Blessings at Christmas – God’s holy HERE and NOW!
tags: Advent, Maryknoll Sister Ann Hayden, Maryknoll Sisters Centennial, relationships, Spirit of Christmas
During these weeks before Christmas two phrases from the Advent readings have caught my attention. The psalmist in Psalm 25 asks God to “Stretch my narrow heart,” and the barren woman in Isaiah 54:3 is told by God to “Enlarge the space of your tent; spread out your tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes” in preparation for growth and new life.
The Spirit of Christmas calls us to stretch our physical, spiritual and emotional boundaries; to welcome and embrace the fullness of life already intuited and carried in our bellies; pondered in our hearts and revealed in profound relationships with family, friends, neighbors and strangers. Hospitality, in its deepest meaning, is about the integrity of our life that firmly defines the space we provide to justice and to right relationships and that stretches our hesitancy to the point of free choice and our love to the point of giving birth over and over again.
In this and every season, God invites us to open our minds, stretch our hearts and enlarge the space of our relationships with authenticity. In that creative tension, God comes to us longing to find a home lit unsparingly with tenderness, peace and courage. The feast of the Epiphany on January 8, 2012, marks 100 years since the founding of the Maryknoll Sisters in 1912. In this Centennial Year, we are filled with deep gratitude for all that has been and with a welcoming ‘yes’ to the promise of the future.
Together let us seek to discover the way God is revealed in our midst today and each day – God’s holy HERE AND NOW. May your life be blessed with tenderness, peace and courage and may God‘s new life find a welcoming home in the midst of your everyday ‘yes.’
Enjoy a grace-filled Christmas and a blessed New Year!
In Loving Peace, 
Sr. Ann
