Title: A Darkness Pregnant with Hope (1571)
Origin: Cityside Quiet Service, Winter 2001
Theme:
Turning points. Finding the light of hope in the cold of night. Relishing the dark and the cold. Coping with the paradoxes and contrasts of life and faith.
Mood:
Cool
Setup:
Darkness except for candles and controlled lights. Black out windows. Dead dry leaves on floor. Large (ex plastic laundry bucket) block of ice central, surrounded by candles. Bread and wine. Heating candles.
Gear:
Running order:
- Prelude: TRACK: Four Seasons, Vivaldi (Winter #10,11,12)
- Intro: As summer turns to autumn, and autumn to winter, the days draw in and the darkness lengthens. The light is overtaken.
(Blow candles out, dim lights to zero)
- Prayer to the Holy Spirit. (See below)
Select a line that speaks to you to meditate on.
*Silence
- Readings: Psalm 147/15-18, Psalm 74/12a, 16,17
*Silence
- Rant 1: re paradoxes in life (see below)
*Silence
- Responsive Reading: ‘Litany of Darkness and Light’ (see below)
- Prayers for those in ‘dark of night’ experiences.
- call out? A candle is lit for each, around and on the block of ice to melt it.
(Light levels up)
- Track: ‘Summer’, ex Four Seasons, Vivaldi.
- Bread and wine.
- Link 2: re Winter Cross
- Bring leaves and place on floor to make a Winter Cross.
- Elements / Words of Institution.
10. Track: ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’. By Byrds (2.30 cass)
- Closing: ‘Prayer to the Holy Spirit’ – select another line. (See notes below)
- Closing Blessing:
- Track: ‘Always Take the Weather With You’, Crowded House
Readings etc
Rant 1:
- We tend to think of winter as a time of dying – all of nature seems to fall to the ground and die – the sun isn’t seen so often, the nights get longer and the days shorter, warmth is overtaken by cold, the flowers that bloomed have run their course and died.
- It’s also a season of purging – cold kills off the bugs and insects that might otherwise proliferate and overrun us.
- But winter is really more about pregnancy and rebirth than about death
- Cycle of life – in the dying the seeds fall into the ground and the earth becomes impregnated with potential new life, new creation, birth is waiting.
- For this to happen there needs to be something of the darkness, concealment.
- Winter is a paradox – has 2 perspectives from which to view it
- death
- new life in the making
- Reality is that life is a paradox. Faith is a paradox.
Light/dark, death/life, night/day are all aspects of the reality God has given us in nature, and in the spiritual life.
Rant 2: Winter Cross
- Traditionally, Jesus’ Cross known as the ‘Tree of Life’
- Cross of death sprouting with new life.
- tonight, celebrating winter reveals the promise of new life
- thanksgiving for the death God embraced in order to bring new life.
- so…decorate the tree of life with dead leaves.
Litany of darkness and light
We wait in the darkness, expectantly, longingly, anxiously, thoughtfully.
The darkness is our friend. In the darkness of the womb, we have all been nurtured and protected. In the darkness of the womb, the Christ-child was made ready for the journey into the light.
You are with us, O God, in darkness and light.
It is only in the darkness that we can see the splendour of the universe – blankets of stars, the solitary glowings of distant planets.
It was the darkness that allowed the Magi to find the star that guided them to where the Christ-child lay.
You are with us, O God, in darkness and light.
In the darkness of sleep, we are soothed and restored, healed and renewed.
In the darkness of sleep, dreams rise up. God spoke to Jacob and Joseph through dreams. God is speaking still.
You are with us, O God, in the darkness and light.
In the solitude of darkness, we sometimes remember
those who need God’s presence in a special way – the
sick, the unemployed, the bereaved, the persecuted,
the homeless; those who are demoralized and
discouraged, those whose fear has turned to cynicism,
those whose vulnerability has become bitterness.
You are with us, O God, in darkness and light.
Sometimes we remember, in the darkness, those who
are near to our hearts – colleagues, partners,
parents, children, neighbors, friends. We thank God for their presence and ask God to bless and protect
them in all they do – at home, at school, as they
travel, as they work, as they pray.
You are with us, O God, in darkness and light.
Sometimes in the solitude of darkness our fears and
concerns, our hopes and our visions rise to the
surface. We come face to face with ourselves and
with the road that lies ahead of us. And in that same
darkness we find companionship for the journey.
In that same darkness, we sometimes allow
ourselves to wonder and worry whether the human
race is going to survive.
We know that you are with us, o God, yet we still
await your coming. In the darkness that contains
both our hopelessness and our expectancy, we
watch for a sign of God’s hope.
(Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand)
‘Prayer to the Holy Spirit’ by Willima Browning, C.P.
O Holy Spirit, give me stillness of soul in you.
Calm the turmoil within, with the gentleness of your peace.
Quiet the anxiety within, with a deep trust in you.
Heal the wounds of sin within, with the joy of your forgiveness.
Strengthen the faith within, with the awareness of your presence.
Confirm the hope within, with the knowledge of your strength.
Give fullness to the love within, with an outpouring of your love.
O Holy Spirit, be to me a source of light, strength and courage
so that I may hear your call ever more clearly
and follow you more generously.
Christian faith, Christian spirituality embraces the winters of life as readily as it embraces the summers.
Closing Prayer and Blessing (source unknown)
O God, as the winter sets in and
darkness surrounds us,
Hold us in your love.
Guide us through this night.
In our silence speak to us.
In our doubting, comfort us.
In our fear, strengthen us.
Help us to follow you through the
difficult and painful moments
so that we might share the joy of
Christ’s rising up to eternal day.
Amen.
And now,
May the blessing of God,
The eternal goodwill of God,
The shalom of God,
The wildness and warmth of God,
Be among us and between us
now and always.
Amen.
Other Useable Quotes
“In the dark time,
the eye begins to see”
Theodore Rofthke
The rain to the wind said,
‘You push and I’ll pelt.’
They so smote the garden bed
that the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged – though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.
Robert Frost
At every turn in the road
a new illumining is needed
to find the way
and a new kindling is needed
to follow the way.
John S Dunne
We have been taught that death is always followed by more death. It is simply not so, death is always in the process of incubating new life, even when one’s existence has been cut down to the bones.
Rather than seeing the archetypes of Death and Life as opposites, they must be held together as the left and right side of a single thought. It is true that within a single love relationship there are many endings. Yet somehow and somewhere in the delicate layers of the being that is created when two people love one another, there is both a heart and breath. While one side of the heart empties, the other fills. When one breath runs out, another begins.
If one believes that Life/Death/Life force has no stanza beyond death, it is no wonder that some humans are frightened of commitment. They are terrified to go through even one ending. They cannot bear to pass from veranda into the inner rooms. They are fearful, for they sense that there in the breakfast room of the house of love sits Lady Death, tapping her toe, folding and refolding her gloves. Before her is a work list, on one side what is living, on the other, what is dying. She means to carry through. She means to maintain a balance.
Women Who Run With the Wolves, (Clarissa Pinkola Estes Rider: London, 1992) (p132)
Much of our knowledge of Life/Death/Life nature is contaminated by our fear of death. Therefore our abilities to move with the cycles of this nature are quite frail. These forces do not “do something” to us. They are not thieves who rob us of the things we cherish. This nature is not a hit-and-run driver who smashes what we value.
No, no, the Life/Death/Life forces are part of our own nature, part of an inner authority that knows the steps, knows the dance of Life and Death. It is composed of the aspects of ourselves who know when something can, should, and must be born and when it must die. It is a deep teacher if we can only learn its tempo. Rosarioo Castellanos, the Mexican mystic and ecstatic poet, writes about surrender to the forces that govern life and death:
…dadme la muerte que me falta…
…give me the death I need…
Poets understand that there is nothing of value without death.
Women Who Run With the Wolves, (Clarissa Pinkola Estes Rider: London, 1992) (p133)
…imagine your life as a piece of music. But stop putting all the attention on the notes.
My life is not this steeply sloping hour,
in which you see me hurrying.
Much stands behind me; I stand before it like a tree;
I am only one of my many mouths
and at that, the one that will be still the soonest.
I am the rest between two notes,
which are somehow always in discord
because death’s note wants to climb over –
but in the dark interval, reconciled,
they stay there trembling
And the song goes on, beautiful.
Rainer Marie Rilke (trans. Robert Bly), quoted in The Heart Aroused, David Whyte.