It has come to that time in Advent when it is impossible to do anything quickly. A “quick “ visit to a nearby town involved queuing for the car park, queuing at the tills of the shop, turning away from the coffee shop as there were just too many people and feeling my head hurt as my brain tried to cope with the jazz music of the shop battling with the Christmas music outside and neither making a very good fist of it.
I have been very conscious this year of the contrast between the noise and pace in the world, with the stillness of sacred spaces. While one tries to be more Christmassy than Christmas itself and often just causes stress, the other, provides peace, a warm, embracing, nurturing silence which seems to speaks to the heart.
Perhaps this week it is time to find a sacred space, our churches are open and still, a refuge when the world seems to have gone mad, a place to be still and re centre, to bring us much needed peace.
In her beautiful poem, “Wachet Auf”, Paula Gooder wrote:
“Like some great fugue
The themes entwine;
The Christmas carols
Demanding our attention in shops and pubs,
Bore their insistent way
Through noise of traffic;
Underneath, almost unheard, the steady, solemn theme of Advent.”
If you are feeling troubled or anxious, fraught or tired, enter a sacred space and listen, to hear that ‘almost unheard’ steady solemn theme. It is a steady theme of God’s unchanging love for us. A love which knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us more than we love ourselves.
Questions for reflection on Week 3 of Advent
1. Where do you go for a quiet space during this busy season?
2. What may be stopping you from seeking a quiet space?
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