Now we begin again. Coming off of the Christmas Season, we experience that familiar feeling that comes after the whirlwind, when we disembark from the roller coaster, when we start back down the mountain. Having refreshed and refocused our awareness of the intimately incarnate Presence of God in our midst, we now answer the call to assume the same posture as the Babe whose birth we have just finished celebrating: happily having nothing, knowing nothing, readily receiving everything, and in this very emptiness and openness, becoming a more perfected instance of holiness in the world.
In contemplation, we come to practice and be slowly and patiently perfected in this “beginner’s mind.” In releasing our thoughts and expectations and surrendering to the will of God for us in this moment, we readily become needy and naked like Jesus and allow ourselves to be fully wrapped in the Divine Source from which we all come, and to be molded into the Divine likeness for which we were all created. Each foray into contemplative practice is a new beginning, and to begin again is as humbling for us as it was for Christ, but it is also our commitment to walk the path of salvation. Let us begin the journey anew together.