COMMUNITY LETTER - Christmas 2011

Dear Members and Friends of the Hawkes Bay Community,

Christmas is always the high point of the year. We are even given a ‘days to go’ countdown as the event comes closer. And then in the month before, two processes begin – one outer and the other inner. Are you aware of them?

The inner process focuses on preparing for the truth of Christmas – the truth and majesty of the birth. It brings the reality of our own true ‘becoming’ gently into our consciousness – an awakening to truth if we are quiet and receptive enough. The outer process, you may have noticed, does all it can to disturb and dampen the inner process. It’s all about the ending of the year – the prize-giving events, the end-of-year functions and luncheons, the fairs, the shopping, the planning, the lists of cards, the mail schedule ... and on it goes. There seems to be more traffic on the roads, more things that have to be done – more stress. Have you succumbed to it or are you able to maintain sufficient equilibrium and peace?

It really is a help to carry the spirit of the words that we have from the Advent gospel reading: Luke 21 – “And signs will appear in Sun, Moon and Stars ...” for here we can understand something of the confluence of forces within which our souls are both tested and strengthened. Advent tests us. Christmas fulfils us. This is how it can be when we find a way to enter into the outer and inner realities of Advent and Christmas where we can discover and become more of what and who we are as human beings growing in grace, in strength.

Following Christmas, it is possible to enter into a real time of peace and relaxation. January tends to be quite a contrast to our experi-ence of December. Summer really arrives. School is in recess and it is holiday time. But can we also have something of the experience of the inner processes which are signified with the festival of Epiphany? Fortunately, something of the Epiphany experience is available to those who participate in our Summer camps – but what of Epiphany for those who do not attend?

Remember most of all what Epiphany signifies. Seek the star of grace within as we think upon the coming year and the destiny that we will experience within it. Look up to the light of the stars and the vast space within which they are contained. Begin to feel the life of Christ streaming to us from the wide spaces. Be touched by the wisdom that carries all that is. Seek to awaken the eye of the soul to the light within.

Kevin Coffey