Week 9 - A new beginning
Theme:
God takes me and accepts me just as I am.
Realizing this gives me a new beginning in my life,
a path which can be taken.
What I might wish to ask God for:
That I may accept that I am accepted as I am.
That I can thank God for everything which has been given to me.
That, in this time of Christmas, I may receive the child, Jesus, into my heart.
In order to begin my time of prayer well, I become still so that I am able to truly receive the gaze of God who is looking at me with love.
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We are going to listen to an English Christmas carol. Maybe the most well-known carol for children in England. It is a prayer for blessings: a prayer asking Jesus to stay with me forever and to love me. A prayer which is most definitely not only for little children but a heart-felt prayer for us all during this Christmas time. I reflect in silence after the carol considering which words moved me.
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Music: Away in a Manger Voces8.
Away in a manger
No crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head
The stars in the bright sky
Looked down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay
The cattle are lowing
The Baby awakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes
I love Thee, Lord Jesus
Look down from the sky
And stay by my side
Until morning is nigh
Be near me, Lord Jesus
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me I pray
Bless all the dear children
In Thy tender care
And fit us for heaven
To live with Thee there
Spotify Link:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5q1rPaKHor63onQ3eeaCD3?si=e66e3ca93ace45d5
YouTube Link:
https://youtu.be/3ev7yTAq7PI?si=Y4kayCrmQCi931n0
Psalm 131
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a child quieted at its mother’s breast;
like a child that is quieted is my soul.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and for evermore.
I look at the picture of the Madonna and Child. Baby Jesus in the loving arms of His mother, Mary. God, who as a vulnerable child comes to us and entrusts Himself completely to Mary’s love. He rests in the arms of His mother. What does this evoke in me?
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I consider moments in my own life when I might have been able to say: “my soul is calmed and quieted”. What do I need in order to fell calm and quieted?
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My Christmas present: the unconditional love of Christ. A new beginning for me! May the Christchild also be born in my own heart!
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Be near me, Lord Jesus
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me I pray.
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Music: Away in a Manger
Christ could be born
a thousand times in Galilee –
but all in vain
until he is born in me.
Angelus Silesius