Advent/Christmas Reflection from Behind the Walls 2020

 Let's face it, these are tumultuous times for all of us.  Time in which I find myself often gazing from my cell window and wondering, what it might be that you yourself are seeing from your own window? For me, I see a co-mingling of sorrow and joy.  The leaves are changing and so are we.  Colder weather is moving in, and the ways in which we now interact with one another are dramatically altered.  So much suffering abounds, often it is difficult to know how best to help.  Many have become cynical, fearful, disillusioned, and stress and anxiety and frustration can get overwhelming.  I get it, I have my moments too.  However, the longer I gaze out my window, the more deeply I feel drawn to go deeper within myself.

From this vantage point, the window of my heart, my Advent journey is beginning.  I can see that many of us have grown older, more infirm, are struggling to make ends meet, and are wrestling with the innumerable uncertainties life now challenges us with. Many more of us are also grieving the losses of both loved ones and the way life used to be. In the windows of my own nostalgic moments, I fondly recall your face and the many memories we share from our vibrant Bethanian communal days.  It is the memory of your face, like a shining star to me, that brings me both solace and hope.  Comfort knowing that we may be separated, but we are far from being apart.

For a few moments, I had wished to turn back the hands of time.  Then a realization struck me, Advent calls us forward, not backward. We have grown since last we met, and each of us is on a journey now to transcend who we are at this moment.  Like the Wise folk of old, who took a risk, took off their masks, and dared to follow that bright shining star into an uncertain future, so too are we called to do the same, to step out in faith.  Advent journeys are about learning to trust, and about learning to see through the darkness and into the Light.  Often it is one baby step at a time.  Advent feeds us the nutrients we most need to bring new life in us.  Christmas dispels the dark, transcends the fear, in the humble gathering where we meet once again at the manger of Christ and together are fed.  May we be starts for others along the way to the Celebration.  See you at the manger of Love!  Your "cloistered brother," Phil.