Feast Day of St. Nikolas, December 6th

Feast of St. Nicholas December 6th

“Almighty God, in your love, you gave your servant Nicholas of Myra a perpetual name for deeds of kindness both on land and sea: Grant, we pray that your Church may never cease to work for the happiness of children, the safety of sailors, the relief of the poor, and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”— Lesser Feasts and Fasts (Church Publishing, 2006), p. 97. 

If you have been reading this blog for several years, you have heard about St. Nikolas on his feast day on the sixth of December. I apologize right now because you will hear about him again. I am powerless when it comes to St. Nikolas.  He has simply been a significant figure in our lives. You might say we developed an addiction to St. Nikolas in December! 

We know very little of the life of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, who lived in Asia Minor around 342. He is the patron of seafarers, sailors, and, more significantly, children. As a bearer of gifts to children, Dutch colonists in New York brought him to America, where he soon became known as Santa Claus.

When our grandchildren were young, we celebrated the feast day of St. Nicholas as a significant holiday. First, we had a big family meal together. My husband dressed up as Bishop Nicholas with a beard, a miter, a crozier, and a long red stole and came to visit our grandchildren after dinner. He spoke Greek to the children and the adults. Speaking Greek is my husband’s favorite pastime, and of course, you know Nikolas was Greek. Then our grandchildren went into the bedrooms and left their shoes outside the doors, and Bishop Nicholas left chocolate coins and presents in their shoes. I won’t bore you with our pictures of this family event, but they are stunning.

Why am I sharing with you our family story? I remember so many years on this feast day as I would sit and watch this pageant. I am still filled with tremendous gratitude, as my recovery date is close to the feast day of St. Nicholas. Each year, I know that if someone had not led me to a recovery program, I would never have been alive for these special events.  I would not have witnessed this wonderful blessing of watching our children and grandchildren gleefully giggle as they try to respond to a beautiful older man with a fake beard speaking Greek and secretly giving them candy in their shoes. So, it is a yearly reminder to continue working on a recovery program so that I can remember another feast day of St. Nicholas.

This is a suggestion. Look at the calendar of saints. Find one close to the date a significant change occurred in your life. Learn about that saint. Observe that saint’s day in your home and your life. You may even consider that saint your patron saint. This is one more way to remember how the God of love has transformed our lives. Spend that saint’s day giving thanks for those who loved you before you were born, with a passion that only comes from the love of the God of our understanding.

My hope is that we will all pay this love forward, giving back God’s love to a world so desperately needing it.

A secret. St. Nikolas will make an appearance Sunday night at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Little Rock, at the Christingle Service at 4:30 pm on December 22.
Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Anders: Awaiting the Child

Isabel Anders: Awaiting the Child

“If the roles between man and woman are more a dance than a drill (ideally, as joyful lovers can attest), the relationship between the soul and God is also more of a flow in which grace and human choice, unmerited favor, and our own will, act together in concert: in coinciding channels rather than separate connections. Gregory of Nyssa writes: ‘When the righteousness of works and the grace of the Spirit come together at the same time in the same soul, together, they can fill it with blessed life.’”— Isabel Anders in Awaiting the Child (Cowley 1987, 2005).

I give Awaiting the Child to every friend I know who is pregnant during Advent, but it is also for the rest of us who are beyond the “awaiting” stage in life. Anders shares a journal she kept for the four weeks of Advent during her first pregnancy. I often put in a book the date I start reading it. In Awaiting the Child, it is 1987, the year it was first published. Mrs. Anders was the managing editor for Synthesis, a monthly sermon preparation magazine based on the revised common lectionary for three decades. She is now the author of Circle Of Days, along with Paula Franck, a three-part series celebrating the Sunday lectionary readings.  

I will always be grateful to Mrs. Anders for her help when I began writing, for encouraging me, and for suggesting places to send my writing. Phyllis Tickle was also a similar mentor. I can never thank them enough for what they did, but I can resolve to “pay it forward” to do the same for other writers who come to me. There are no words to describe how rewarding it is to have a relationship with a good mentor. The same is true for spiritual friends. A spiritual director also mentors, encourages, and cares for the soul of a friend. I suggest that people also find an exemplary mentor. This is someone they admire and has talents and gifts they hope to develop. Jungian psychologists and spiritual gifts leaders would tell us that the characteristics and skills we admire in others are also in us, but we are not as aware of their presence. Simply knowing this is very reassuring. See if this fits you.

Now, we also have an Advent treat to hear from Mrs. Anders, over thirty years after she first wrote Awaiting the Child. Below is her book on the Sunday lectionary, Circles of Days.

https://www.amazon.com/Circle-Days-Church-celebration-Christian/dp/B0B6LNSMV4/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668450833&sr=1-1

Joanna     joannaseibert.com  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Jesus: The Light of the World, Waiting

Jesus: Light and Waiting

“I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” — John 8:12.

Holman Hunt The Light of the World

Nestled away in the side chapel of Keble College, Oxford, is this haunting painting, “The Light of the World,” by Holman Hunt. I stumbled upon it on an adventure walk at Oxford one summer, when we spent two weeks at nearby Wadham College. The painting mesmerized me, so I sat and visited it almost every afternoon. Hunt painted it in 1854 and sold it to Thomas Combe, who, on his death, willed it to Keble College. When Hunt heard Keble charged admission to see it almost fifty years later, he painted another picture four times larger, understanding that it would be considered a “sermon in a frame.” The larger work went on an international evangelism tour, where hundreds became believers.

When I discovered he donated this larger version to St. Paul’s Cathedral, I knew we needed to return to London to see it behind the altar in the North Transept, Middlesex Chapel. This version is just as haunting, but it is much harder to meditate on the painting with the crowds in that more extensive setting. I was almost always alone at the chapel at Keble.

I sometimes go to Pierce Chapel at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock, where this painting is in a stained glass window.

This is just a reminder of how art, even one painting, can make a difference in the world.

The figure of Christ and his searching eyes stands with a lantern on the other side of a door overgrown with dead weeds and rotten fruit on the ground. This speaks volumes about our relationship with Christ more than most theological writings. Christ has been there for some time. No matter where we stand or sit in connection to the painting, Christ’s eyes look directly at us. The door opens from the inside. Christ is not banging on the door but persistently and gently knocking.

I give copies of this image to spiritual friends, especially when they feel God’s absence.
God is there waiting.
Advent reminds us that we are not only waiting for God, but God also waits for us.

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

12-step Eucharist at Saint Mark’s tonight at 5:30.