For Christmas day

more on the same theme from me.. this is part of a liturgy we use at home for Christmas day.

Today we celebrate God’s entry into the world as a baby.
And this God is:
A small God
A weak and helpless God
A vulnerable God
A dependant God
An incompetent God
A powerless God

When we look into the face of a Child
We are looking at the image of God
God draws us into his presence
By allowing us to hold him and cuddle him
Which makes us feel good The Mission release

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He allows us to giggle and coo at him
Which gives us life. Material Girls trailer
We gaze into his eyes
And God looks back at us with complete trust and love.

This is the God that we celebrate at Christmas
A God who needs humans to take care of him
A God who suckled at his mother’s breast
This is the Word who had to learn to speak
This is the Way who had to learn how to walk
This is the Bread who had to learn to eat solids
This is the thirst quencher who had to learn to drink from a cup.

PRAYERS FOR CHRISTMAS EVE

Prayers for Christmas eve – not all my own work and can’t remember where I got the refrain from …”help us make room for Jesus – be born in us tonight.” a bit long as well – verses can be cut out at will…

Tonight we celebrate the birth of Christ
We celebrate the birth of a baby
We celebrate a small God
We celebrate a God who became one of us
We celebrate a God who makes his home in us

Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

For those of us who have everything
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

For those of us who are competent
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

For those of us who are independent
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

For those of who are strong
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

For those of us who have all the answers
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

For those of us who need to be in control
Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

And at this time of the year we pray for the powerless, the small people who go unnoticed, the poor , the weak, the beggars, abused children, the outcasts, the ugly, the smelly. These are the people who Jesus identified himself with. So lets pray for the world and allow ourselves to hear the Christ within ourselves and see the Christ in others.

Holy Child
Whose parents found no room in the Inn;
We pray for all who are homeless

Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

Holy Child
Born in a stable;
We pray for all living in poverty

Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

Holy Child
Rejected stranger;
We pray for all who feel lost and alone
All who cry for loved ones

Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

Holy Child
Whom Herod sought to kill
We pray for all who live in danger
All who are persecuted

Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight Live Free or Die divx

Holy Child
A refugee in Egypt
We pray for all who are far from their homes

Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

Holy Child
Help us we pray, to see the divine image
In people everywhere.

Help us to make room for Jesus
Be born in us tonight

Advent Grace

We give thanks for the journey of this food
The waiting involved
The hiddeness of the seed
The fragility of the egg
From the seed to the fruit
From the egg to the bird
From the field to our plates
Giving us life and energy

As advent reminds us of your conception in us
The miracle that God makes his home in us
Help us remember the miracle of the seed
planted in the depths of the earth
Help us remember new life
Which grows and feeds us.

We give thanks for the small God
We give thanks for the small seed
We give thanks for the fragile egg
We give thanks for life.For Love or Money the movie Ocean’s Eleven dvdrip Imprint movie download Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie video

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Affirmation of faith during advent

I believe in God, who had the wild idea of becoming one of us
I believe in Jesus, who restricted himself to Mary’s womb for a while
I believe in the Holy spirit, who overshadowed Mary,
I believe in the incarnation of God,
I believe that God lives within us
I believe that God is with us.Alive or Dead release

I believe in Santa !

Not posted anything for ages – but just came across the following from G. K. Chesterton.

What has happened to me has been the very reverse of what appears to be the experience of most of my friends. Instead of dwindling to a point, Santa Claus has grown larger and larger in my life until he fills almost the whole of it.
It happened in this way. As a child I was faced with a phenomenon requiring explanation. I hung up at the end of my bed an empty stocking, which in the morning became a full stocking. I had done nothing to produce the things that filled it. I had not worked for them, or made them or helped to make them. I had not even been good — far from it. And the explanation was that a certain being whom people called Santa Claus was benevolently disposed toward me.
What we believed was that a certain benevolent agency did give us those toys for nothing. And, as I say, I believe it still. I have merely extended the idea. Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking; now I wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great planet in the void. Once I only thanked Santa Claus for a few dolls and crackers, now, I thank him for stars and street faces and wine and the great sea. Once I thought it delightful and astonishing to find a present so big that it only went halfway into the stocking. Now I am delighted and astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great deal outside; it is the large and preposterous present of myself, as to the origin of which I can offer no suggestion except that Santa Claus gave it to me in a fit of peculiarly fantastic goodwill.
— G. K. Chesterton in The Tablet 2

I wish you all a happy Christmas –

Keep believing in Santa…

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Forgive us

When we betray you, we betray ourselves.
Forgive us

Every time we allow another person to belittle us, patronise us and walk all over us, we betray you.

Every time we put ourselves down, think negative thoughts about ourselves and criticize ourselves, we betray you.

Every time we see injustice and deceit and lies and remain silent we betray you.

Everytime we scuttle past the street dwellers feeling embarrassed and avoid the big issue sellers because we are in a hurry, we betray you. When we give no eye contact to those who hold out their hands for money, when we de-humanise people, we betray you.

Whenever we side with the powerful over the powerless and the articulate over those with no words, we betray you .

Whenever we choose to remain silent in the midst of injustice, whenever we are passive when faced with destructive behaviour, whenever we close our eyes to the pain of the other – we betray you.

When we laugh at others misfortune and judge and criticise those who don’t come up to our standards – we betray you.

Everytime we vote for violence over peace and justice – we betray you.

Forgive us and help us to forgive ourselves
Help us let others go and let ourselves off the hook
Enable us to lose life and find that which is more precious.Clue ipod

Retreat for men – ‘On being a man’

On being a man –
A weekend retreat for men in beautiful north Northumbria
May 4 – 6th 2007

This is an introductory retreat on masculine spirituality which will explore and touch on several themes including exploring our perceptions of being male, Jesus the man, wounds of the father and further steps to developing a mature masculinity.

I am a member of the Northumbria community and lived at the mother house for 3 years which had a major impact on my spiritual formation. The Community is a dispersed community interested in exploring a new monasticism informed by Celtic spirituality and the desert fathers and mothers. The community is situated in the middle of the countryside – 10 miles form Holy Island.
I would like to invite you to experience the hospitality and rhythm of the community in the wilds of north Northumberland while also focussing on what is means to be a man in this introduction to masculine spirituality

For more info about the community, my work with men and to book please go to there website at http://www.northumbriacommunity.org

The sound made me do it !

Last weekend I had to do a presentation on the history of therapeutic drumming. Like many others on the course the discussion went back to sound and vibration. The first sound we hear is our mother’s heartbeat, a pulse, the life force.

My presentation was about sound and movement (dance) I started by describing how it is so natural for young children to move to the beat. When my 2 year old hears music he moves his body, he can’t help it, it is impulsive, natural, part of who he is. The older we get – we lose this ability and lose connection with our body.

While researching I was reminded that sound was at the core of creation – when God spoke.. “let there be light� there was light. Sound was connected to something physical happening. In Hebrew the word “Dabhar� which we translate as ‘word’ implies deeds and actions not just words, accomplishments not talk and creation not verbalising.

Dabhar is active, imaginative and playful.

I like this… so much better then boring old words….so many said, texted, written that are meaningless, pointless and powerless… less is definitely more.

Let there be Dabhar !!

The Zahir

I’ve recently been reading some books by Paulo Coelho including, ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘By the river Piedra I sat down and wept’

I have found his books a great inspiration written from the heart and I would certainly recommend them. The latest book of his I’m reading is called ‘The Zahir’ which is all about love and what it means to follow your heart. Below is a passage from this book on relationships and communication.

“The most important thing in all human relationships is conversation, but people don’t talk any more, they don’t sit down to talk and listen. They go to the theatre, the cinema, watch television, listen to the radio, read books, but they almost never talk. If we want to change the world, we have to go back to a time when warriors would gather round a fire and tell stories�