Take Time to be Aware Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac, p. 196
Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present.
An old abbot was fond of saying, ‘The devil is always the most active on the highest feast days.’
The supreme trick of Old Scratch is to have us so busy decorating, preparing food, practicing music and cleaning in preparation for the feast of Christmas that we actually miss the coming of Christ. Hurt feelings, anger, impatience, injured egos—the list of clouds that busyness creates to blind us to the birth can be long, but it is familiar to us all.
I know it's the totally wrong thing to focus on, from the whole piece, but Old Scratch!?
ReplyDeleteIt's wrong that whole dumb name makes me laugh.
It's probably a very good thing that we don't attend the same church--we'd do internal damage sitting by each other.
ReplyDelete