Be watchful! Be alert!  Mark13:33

Our jounneys must enter the Advent Dark

to reach the Light.

On our way,

we befriend the darkness,

and we pass through

towards grattude

for all that was,

and all that can be.

W.F.

"Be watchful! Be alert!

Expect surprises.

It is the way of the Spirit. 

I have just finished reading the life of the surprising and astounding Pope Saint John XXIII.

He followed the prickly and calicified reign of Pius XII who the author Thomas Cahill described as a "moral pgymy" for doing too little and too late to rescue endangered Jews.

Wheras John XXIII as envoy to Turkey in World War II, made friends with the German ambassador, and  wheedled out of him thousands of documents that rescued 24,000 Jews from the Balkans.

And then surprise of all surprises the sunny tempered John

called the Second Vatican Council not to condemn the modern world, as previous popes had, but rather to befriend it.

[And is not Pope Francis a surprise following Pope Benedict?]

Surprise! The darkest day of each year is followed by the return of the light,and this hope filled event was recorded at ancient shrines like Stonehenge in England and Newgrange Ireland.

So be an Advent surprise for someone. Do some surprising and perhaps random act of kindness.

And so we pray:

Come Holy Spirirt,

shed your light into the ancient corridor of Newgrange,

and shed it into the darkest corners of our minds and hearts.

Make them open to be surprised,

and to bestowing surprises.

AMEN