CHRISTMAS 2009
CHRISTMAS MESAGE - FATHER LAURENCE
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THE WORLD COMMUNITY
FOR CHRISTIAN MEDITATION
FRIENDS IN MEDITATION
LEARN TO LIVE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

    A Jewish tradition has it that when the angels saw what God had done in the work of creation
    they burst out with a song of praise that continues throughout time at the heart of all things.
    The story of the birth of Jesus provoking another such cosmic outburst after the shepherds
    heard the good news reminds us of how similar and different the new creation in Christ is.
    The mantra similarly sings in our hearts in the epiphany of his birth in us.

    The gospel story of the birth and infancy of Jesus contains a number of Canticles – the
    Benedictus of Zecahariah, the Magnificat of Mary and the Song of Simeon -  which have
    become part of the daily prayer of Christians. These human acts of praise were probably
    composed in the early Christian community as they pondered the mystery of Jesus and
    gradually penetrated its depths. Then they were applied retrospectively in Luke’s gospel to
    the later accounts of his birth. This pattern shows how prayer, liturgy and scripture weave
    the tradition of faith and it is this density of meaning that we return to each year in the
    celebration of the Christmas season.

    Human beings tell stories to make the meaning that we need to discover in order to live well.
    The stories of scripture are different from the soap operas or even literary fiction with which
    we entertain ourselves. The narratives of scripture, like that of the birth of Jesus, give
    greater returns each time we recall them, so freshly intertwined are they with the stories of
    our own lives. Our deepening spiritual experience, the raising and clarifying of
    consciousness that is the result of our meditation, is fed by the Word that is alive and active.
    It also leads us back to scripture with a new hunger and capacity for insight.

    Christmas is a feast of meaning. Much of it is reflected in our cultural forms of celebrating at
    this time of year – the exchanging of gifts that remind us that human relationships are based
    on giving not bargaining or exploiting, the gathering of family and friends reminding us that
    we are not alone in the solitudes of the human journey, the eating and drinking that remind us
    that celebration is natural and necessary us. But all these depend on the personal
    experience of what Christmas is most essentially about – the radical poverty and simplicity,
    the intoxicating proximity to God that our total dependence on being  reveals. The closer we
    come to this radical simplicity – which our meditation keeps us moving into – the more we
    have to sing about. The fuller the song, the richer the silence.

    Let us hold each other in our hearts as a community in this joyful season. May our sense of
    this new creation restore us to the love of the earth needed if we are to repair the damage
    we have inflicted on it May our life as community increase the energy of peace that our
    divided world is striving for as well as the justice on which peace depends – the very wisdom
    that the newborn Jesus embodies.

    On December 30th at the Retreat Centre in London we will be celebrating the gift of John
    Main to the world on the 27th anniversary of his fully entering the light of Christ. On the
    website (www.wccm.org) we will post a suggestion for a simple remembering that some of
    you might like to observe around this time in your meditation groups.

    With much love,



    Laurence Freeman OSB
Dearest Friends,

    All at once there was with the angel a great company of
    the heavenly host singing the praises of God (Lk 2:13)