Welcome to this beautiful, challenging and special time of the year…This is the time, when in the northern hemisphere, darkness triumphs over light, night triumphs over day. This is a time of surrender into the darkness of the void, where all possibility resides ………..as Simone Weil notes “Grace fills the empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it and it is grace itself which makes the void”.
In this deep dark season that is the stillness of mid-winter, a new light is born. This light is fragile, and needs to be protected and nurtured, so that it can grow and blossom later in the year. For 5000 years, this mystery has been observed and honoured consciously and unconsciously in the wonderful monument in Newgrange Ireland whose older name in Irish is Uaimh Na Greinne (the womb of the sun). See http://www.newgrange.com/winter_solstice.htm. At sunrise on 5 consecutive mornings around the time of Winter Solstice from Dec18th until Dec 22nd people gather inside and outside this monument and watch and wait as the sun travels up the narrow passage and impregnates the dark and empty chamber filling it with light and transforming the darkness! In the Christian tradition, the birth of the Christ child represents an evolution of this ancient mystery. The birth of the Christ-child represents the birth of a new consciousness, the Christ consciousness of unconditional Love.
This is a time when we connect with each other in a way that is different and unique. In doing so, we are remembering and re-living a custom from earlier times when the reality of winter and darkness were physically more challenging. People came together to support each other though the darkest time of the year by exchanging gifts and sharing food together. Now more than ever we need to come together to support each other as we come through the dark times in which we find ourselves. So at this time of uncertainty, as we enter 2012, may we each trust the new light that is emerging within us and nurture it in ourselves and in others and
“May the Love and Light of the Christ Consciousness Be born again in your heart this Solstice and Christmas time and may it radiate out into the world around you Transforming everything it touches”
Le gra agus Beannachtai
Dolores Whelan