Photo is from St Augustine's Victor Harbor. The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
‘The time
has come’ Advent 1
I remember
her well, the note of excitement in her voice, her eyes wide open, the flush in
her face. It was at the close of a Christian Mindfulness Day retreat which I
had led. We had spent the day in a companionable silence in our church centre
lit by vivid stained glass and by light that filtered through majestic gum
trees alongside the creek which ran past the church on the edge of the city
parklands.
The story
which this young woman shared with the group has remained with me. She had
grown up in Singapore, the only child of two professional people. She had
excelled at school, at sport and music. Her parents who she loved dearly, had
desired her to succeed, for them failure in anything, was not an option. Coming
to Australia to study she now ran her own successful business. But, by her own
admission she had not been happy and although a life long Christian like her
parents, she struggled to make sense of it all.
Something
happened on that retreat. Her therapist had suggested she do some mindfulness
and she had happened across our retreat program and meditation group. As a
Christian program it appealed to her, and she had booked in. We spent the day
practicing brief mindfulness exercises and longer guided meditations including
one called the Body Scan. In the Body Scan the meditator moves her attention
through her body, sensing as she goes, feeling into the body and into its
sensations.
Our Body
Scan which I had led, had taken her through a doorway into a new experience of
being human. She had been a woman driven to succeed. but by her own admission,
her analytical thinking pattern of relating had ceased to serve her. In the
Body Scan she suddenly understood that her Christian faith was not something
she controlled. ‘Pastor, I came to experience that Jesus had died for me and
that I am accepted’ she excitedly told the group. I never heard from this
woman again but she left that day with a very different understanding of who
she was, with new possibilities for every aspect of her life, not just her
relationship with Christ.
The old
Shaker song prays that we may ‘come to the place just right,’ one of the
prophets we call Isaiah, prays that the Holy One may come down and Jesus calls
his followers to be mindful.
The word
mindful goes back to the 14c in our English language. It says, pay attention,
keep focussed on what you are doing, take care.
We say ‘mind out’ and ask ‘will you mind the children?’ We are warned to
mind the gap and to keep mentally alert especially where we might experience
risk. When we are mindful, we are alert. Those focussed on their mobile phone at
the wrong time may cause an accident. We also make use of the expression
‘mindless’ as a way of tuning out or engaging in meaningless activity.
During
Advent we tell the story of Mary who became the first disciple as she welcomed
Jesus into her body. Our body, made of the dust of the stars is as the psalm
says, ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’
Our brain which is part of our body is as far as we know, the most
complex organic structure in the cosmos. When I reflect on that truth I find
again a sense of amazement, attunement, and acceptance of myself as a living,
breathing, sentient being, conscious and awake in the here and now.
This is the
invitation of Advent, ‘come home to yourself and to your one wild and precious
life.’ The Living Christ meets us in the here and now calling us to wholeness
and hopefulness as he shares his body in the Eucharist with our body in our
eating and drinking.
My prayer is
that like that young high achieving woman of Asian background, you too may
experience something new through a commitment to ‘be mindful’
this Advent so that, whatever your circumstances you pray ‘Come’ and hear from
the Divine Presence the invitation ‘come’ be my guest. Amen.
