magnifier of God.

 Yesterday marked the second Sunday of Advent in the Christian tradition and lineage. Not only is it a time to, in the words of Jan Richardson, "Stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder.". . . it is also a season in which we tend to the light of Christ within ourselves.
 
 In her teachings from Exploring Advent through the Eyes of Jean Gebser and G. I. Gurdjieff Teaching Cynthia Bourgeault talks about how the light so central in advent is the light shining through all of creation. The light which clarifies, harmonizes and reveals the Whole much like the light which pours through every piece of a stained glass window revealing the fullness of the image/picture in all its glory.
 
 Cynthia reminds us that each one of us is a piece of glass in the stained glass window of the Whole. We bear and intensify this light. And in fact, just like Mary who said, "My soul magnifies the Lord," so too do all our souls. Cynthia says we can join Mary in saying “my soul makes God bigger, more radiant, more manifest, more clear” for “this is what all our souls do.” “We all magnify the Lord through the bits and pieces of our little part.” We are like magnifying glasses which intensify something, making it visible, more clear, larger, more radiant. In that way when we magnify something we increase it... its luminosity and energy, and that is what Mary is saying. So let us not forget that we, like Mary, are a bearer and magnifier of God.
 
 Advent blessings,
 Heather
 

Readings from this week's pauses:

 Wholeness in Motion Body Prayer
 Here I am, as I am
 In this world, as it is
 Supported by the planet
 Floating in the muti-verse
 Awake
 To my state of being
 – Babette Lightner
 
 If I hope to know You
 I must seek an unknowing
 that is not a lack but
 my only gain, taking me beyond the press
 of demands and desires
 to an emptiness
 where there is room for
 You to be born
 beyond all that I demand
 to know and desire
 to find, for You birth
 the Word in
 my silence and burn
 as light in
 my darkness
 – Meister Eckhart
 
 Yeshua says...
 I am the light shining upon all things.
 I am the sum of everything,
 for everything has come forth from me,
 and towards me everything unfolds.
 Split a piece of wood, and there I am.
 Pick up a stone
 and you will find me there.
 – Gospel of Thomas logion 77, transl. Lynn Bauman
 
 If You Want
 If
 you want
 the Virgin will come walking down the road
 pregnant with the holy,
 and say,
 “I need shelter for the night, please take me inside your heart,
 my time is so close.”
 Then, under the roof of your soul, you will witness the sublime
 intimacy, the divine, the Christ
 taking birth
 forever,
 as she grasps your hand for help, for each of us
 is the midwife of God, each of us.
 Yet there, under the dome of your being does creation
 come into existence eternally, through your womb, dear pilgrim—
 the sacred womb in your soul,
 as God grasps our arms for help; for each of us is
 His beloved servant
 never far.
 If you want, the Virgin will come walking
 down the street pregnant
 with Light
 and sing
 –St. John of the Cross (1542 – 14 December 1591) from the Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, transl. Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Compass, 2002)