Words became flesh:

                                                in winged bird, in deer and elephant,

                                                in grazing cow, racing horse and fish of the deep.

                                                Your Words, so unique and so varied,

                                                 filled the earth also with rabbit, squirrel and ant.

                                                And all your Words were beautiful,

                                                and all were good.

                                                From each of these holy Words

                                                arose a prayer of praise and adoration

                                                to You, their creator

                                                and wondrous womb.

                                                “Praise you,” rang out the redwood,

                                                “Blessed be You,” chimed in the cedar,

                                                “Holy are You,” prayed the prairie grasses.

                                                From all four corners of this earth,

                                                rose up a chorus of perpetual adoration. 
          

                                                O Sacred Spirit, O Divine Breath of Life,

                                                unseal my ears that they may ever listen

                                                to Your continuous canticle of creation;

                                                open my heart and my whole self,

                                                to sing in harmony with all its many voices.

                                                Teach me to commune with Your first Word made flesh,

                                                Your Creation,

                                                that I may be able to unravel the wondrous words

                                                of Your second Word made flesh,

                                                Jesus,

                                                through whom, with whom and in whom,

                                                I may see myself as another Word of Yours made flesh,

                                                to Your glory and honor.    Amen.

                                                               From Prayers for the Domestic Church by Ed Hays

It would be hard to think of Christmas without the Nativity scene with Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the animals and later the Wise Men.  This scene carries through the ages the story of Jesus’ coming among us as one of us and the reality of Emmanuel, God with us.  For children, as for all of us, we return each year to marvel at this new life, Jesus, and the new life he comes to give us all, which mainly is a new idea of God, his Father, which opens us to a new understanding of creation, of the world and of humanity, and a sign of what is ahead for creation.

            But this Story of Jesus born among us is only part of that much bigger Story, that is, the story of God and the story of creation.  The appearance of Jesus in the world brought with it another realization about Who this Jesus is and how he belongs to a much bigger story.  St. John directly refers to this big story at the very beginning of his Gospel when he says:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God… In him was life…,” not just human life which was to come later, but all life, all of creation.   The Word is the Son of God, present with the Father from all time, there “at the beginning,” that is at the dawn of time, at the moment of creation, at the first instance of the created reality we know.   And this Word later on was to become flesh, Jesus.   In the Bible story, we had intimations of God and his Word, but the understanding of this truth was flawed in many ways.   These early humans could only glimpse at the reality of God, and as they grew in wisdom and age, so too did their understanding of God grow, but always greatly flawed.

               This early understanding of God was to change with the coming of Jesus, with all that he was and said and did, which spoke volumes about God, which gave humans a whole new look at God, that is, seeing a God of love and compassion, of goodness and freedom, of justice and equality and inclusiveness.  Christmas is the story of the birth of a child, but it explodes into a story of a whole new way of understanding God, of life, and of relating to one another.  What a revelation that was, what GOOD NEWS for humankind!

            The big story begins with the flaring forth (creation), some call it the “big bang.”  Since the dawn of human consciousness, people have contemplated this flaring forth and have told stories of what they thought all of this meant.  We continue to do this and Christmas is a special time for celebrating the Jesus event and also the great story of the flaring forth, which has become our story and the story of God, now seen through the millions of year of becoming and finally through consciousness, our ability to reflect, that great gift of creation by which humans can know the story, and rejoice over the story and celebrate it.

                A very Merry Christmas to you all and Happy New Year!  May it be a time of wondering, of seeing deeply, of rejoicing and celebrating.

              Brother, Uncle Brother, Marcel, Lionel, Frere