2011: My Year of Stability

My friend Daphne recently posted an article on her blog about “Choosing to Name Your Year”…HERE.  “A year name can help align us with purpose and help us live our days more fully focused on what we are committed to.” While I am still considering what I will name my 2012, I am recognizing that I named my 2011 without even fully realizing it.

2011 was my year of stability.

This season of growing in stability actually began back in July 2010 when our WMF Staff Gathering focused on the theme of stability. The book, The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove was our primary guide. I highly recommend this book. It is up there as a top book that has formed and shaped my life. In the book Wilson-Hartgrove points us towards Benedictine spirituality and rhythm of life as our example. The Benedictine Rule requires commitment to stability, fidelity to monastic life, and obedience. Benedict put stability first. “If we’re going to climb Jacob’s ladder toward the humility of Jesus, Benedictine wisdom says the first thing need is a stable place to begin.” You can read some of my favorite quotes from the book…HERE.

Then last January I wrote “Attentiveness and Call to Place,” posted on This Ignatian Life blog….HERE.  In the article I wrote, “This new year I desire to do just that. I intend to make effort for more exercises like my Christmas top ten. I plan to pay attention to the things I love about the city, culture, and people of Buenos Aires. I trust that this posture will enable me to more deeply embrace and share in the fullness of life with those I am called to serve among.” And I did just that. I identified and shared eight of my favorite things about life in Buenos Aires throughout 2011 here on my blog. I am still hoping to round out a top ten before too long.

The image of trees and roots became my symbol of stability. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove speaks of establishing ‘roots of love’ that bind us “intimately to our landscape and the people who share life on it.” He goes on to say, “If the love of God and neighbor is our end goal, roots of love in stability are the means God has given for making progress in this life.” The depth and reach of our roots directly impacts the reach of our limbs and fruit we bear. Fortunately, Buenos Aires is full of trees. So, I spent a lot of time paying attention to trees. I did not lack reminders of my desire to grow deeper roots of stability this past year.

So, as I close out 2011 tonight, I begin with gratitude to God for my year of stability. Grateful for the meaningful ways my roots have deepened in community and place. Grateful for those who have encouraged me and accompanied me along the way in this desire for stability. Thank you!

Tomorrow I begin the new year seeking to name my 2012. While I intend to give it some more space to take shape, I believe it will have something to do with “living in the present moment.” Stay tuned!

Reflecting on 2011

This morning I stumbled on this reflection exercise in a prayer book I recently purchased, Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits edited by Michael Harter, SJ. The below reflection questions were proposed by Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit from India. While the questions are proposed to reflect on a lifetime (a pretty big undertaking!), I think they could also be valuable in reflecting on a year. Perhaps some of the questions could be useful in reflecting on 2011 this New Year’s weekend.

I also recommend this blog article from my friend Daphne, as you look forward to 2012...Choosing to Name Your Year.  More soon on this one!

A Testament
I imagine that today I am to die. I ask for time to be alone and write down for friends a sort of testament for which the points that follow could serve as chapter titles.

1. These things I have loved in life:
    Things I tasted,
    looked at,
    smelled,
    heard,
    touched.
2. These experiences I have cherished.
3. These ideas have brought me liberation.
4. These beliefs I have outgrown.
5. These convictions I have lived by.
6. These are things I have lived for.
7. These insights I have gained I the school of life:
    Insights into God,
    the world,
    human nature,
    Jesus Christ,
    love,
    religion,
    prayer.
8. These risks I have took,
    these dangers I have courted.
9. These sufferings have seasoned me.
10. These lessons life has taught me.
11. These influences have shaped my life
  (persons, occupations, books, events).
12. These Scripture texts have lit my path.
13. These things I regret about my life.
14. These are my life achievements.
15. These persons are enshrined within my heart.
16. These are my unfilled desired.

I choose an ending for this document:
    a poem – my own or someone else’s,
  or a prayer,
  a sketch or a picture from a magazine,
  a Scripture text,
  or anything that I judge would be
    an apt conclusion to my testament.

~ Anthony De Mello, SJ

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Today we pray the final of the O Antiphons….O Emmanuel, God with Us, Come! 

O Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people. Come and set us free, Lord our God

“This last Veni, the final O Come, summarizes our entire Advent journey: its prayer, longing, and constant yearning for salvation. Come, Lord, set free the people whom you love. This last verse of the antiphon gives the necessary incentive we need for the last miles of our journey. A little bit longer, and then tomorrow his glory shall be revealed to us! “Veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Dues noster.” 

A Monastery Journey to Christmas by Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette

O Emmanuel (December 23 entry)

The O Antiphons became the basis for the Christmas carol, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Today I posted the lyrics on Prayers & Creeds…HERE.

Here’s my favorite version of the hymn from “Advent Songs” by Sojourn Music…

Favorite Things…Buenos Aires Style (#8 – Christmas)

I leave for California this Thursday! I have been looking forward to Christmas with family and friends in SoCal for several months. In early-January I will also spend several days with my sister, bro-in-law, nieces, and nephew in Toronto. I can’t wait!

As excited as I am for my trip, I will also miss the remaining days of the season with my community down here in the Southern Hemisphere. I have spent the last two Christmas’ here in Buenos Aires. Last year I shared a top ten list of favorite things about Christmas in Buenos Aires. While Christmas in Argentina does not bring the same feel of Christmas in the U.S., there are customs and traditions I have come to look forward to.

This past year I have been sharing my favorite things about living in Buenos Aires. Today I close out my favorite things list for 2011 where it all began. I am reposting a revised 2011 version of my “Christmas Top Ten” that I posted a year ago. This list really inspired and kicked off my year of stability.

1) Our annual community Advent Gathering, when we light the first candle of hope and pray for our friends. Then each week we light the remaining Advent candles on the wreath with a time of liturgy and prayer.
2) All the neighbors out on the street sitting on the sidewalk as both the weather and festivities warm up before Christmas.
3) Our church “pesebre” (nativity) that takes the entire stage (see photo above).
4) Our annual Christmas party with the youth, which took place TODAY. We hosted 11 young adults and 18 children this year.
5) The wire Christmas trees light up in the plaza and parks throughout the city, surrounded by the summertime green and shade of all the trees.
6) The cold drinks of the season…Gancia (similar to vermouth with soda water, lemon, and lots of ice); Sidra (a cider drink); and extra cold cerveza.
7) Our church’s Christmas worship service, which I will miss this year. Candles will be light around the pesebre and the baby Jesus will be laid in the manger.
8) Spending time with our friends at the Retiro train station and sharing some Christmas “pan dulce” and mate.
9) It’s all about Christmas Eve here! Fireworks go off at midnight, gifts are opened, and the festivities continue through the wee hours of the morning. (Definitely not a “silent night”!) I’m gonna feel some culture shock this Christmas Eve when all is quiet and tranquilo in California when the clock strikes midnight.
10) Holiday drinks at Starbucks, Argentina-style…Toffee Nut Latte, Dark Cherry Mocha, and Chocolate Carmel. (This year I am holding out for some gingerbread and peppermint!)

¡Amigos y amigas en Buenos Aires, voy a extrañarlos mucho! 

¡Feliz Navidad...y nos vemos pronto!

Waiting for the Light

This Advent I have been enjoying the new book, Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional. Christine Sine & Mustard Seed Associates have put together this book of reflections, liturgies, and prayers posted on Godspace blog in years past. I am using the e-reader Kindle version. You can check it out HERE.

The below prayer is an excerpt from a liturgy in the book for the second week of Advent, “Seeking or Expecting.”

God who created from nothing all that we see around us,
Enter the searching places of our hearts,
Search us, convict us, change us. 
God who invites us to draw from the wellsprings of life,
Come into the dry and thirsty places of our lives,
Fill us, transform us, dwell within us. 
God who extends to us the unforced rhythms of your grace,
Open within us a place where you can dwell,
Restore us, refresh us, renew us. 
As we seek to move close to you during this Advent season,
May our searching hearts expand our understanding of you,
Live in us, love through us, glorify yourself.

Advent Waiting

Waiting 
As Sarah waited…
Ninety years for a son to fulfill God’s promise
We wait in hope for what we thought had been promised to us
As Moses waited…
40 years in the desert being prepared by God to lead his people
We wait for emptiness and humility; for bravado to wither
As Israel waited…
40 years in the desert, hungry, depressed, thirsting, unsure
We wait for things to move on and generations to pass
As the prophets waited…
1000 years of promises that God would raise up a Saviour
We wait for things to change
As Mary waited…
9 months of her 14 years for the child of God
We feel the birth pangs yet fear for the child
As John the Baptist waited…
Scanning the crowds for the one whose sandals he would not be worthy to untie
We long for an experience of the Divine
As Jesus waited…
30 years of creeping time
40 days in the desert of temptation
3 years in the midst of misunderstanding
3 days in the depth of hell
So we wait for God’s time
Preparing the way
Our turn to toil on leveling mountains and straightening paths
Our turn to watch the time horizon
Our turn to pass on the hope
the one who promised is faithful
and will come back.

Taken from: Alternative Worship
Compiled by Jenny Baker, Doug Gay & Jenny Brown (Baker Books 2004)