Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
Today the sacred season of Advent begins! We stand at the threshold of a potent time when we are invited to move inward to listen to the Divine presence in a deeper way and then stand in the wonder of holy birthing for the Christmas season.
Thresholds are powerful times to listen anew for the whispers of the holy in your life and how you are being invited to move and breathe and have your being.
I love doors and portals and what they represent. While I have mixed feelings about New Year’s resolutions, I do adore the promise and possibility this time of year offers to us. Doors, both open and closed, seem to shimmer with the invitation to approach.
One of the things I loved most about our time living in central Europe were the beautiful doors to be found in old cities. Doors are places for pausing, of finding your key, of knocking, of asking for entry. Thresholds carry us from one place to another – usually from outside to inside or the other way around. They are symbols of our inner movements.
I believe that our lives are about crossing one threshold after another. Opening our hearts to the next invitation, even if it means stepping away from what is comfortable and familiar and toward what feels unknown.
When we cross a threshold we enter a liminal space, which is where the old has been released, dissolved, or sometimes ripped away and the new has not yet taken shape. We often want to grasp the shape of a known future, but this does not honor the richness of our lives and the grace that time can offer as we grow into who we are called to be.
I invite you to pause now and allow some time to rest on whatever threshold you happen to be crossing in this season of your life. See yourself standing in a doorway, straddling the old and the new, but instead of trying to cross over to the other side, you allow time to become familiar with this space of mystery and unknowing. You make space to savor the sacredness of a threshold.
In Ireland places are referred to as “thin” where the veil between heaven and earth becomes more transparent. These threshold places are ancient sites like holy wells, church ruins, stone circles, passage tombs, and sacred mountains. It is at these thresholds where we become more deeply attuned to the presence of the sacred around us. These places are vessels which can hold us in our times of listening and waiting.
The veil is thought to be thinner at certain times of the year, like the solar festivals of the solstices and equinoxes, or the Celtic cross-quarter feasts of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasa. Samhain is the start of the Celtic new year, so another possibility is to move through these practices in October leading up to November 1st and Samhain.
An ancient wisdom says not all time is the same. Kairos moments, when we have a sense of the holy breaking through, help us to touch eternity and lose track of time while chronos moments are the tedium of watching the clock tick. Similarly, not all space is the same. Some places are sanctuaries for connection to the sacred, perhaps because of the community of people who have prayed there back through the ages.
Whatever threshold you stand on right now, nurture your awareness of how the sacred is more available in these moments, more clearly heard or seen. Keep alert for signs of how the divine is moving through your days.
The world is on a threshold as well. Climate crisis, poverty, racism, violence break out hearts and overwhelm our spirits. When we acknowledge the threshold we are on, we recognize that the old ways must be dissolved and space for the new kept open and alive. When we stand in a doorway, we are listening for ourselves, but also listening for those around us who are struggling and suffering in various ways.
Today, we are starting our Advent and Christmas season retreat journeying through my new book Give Me a Word. This phrase “give me a word” comes from the early desert tradition when men and women went out into the desert to find a deeper intimacy with the divine. Many followed these elders into the desert and asked “give me a word,” a word to nourish and challenge, to inspire and heal, something to integrate over the next season of their lives. The retreat will invite you into a series of practices to cultivate your intuitive capacity to receive a word and then to work with its wisdom.
Standing on the threshold at this turning point of the year, what is the word awaiting you? What word will guide you, sustain you, challenge you, and console you as we move into the new year?
We hope you will consider joining us for this threshold time of Advent and Christmas by joining us for our Give Me a Word retreat which begins today! There is a live online session tomorrow and then daily practices for you to listen more closely for the word that can guide you into the coming year. The retreat is a companion to my book and has audio versions of all the meditations plus bonus practices and a facilitated forum for sharing and connection. We will have a vibrant community joining us as always for discussion and sharing in our facilitated forum along with bonus practices from several guest teachers.
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
