jazzoLOG: A Child Is Given    
 A Child Is Given9 comments
picture24 Dec 2007 @ 08:25, by Richard Carlson

Trust shows the way.

---Hildegard Of Bingen

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

---Friedrich Nietzsche

The invariable mark of wisdom is seeing the miraculous in the common.

---Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was sitting yesterday morning in the balcony with the rest of the choir at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church. In our robes from there each Sunday we sing the Introit, then hustle downstairs to process with the first hymn. It was about 10:30. Marsha Reilly was concluding the second organ prelude, John Ferguson's particularly mysterioso setting of O Come, O Come Emmanuel. That would be our entrance hymn too on this 4th Sunday of Advent. Suddenly my wife appeared next to us up there, urgent but smiling. "You became a grandfather about half an hour ago," she whispered. In the service a bit later, a prayer of thanksgiving went up from our congregation for the birth of Nina Marie.

Winter Solstice and Karen's labor had arrived at the same time, a little after 1 AM Saturday. The Cold Moon was nearly full. When the couple was sure her body and the baby were in agreement about the hour of beginning, quiet helpers were called to their little home. Well, Nina was sort of in agreement about it. She would turn her back on the situation eventually, and require at the last a sure hand to go in and turn her gently around for the final slide into the birthing pool. They were in the water by then, 24 hours had passed, and contractions were in the hours of intensity. Karen said yesterday each exhalation was a battle cry.

Dana, Ilona and I entered their living room of peace and silence at mid-afternoon. Jeroch was in a large chair, holding the baby as you see them here. Karen walked in, radiant and welcoming as always. We felt worshipful here. These young people have matured with the months of the process, guiding us and each other with trusting hands of love. We grandparents had come to know each other quickly and better. Karen's mother, the children's book author Erica Magnus, had flown in from LA a couple weeks earlier. Already we had become friends with her father, David Thomas of the OU film department. Karen's sister and her partner are here from the world of New York theatre. Has there ever been such a wondrous Christmas for all of us!

On Wednesday Jeroch had written a message to their many friends. The due date was the previous Saturday, and I guess all of us were on the brink of a considerable energy of expectation. His came out this way, and he titled it "fire spells and ancient wisdoms." I know he approves if we thus shout it like a father from the rooftops~~~

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Wow! What a wonderfully excellent group of people to be writing to! Just thinking of all of your gorgeous smiles and huge hearts makes me so excited to have been part of your lives How have you all been since I have last seen you? New projects, endeavors, adventures, breakthroughs, unraveled any mysteries or conspiracy theories lately? Well I am sure you all have been doing all those things. What a brilliant group of people. So positive and progressive, it is just amazing. Thrilling to the core.

These are all reasons why I am so excited to help bring a new child onto this planet right now. Gathering the Cosmic light together to brighten the hearts of all beings on this planet. For those of you wondering, Nina Marie, our little daughter, has decided it has not been the absolute most perfect time in the Universe to be born as of yet. But we expect her in the next couple of days. We are prepared and ready to deliver her at our little cabin in the woods right outside of town. We share 70 acres with a couple of other families, so we have the easily accessible privacy and space we need. It is a relatively small town, so all of our friends and even folks we have never even met before will walk up to us wanting to know if the baby has been born yet. Her due date was December 15. Nope. She knows when it is time to come. It is sweet, but everyday 4 to 9 people call asking "when, when when" and it starts pretty early. Don't worry we tell them, we will call you when it happens. Nina Marie is already a popular item, and if she is as cute as I think she will be, the world isn't going to know what hit it. She is a comet of love.

I would love to send out thank yous again to anyone who has contributed anything at all, even a warm thought or prayer, it has all helped. Karen and I are so grateful, we really feel the love and appreciation. Karen is doing very well through all the trials and she is being so patient. She looks amazing and has been doing yoga and swimming and walking throughout the pregnancy. She is able to connect with her ancient Goddess wisdom and I deeply respect that. I am so proud of her. She is ready to have this baby. I send love out to all the Mothers out there, thank you for nurturing us so much and loving us unconditionally. We will do our best to pass the love along.

So as we wait for our bundle of joy we think about Christmas next week and the New Year coming soon. I hope you all have peaceful holidays and that love is the gift you give and receive the most of. Eat delicious foods and give hugs to your Grandmothers and sing carols about Angels. 2008 is going to be a most phenomenal year. A year with more responsibility for everyone. Helping to educate everyone on how to care for the planet and ourselves. As we clean the planet we feel more connection with the spirit and learn more about love. I hope I have the honor of working with some of you during this period of reclaiming Mother Earth.

I would love to hear about your lives and what you have been putting your energies towards. Feel free to write back or call my new cell phone, which I got to stay connected for the birth. Happy Solstice as well. The shortest day of the year and then the light returns to us. And with the light we walk hand in hand into the future. I will write again to let you all know what Nina Marie's Mayan glyph is and her astrological sign too. She might be right on the cusp.

So much love and respect to you and yours. I hope you all feel the Universal Love deeply right now, and if not call me, we will see what we can do.

Peace through cooperation.
Jeroch, soon to be papabear


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26 Dec 2007 @ 09:23 by ashanti : .
 


26 Dec 2007 @ 10:48 by jazzolog : Christmas Thoughts

http://harpers.org/media/image/blogs/misc/bloemaert-adoration-of-magi.jpg

Abraham Bloemaert, Adoration of the Magi (1624)

Tu qui sedes in tenebris spe tua gaude: orta stella matutina, sol non tardabit.

You who sit in the darkness keeping your hope alive: the rise of the morning star, the sun shall not be slow.

--–Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (1961)

Follows the Christmas sermon, by Father Bill Carroll of Athens Good Shepherd Church, on Christmas Eve~~~

Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the whole earth...
Declare his glory among the nations
and his wonders among all peoples.

Tonight, we sing God’s new song. Tonight, earth trembles and the trees of the wood shout for joy. For tonight, light has overcome the dark, cold winter, and God is making all things new.

On this most holy night, we too have rushed to the City of David to behold a child. Like the shepherds before us, our ears too are ringing with a message of joy—and songs of praise. Glory to God, the angels sing, and peace on earth. HERE, in a manger, lies the newborn Son of God. He is the King of Angels and the Prince of Peace. And we have answered the angels’call to worship him. Throughout the world, God’s People are singing with joy: “O come, let us adore him. Christ, the Lord.”

Tonight, we eat God’s new bread. As our ancestors in the faith liked to point out, “Bethlehem” means House of Bread. They connected this fact to the detail in the story about the manger. After his birth, Jesus lies in a place meant for food. He is the living bread, who gives life to the world. He is our spiritual food. He is strength for our journey, given to us straight from the hands of God. Tonight, in the Eucharist—the Christ Mass—Jesus will come among us in the flesh. He will feed us with his own body, and renew us in his love.

Tonight, we sing the praises of God’s new and humble humanity. In Christ, divinity and humanity come together: heaven and earth are joined as one. In every generation, the saints are delighted by the poverty of the Son of God. We too are overcome with wonder by the lengths God goes to save us.

In one of his letters, Paul marvels that, though he was rich, Christ became poor for us. In another, he notes that Jesus laid aside the privileges of divinity and took on the form of a slave. Twelve centuries later, in a moving meditation on the mystery of Christmas, Francis of Assisi tells us that “On that day, the Lord sent mercy and song in the night…for to us is given the beloved child most holy, born for us along the way and placed in a manger, because there was no room for him at the inn.”

Beloved, the living GOD lies helpless in the manger. In a new and surprising way, God has entered the world in this poor and humble child. In the Christ child, God is placed at our mercy, so that we might learn to show mercy to others.

His birth is certainly humble. Mary and Joseph journey by night to comply with the emperor’s decree. They are a poor couple in Roman-occupied Judea, and they must be counted, in order to be taxed. Their hearts have already been set on fire by the strange promises of an angel, but they remain uncertain as to what these words might mean.

Then, Mary’s labor comes upon her, and, before long, there….he….IS. Her newborn son—the Son of God. When Jesus is born for us, he is not found in a royal palace or any other place of privilege—but rather in a stable. As he would be later, Jesus is found on the margins, among the poor and lowly. He is born outside the inn, just as he dies outside the city gate. Here, in the manger, lies a different kind of king.

If we want to find God, here is where to look. Here, among the little ones who amount to nothing in the eyes of the world. Here it is that Christ is found. The Nativity of Jesus dispels our fantasies about divine power. Too often, we cling to images of God based on ways we dominate one another. In so doing, we deny the flesh of the Word. By becoming flesh and blood, God renounces every form of power save that of vulnerable, self-giving love. In the Christ child, we meet a God we can trust. By becoming poor and vulnerable, God makes it possible for us to live as brothers and sisters.

In his fourth sermon on the Lord’s nativity, Bernard of Clairvaux, the great monk and spiritual teacher, urges us to remember the humility of Christ:


Today, he writes, how many altars are aglitter with gold and precious stones!…Do you think that the angels will get sidetracked to these and turn away from the tattered poor? If it were so, why did they appear to shepherds of sheep rather than to the kings of the earth or the priests of the temple?

A couple of weeks ago, in a sermon based on one of Isaiah’s prophecies about the Messiah, I suggested that, at Christmas, God would welcome us with the open arms of a child. I went on to say that this child would disarm us and make us capable of peace.

Well, here he IS. Tonight, we see Isaiah’s vision of endless peace fulfilled. Truly, the wolf lives with the lamb, and the leopard lies down with the kid. Predator and prey live together in harmony. Even the serpent is rendered harmless. And a little child leads them all.

This child fulfills the desire of the nations. This child breaks the rod of the oppressor. For, in him, God looks right at us with the fresh, newborn eyes of a baby. Beloved, Jesus has opened his arms and heart as wide as his eyes. He has come into our midst, because he likes us and loves us and wants to be with us—FOREVER. And there’s room for us all in his embrace.

As we well know, the astounding trust he places in us is unearned and poorly deserved, and yet this trust touches us profoundly. Here we feel something primal. We WANT to love this child back. We WANT to place our hope in him. Listen again to the words of the carol we just sang: Child, for us sinners, poor and in the manger, we would embrace thee with love and awe. Who would not love thee, loving us so dearly? The birth of Jesus, like that of any child, is filled with possibilities. His love breaks our hearts and makes us whole.

So this night, of all nights, we sing God’s new song. For we have been delivered from the bondage of sin and received power to become God’s children. Truly, the People who walked in darkness have seen a great light. And whatever separates us from God, whatever divides us from our neighbor, whatever enslaves us, whatever keeps us back or holds us down, ALL THESE have been overcome in the flesh of Christ our Savior.

Sing to the Lord a new song.

http://gsathens.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-eve-gods-new-song.html  



26 Dec 2007 @ 18:01 by vaxen : ...
OKE ITASE ANNUAL IFA DIVINATION FOR THE YEAR 2008/2009
ODU OF THE YEAR – OSE IRETE
ALIASES _ Ose ’Birete, Ose Biile

By: International Council for Ifa Religion & International Ifa Training Institute
Messages: http://www.sovereignty.net/p/sd/a21/

A child is eaten...alive.  



30 Dec 2007 @ 12:50 by rayon : Congratulations
Jay O on becoming grands parents (to be read in french for fuller meaning) and for which the unallowed italics cannot indicate! True merriness and blessings for the new year.  


3 Jan 2008 @ 12:01 by jazzolog : Nina Looks Out Upon Her World

http://jazzolog.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1010796.jpg  



4 Jan 2008 @ 14:06 by jerryvest : Beautiful baby and pic, Richard...
I hope that she will grow up in a world with humans that are loving, responsible, compassionate, kind and caring. She is very fortunate to have such a family that supports these values. Best wishes for a great New Year. Jerry  


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