Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Within our darkest night,
You kindle the fire that never dies away,
That never dies away

~Taize

Amidst our life we encounter moments that feel like nights without stars, when life seems to grow very cold, where we are unsure if any warmth, any connection, any hope will come into our midst again. When we have found our way out of such a place we generally do not want to return there.

This day, December 13, is the day that for centuries many Christians took time in prayer to remember just that. A moment, outside of when we are overwhelmed by stress and anxiety, to know that God is with us amidst the dark of a moonless night. Today is the feast of Saint Lucia, and under the Julian calendar it was also the date of the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year.

At first Saint Lucia was not associated with prayers for those whose eyesight was failing. These prayers were added to the petitions placed before her over the centuries. The reality that her feasts became about bearing candles into the midst of cold winter nights, people being able to catch glimpses of processions moving through the darkness, and join them as they lit candles of their own… is in my mind responsible for this connection. The experience of having light, having community, having the warmth of fellowship come into the longest night of the year. 

On this day of Saint Lucia it may help all of us to take a moment to bring a bit of light into the darker spaces within ourselves. As we pray with a feeling of God’s love in our midst, knowing the Light of the Coming Christ, we can enter into the spaces where we feel lost in the dark, where we are anxious, where we are scared, and bring the light, the warmth, the fellowship we know now into those spaces. The Light of Christ comes this Christmas for the sake of the world, for the sake of every part of us, and we can go to the places where we are low and work to lift them up.

Pax,

—Ben