Advent – Week Two – Peace
The theme for the second week of Advent is Peace.
“At the River Clarion”
by Mary Oliver
I don’t know who God is exactly.
But I’ll tell you this.
I was sitting in the river named Clarion, on a water splashed stone
and all afternoon I listened to the voices of the river talking.
Whenever the water struck a stone it had something to say,
and the water itself, and even the mosses trailing under the water.
And slowly, very slowly, it became clear to me what they were saying.
Said the river I am part of holiness.
And I too, said the stone. And I too, whispered the moss beneath the water.
I’d been to the river before, a few times.
Don’t blame the river that nothing happened quickly.
You don’t hear such voices in an hour or a day.
You don’t hear them at all if selfhood has stuffed your ears.
And it’s difficult to hear anything anyway, through all the traffic, the ambition.
This poem was in my daily Advent devotional earlier this week. As I thought about it, I was reminded again of the importance of being at peace inside myself because I will struggle to hear God if my mind and soul is filled with the busyness of life today or the anxieties of life tomorrow.
Following on from last week’s theme, I hope that you will find peace in the midst of your busy life. Peace that gives you a fresh and clearer awareness of Emanuel coming to you this Advent. Shalom.
Faith should be lived out in practice
- God is Hiding in Plain Sight - 10 December 2024
- Consumed by Fire - 13 August 2024
- Attitudes, Actions and Outcomes - 14 June 2024
