Flickering Ingredients

 Rabbi Hugo Gryn used to tell of his experience in   Auschwitz as a boy.  Food supplies were meager, and inmates took great care to preserve every scrap that came their way.  When the Festival of Hanukkah arrived- (a celebration known as “The Festival of Lights” which celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem after the victory of Judas Maccabeus over a Seleucid King who had tried to outlaw Judaism.)- Hugo’s father took a lump of margarine and, to the horror of the young Hugo, used it as fuel for the light to be lit at the festival.  When the young Hugo asked his father why he had wasted the very precious food, his father replied, “We know that it is possible to live for three weeks without food, but without HOPE it is impossible to live properly for three minutes.”

Soon we will begin the beautiful season of Advent and here at the monastery we have the custom of lighting the candles on the Advent Wreath each evening in our chapel as part of our journey through Advent to our great feast of Light - the birth of the Light of the World - Jesus Christ at Christmas.

 I love the flickering light of the candles and

how it can lead the eye to discover something new in a familiar space.  It never shows the same space twice because the flickering light has no mind for repetition.  It can fill the space with a crazy geometry of shadows and can also bring soothing and hope to weary hearts.  Almost without sensing it the mind is gradually relieved of its inner turmoil and light flickers somewhere near the heart to enkindle hope.  In the very beautiful and very popular Advent hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” we sing ---“O come, great daystar, radiant bright,      And heal us with your glorious light.”  This captures an age-old desire for light and hope to dispel the gloomy clouds of night.

Our Carmelite contemplative communities of women are scattered throughout the world and each small community attempt to create zones of LIGHT and HOPE in our world today. The challenge for all of us today is to trust, that in the beautiful and maddening complexity of our world, life has a meaning beyond the daily struggle and that we are free to embrace or reject that meaning. As we approach Christmas, the name of Christ leaps forth from tongues, flashing signs and songs – “Happy Christ --- mas!” And this is the One we speak of as Light and Hope.

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