Dear friends,
The Rev. Ed Thornley preaches from the pulpit Dec. 8.
During my sermon on The Second Sunday of Advent, I was reflecting on the words of The Rev. Canon Edie Dolnikowski, who spoke the previous week about how Advent is a season for slowing down, not taking on more, and seeking to adopt new prayerful and reflective practices. During my homily following Edie’s, I found myself thinking about how I have struggled with this more meditative practice myself, and how important it is to try and slow down. Of course, several friends, knowing my sense of humor, remarked afterwards, smiling, “Oh, so if it’s important for me to slow down then I suppose you don’t need me to help you this week with XYZ then …!” Or, “Do you really need the choir this week …?”
I suppose it would be nice if we were all able to continue getting some things done, even in Advent (although I did appreciate the joke!). However, it did genuinely get me thinking: what if we could keep up the pace but find more meditative ways through it? Instead of slowing down as such, what if we considered what it might mean to maintain a certain pitch and purpose in one’s life while still fervently moving forward?
Now, I’m not going back on my sermon right now, nor because I’m afraid people will stop helping me keep this church afloat in one of the busiest seasons of the year … But indeed, as I moved from sermon to announcements during last Sunday’s service, and inevitably started listing all the merry things going on in the parish which are joyful, and of course a major part of this season, I did find myself wondering if my sermon needed to be a little more nuanced. Perhaps it’s not so much about slowing down so as to cut things back, rather readjusting our pace and focus so that we might become more aligned with the way God approaches us.
The Rev. Dr. Jerome Berryman
In preparation for our Evenings in Advent study this past week (which was canceled due to the storm), I found myself reading one of Godly Play founder Jerome Berryman’s books, Becoming Like a Child. In the book, Berryman writes about the spirituality of childhood, and how adults, too, might reorient their patterns of prayer and the way they attend to aspects of their mature lives by reflecting on the ways that children perceive reality. In one chapter, Berryman describes what is often referred to as “unitive” or “mystical” knowing. Here, he reflects on an early childhood experience which, at different moments in his adult life, resurfaces in his memory when he encounters experiences which trigger, in his subconscious mind, the recollection of when this type of experience first took place. Berryman writes, “I had experienced a unified kind of knowing. Many have such experiences, especially during childhood. Their significance remains even if the details fade.” (Berryman 2017, 68)
In other words, one of the qualities children have, and which adults sometimes forget they have, is that our minds, and indeed our hearts, carry experiences even when we are not aware of them. And these moments resurface when prompted; sometimes happily, sometimes tragically; sometimes helpfully, and sometimes unhelpfully. But whichever way they manifest, they are with us, and our task, as any therapist or spiritual director knows, is to find ways of navigating our minds and hearts so that we know how to healthily move forward while not ignoring the past; and how to keep on moving while absorbing and reabsorbing information and experience, all the while gaining new insight into our deeper purpose even amidst uncertainty, anxiety, or busyness. This is certainly something children can teach us about, especially at a time of year like this. And perhaps this readjustment rather than removing is the more important spiritual discipline that both Advent and Christmas, at their own heart, can shape within ours.
With every blessing for this third week of Advent,
Ed.
The Rev. Edward Thornley
Rector of The Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist.
Reference
Jerome Berryman, Becoming Like a Child—The Curiosity of Maturity Beyond the Norm. New York: Church Publishing, 2017.