Liturgies

Last year the SMX board felt that it would be good for us as a community to re-connect with our early hopes, dreams and aspirations as a Community in Exile. They felt that what the Community had decided on as our Vision Statements 12 years ago , and now found in the opening words of our Constitution, were a perfect place to begin. The liturgy Group felt it would be an appropriate fit for our Lenten theme of RENEW; REFRESH and REFOCUS

Central to the message of Jesus is the invitation to embrace the presence of God in the here and now. This is also a central message from the recently deceased Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. This weekend our liturgies invite us once again into this simple but easily overlooked reality.

Richard Rohr in today’s homily speaks of the big seeing that Jesus invites us into, a seeing that comes from dying to the small self. A seeing that knows we are all interrelated and part of the whole.

When Jesus went to a lonely place to pray He was being with his God - in a union of love.

Hope is central to the Gospel and is desperately needed in these challenging times. Margaret Clifford will provide some reflection on the theology of hope and will begin a conversation about how we can nurture hope in ourselves, our communities and in our world.

Throughout advent we have been exploring more fully the beautiful Christmas story. This wonderful myth of how Divine Consciousness conceals itself in mere form. And according to the story it is only those who see who are delighted and transformed by this loving presence disguised in a small baby.

This week, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Liz Little considers the Christmas archetype of the Divine Child by exploring the notion of vulnerability and the divine.

In our liturgy this week we will be invited to take the Christmas story and make it work for us…to get off the merry-go-round of the familiarity of the story and even with masked faces smile with our eyes and give out the hope of the shepherds and authentic wise people….We will be invited to allow the God within and in whom we dwell shepherd us to be people of hope.

This week as we celebrate the second week of Advent, our focus is on the character of Mary in the Christmas story. She is the one who ponders and stores all things in her heart. Deeply rooted in love, in conscious aware being, in God, she responds with courage and kindness, not knowing where her response of " let it be done unto me" will take her.

In this weekend's liturgies, we begin our Advent Season. Throughout the season we will be examining the key characters in the Christmas story. These significant people reveal to us, often in subtle, hidden ways, the messages of the Gospel. Today Terry explores the wondrous central Christmas symbol of the coming of the Light.