Greetings St. John’s,
Join us tomorrow evening (Tuesday, December 7th) at 6:30 p.m. as we continue our conversation of “Night Visions” by Jan Richardson. The zoom information can be found here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83373607182?pwd=SHZDWjFmS2F5dXFoQkYzRUpzbTFhQT09
Meeting ID: 833 7360 7182
Passcode: 523928
The following is an excerpt from Jan’s writings for your to consider before our gathering:
Each year, early in the fall, the voices begin clamoring to tell us what we want. We cannot go shopping, read the newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch television without being told what will make our holidays complete. Toys for our children (if we have them), jewels for our partners (if we have them), presents for our coworkers (if we have a job), lavish food for the family holiday mean (if we have family, if they live close enough, if we even want to be with them). We rail at the commercialism of Christmas even as we sometimes get caught up in it.
But the voices will never tell us what we really want, what we really long for, what we desire with heart and soul. Those who have sat in the darkness know how the shadows give way to desire. Without sight, without our heads swimming with the images of what others tells us we want, we can turn our gaze inward and search our souls. What speaks to us? What calls to us? What dreams have we buried? What wounds cry out for healing? What longs to be born in us in this season? What is the yearning which we have not dared to name? Our desires reveal to us what we think about God, about ourselves, and about the world.
In her remarkable book of prayers entitled All Desires Known, Janet Morley writes, “I understand the Christian life to be about the integration of desire: our personal desires, our political vision, and our longing for God. So far from being separate or in competition for one another, I believe that our deepest desires ultimately spring from the same source, to discern our desires and to find their common ground.
In this season, I journey with questions: what and whom do I desire? Do my desires spring from a longing for wholes or from a sense of inadequacy? Do they come from within me or from what others say I should want? Will the things I long for bring healing to others as well as to myself? Will my desires draw me closer to God? Do I really believe the Holy One desires me, loves me unconditionally, longs for me?
The one who invited Mary into partnership assures us that we, too, are desires and desirable. So desired, we are invited to claim our own desires and to name the longings that we carry in this season.
Advent Blessings,
Amanda+