7 January: Christ the Apple Tree.

The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green;
The trees of nature fruitless be,
Compared with Christ the Apple Tree.

His beauty doth all things excel,
By faith I know but ne’er can tell
The glory which I now can see,
In Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.

For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought;
I missed of all but now I see
‘Tis found in Christ the Apple Tree.

I’m weary with my former toil –
Here I will sit and rest awhile,
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.

With great delight I’ll make my stay,
There’s none shall fright my soul away;
Among the sons of men I see
There’s none like Christ the Apple Tree.

I’ll sit and eat this fruit divine,
It cheers my heart like spirit’al wine;
And now this fruit is sweet to me,
That grows on Christ the Apple Tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.

This traditional carol looks way back to the Fall and that fruit picked by Eve, and eaten by her and Adam. The red one, centre right, was sweet and juicy when I picked it in the No Man’s Orchard in October. The first picture shows this tree from a distance; it would offer some shade in summertime before all those windfalls dropped down. The second tree is a John Downey crab in full bloom; it lightens up our garden in Spring.

Christ the Apple Tree is the Tree of Life: he lived his life and death to perfection and calls us to follow him, which does not mean forgoing a bite of the fruit, nor a rest in the shade: With great delight I’ll make my stay, and take and eat, for this fruit is sweet to me!

2 January: A Christmas Letter from London

Charles Lamb to Thomas Manning, December 25, 1815.

A good friend of Charles and Mary Lamb, Thomas Manning was exploring in India and China, far from friends and family. Charles remembered him on Christmas day, but no phones or email would get the letter to him any time soon. So a light-hearted note seemed appropriate.

Dear old friend and absentee,

This is Christmas-day 1815 with us; what it may be with you I don’t know, the 12th of June next year perhaps; and if it should be the consecrated season with you, I don’t see how you can keep it. You have no turkeys; you would not desecrate the festival by offering up a withered Chinese bantam, instead of the savoury grand Norfolcian holocaust, that smokes all around my nostrils at this moment from a thousand firesides.

Then what puddings have you? Where will you get holly to stick in your churches, or churches to stick your dried tea-leaves (that must be the substitute) in? What memorials you can have of the holy time, I see not. A chopped missionary or two may keep up the thin idea of Lent and the wilderness; but what standing evidence have you of the Nativity?—’tis our rosy-cheeked, homestalled divines, whose faces shine to the tune of unto us a child; faces fragrant with the mince-pies of half a century, that alone can authenticate the cheerful mystery—I feel.

I feel my bowels refreshed with the holy tide—my zeal is great.

Lamb’s zeal was great enough to sit down and write a few lines! Who would like a letter from me?

From The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 1796-1820, Edited by E. V. Lucas

25 December, follow that star XXIII: The Loveliest Love. Franciscans 800, III.

Had I been minding lambs those days
When angels came, in angel ways,
And called the shepherd lads with them
To hide-and-seek at Bethlehem,
To seek for Jesus up and down,
And find the King without His crown –
I think I would have tried to prove
Which was the Babe brought from above
By looking for the loveliest Love.
And when, half hidden ‘neath the straw,
Mary’s wee Babe at last I saw,
I would have guessed that Love alone
Would choose a manger for His throne.
And angels, wonderful and white,
Would all have cried,
‘You’ve guessed quite right.’

Father Andrew

Father Andrew was a pioneering Anglican Franciscan who worked in London’s East End throughout the Second World War with all the bombings and hardship that people suffered on top of their poverty. Like Saint Francis, he had great devotion to the Christmas story and wrote a number of reflective poems for his parishioners’ Nativity Plays. The shepherds, of course, followed the angels, not the Magi’s star.

May you have a Happy Christmas, peaceful and warm with ‘Love alone’ all around.

God Bless,

Will.

Sheep grazing a cherry orchard, Kent, winter.

24 December, Follow that star XXII: Baby Peter’s Christmas. Franciscans 800, II.

This is a story of many years ago here in Canterbury. I was there when it happened, so I know it’s true.

Baby Peter belonged to Anne, who was very fond of him, especially after her big sister Rose rescued him from two boys who were kidnapping him in his buggy. After that Anne never let go of him when they went out, which they did every weekend. That was sweet, but it all changed when another baby went missing just before Christmas. This was a very serious business, and the ones who  helped the most were Anne and her little baby Peter.

The day before Christmas Eve, Anne was helping her daddy at Saint Thomas’s church. They were decorating the tree by the altar and helping get the church ready for the Vigil, the night-time Mass with lots of carol singing. 

Of course the most important Christmas decoration was the crib, the model of the stable where baby Jesus was born. John the caretaker had built it as he did every year. Inside were the Ox and Ass, the Shepherds and their Sheep and Lambs, two watchful Angels and Baby Jesus’s Mummy and Daddy, Mary and Joseph. But …

‘There’s no Baby Jesus!’ said Anne.

‘He hasn’t come yet,’ said Daddy, ‘he will come on Christmas Eve, tomorrow night.’

‘I don’t think he will be coming,’ said John the caretaker. ‘We tidied up the store room back in the summer and now we can’t find him anywhere. I don’t know what we are going to do. We can’t have Christmas without a Baby.’

Anne looked thoughtful. She looked at baby Peter and she looked at the empty manger in the crib. 

‘Baby Peter is the right size,’ said Anne. ‘He says he would like to be Baby Jesus.’

‘We need the baby to be there until we find the proper crib figure,’ said John. ‘That could be a few weeks.’

‘Baby Peter says that’s all right,’ answered Anne.

After tea the next day, which you’ll remember was Christmas Eve, Anne’s family walked down to Saint Thomas’s Church with Baby Peter wrapped in a white blanket. When it was time for Baby Jesus to come Anne brought him to the crib and laid him in the manger, still wrapped in his blanket. 

At the end of the last carol Anne squeezed through the crowd to have a last look at Baby Peter being Baby Jesus. She heard a lady behind her saying, ‘Isn’t it lovely, it’s the nicest Baby Jesus I’ve ever seen.’ 

And that is the true story of how Baby Peter saved Christmas.

This Christmas is 800 years since Saint Francis made the first Nativity Crib, and next year will be 800 years since the first Franciscans came to Canterbury and England, bringing the idea of the crib with them.

23 December, follow that star XXI: come by with the Shepherds.

‘Come by’, said the shepherd to his dog, who immediately ran around the flock to drive them down Pen-y-Fan in Wales. Pony and collie, faithful helpers for the shepherd; I’m sorry the dog was camera-shy, but he was busily following the call of his star, the shepherd, and too well-trained to be distracted by admiring tourists.

Am I shepherd, pony, collie or sheep this Christmas Day minus two? Perhaps a bit of each, today and the following holidays. A shepherd has to be out in all weathers, wearing sensible clothes, well organised, tools and supplies of medicines in the saddlebags, plus food for himself and the collie, oats for the pony.

The dog knows his commands and obeys them; come by! He (or she) enjoys the work, enjoys knowing that the master is happy with his efforts. He is happy to serve his good master.

The sure-footed pony gets to places a quad bike could not, and has her own relationship with the master. Even in the murky light that wintry afternoon it was clear that she moved as one with him. She is well-groomed, loved and looked after beyond the bare necessities. Like the dog, she has the stamina to be working out on the hill all day.

As for the sheep, they are social animals, but need to be organised by someone. We humans cannot live as social beings without being organised by someone else much of the time. So let’s all pull together with the chores, allow ourselves to enjoy the duties,

for the culminating pleasure,
which we treasure beyond measure,
is the sense of satisfaction that our duty has been done!
               The Gondoliers, W.S. Gilbert.

Let's pray that we may take our turns to be sheep, shepherd, pony or collie. And let's not forget to take the dog for a walk if you have one. We will be joined by two of them: welcome Nala and Harvey!

16 December, follow that star XIV: help me to slow down!

It was a wet and windy night when I opened this post from Fr Valentine. Cutting across an ill-lit, uneven pavement, Mrs T and I had both stumbled over tree roots on our way home from an event. More haste, less speed! There was plenty of light on the official pavement but we tried to do better, without light to see by.

We’ll help nobody if we get to Christmas injured, exhausted, frazzled, touchy, angry. Let’s slow down and light the third candle on the wreath, and watch the flickering light.

Lord, for tomorrow and its deeds, I do not pray.

Scripture Reflection:

The people who walked in darkness 
have seen a great light; 
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, 
on them has light shined."
Isaiah 9:2

Advent Wreath Prayer:
Dear Jesus, you are the hope in our
messy world. This Advent, help us to
slow down, listen to your voice, and
focus on what’s really important. We
place our hope in you as we prepare
our hearts to celebrate your birth on
Christmas. Amen.

15 December, follow that star XIII, where is the star leading us?

I’m rather fond of this rather faded and battered old star which is one of many stencilled onto the wall of the little cemetery chapel of the Jesuits in Hales Place, Canterbury. It makes me ask, ‘Where is the star leading this rather faded and battered Will Turnstone in his old age?’

In the Jesuit chapel, there is this statue of the Madonna and Child. You will notice the hole in the chest of Jesus; there is another in Mary’s too. There were jewels there when the chapel was active, drawing attention to the hearts of Jesus and Mary, as emphasised by the Latin monograms behind the statue.

But the point of this post is not the lost jewels, but the symbolism of those stars, leading us to look at Mary, or rather to look at the child Jesus whom she supports and shows to us. She is calm, happy to be in the background witnessing to Jesus. I am reminded of the window in nearby Blean church that we saw a few days ago: quoting Luke 2:34; Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.

smart

In our previous post we reflected on the sorrows of Mary, saying that there must have been more than the traditional seven counted in Catholic devotion. There are a good deal more than seven that Will Turnstone could count up, and I’m sure that is true for most readers, not just the senior citizens this reflection was originally aimed at. The sword has pierced our hearts for sure.

But we stick with it, stick with that star, which sometimes is splendid and inviting, sometimes apparently dim or behind the storm clouds. Where the star is leading us is to Jesus, to his Kingdom. Advent and Christmastide enable us to begin again to reflect on the story of the human who was and is Son of the Father.

Lead kindly Light!

13 December, follow that star XI: to the crib. (Franciscans 800.I)

This is not a Christmas Crib, I hear you say, but we’ve chosen this picture to include Saint Francis, as it is 800 years since he erected the first Nativity scene in Greccio, not far from Assisi. Next year is also the 800th Anniversary of the first arrival in Canterbury and England of our patron, Blessed Agnellus of Pisa, and a small band of Franciscan friars. We will be commemorating that event during the coming year, but to mark the anniversary of the crib, here is part of a reflection by Pope Francis, as reported by Vatican News. Follow the link for the full article.

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Saint Francis’ crèche in Greccio

Pope Francis takes us back to the Italian town of Greccio, which Saint Francis visited in the year 1223. The caves he saw there reminded him of the countryside of Bethlehem. On 25 December, friars and local people came together, bringing flowers and torches, writes the Pope. “When Francis arrived, he found a manger full of hay, an ox and a donkey.” A priest celebrated the Eucharist over the manger, “showing the bond between the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Eucharist.”

The start of the tradition

This is how our tradition began, continues Pope Francis, “with everyone gathered in joy around the cave, with no distance between the original event and those sharing in its mystery.” With the simplicity of that sign, Saint Francis carried out a great work of evangelization, he writes. His teaching continues today “to offer a simple yet authentic means of portraying the beauty of our faith.”

A sign of God’ tender love

Pope Francis explains that the Christmas crèche moves us so deeply because it shows God’s tender love. From the time of its Franciscan origins, “the nativity scene has invited us to ‘feel’ and ‘touch’ the poverty that God’s Son took upon Himself in the Incarnation”, writes the Pope. “It asks us to meet Him and serve Him by showing mercy to those of our brothers and sisters in greatest need.”

Photo by Brother Chris Dyczek

12 December. Follow that Star, X: O Christmas tree!

Canterbury Cathedral usually has a grand Christmas tree in the precincts, but this one is inside, a blaze of light on a winter’s day.

The altar is dressed in purple for Advent, which makes the golden embroidery stand out. The big cross combines the first two letters, ΧΡ or Chi Ro, of the Greek name ‘Christ’. Most of us will have seen this reproduced in various forms in books, inscriptions, and so on; it possibly barely registers at times. The other two letters, alpha and omega, Α and Ω, are the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet.

The Paschal Candle is marked with Α and Ω, and blessed using these words:

Christ yesterday and today,
the Beginning and the End,
the Alpha and the Omega,
all times belong to him
and all the ages
to him be glory and power
through every age and forever, AMEN.

So the Cathedral have used the symbols of Easter at Christmas, because Jesus is the beginning and the end, and we live in his time: Christmas leads to Easter. Likewise the lighted tree of Christmas points to the Cross, the tree of life, to come on Good Friday and Easter.

Enjoy decorating and living with your tree, but remember the Christians of the Holy Land who will be suffering this Christmas. Income from hospitality and selling Christmas carvings will be cut drastically; celebrations in Church or home muted; family members and friends homeless, neighbours and relatives mourned.

10 December: Follow that star VIII; crack open a smile!

The young mother had just walked past me, her 8 month old son cosily wrapped in her sling. As she turned to look at the market stall his dark brown eyes looked into my blue eyes and he smiled. So of course I smiled back: ‘What a beautiful child!’ I exclaimed. Smiles all round.

There’s a smile in this picture too. Although Abel is someone I’ve known all his life he’s still worth a smile, he is still good news.

A smile affirms the person receiving it, especially when it’s an unexpected blessing like the one – no two – that came in my direction. Babies can be profligate with their smiles; so can we.

 For if you love those who love you, 
what right have you to claim any credit? 
Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? 
And if you save your greetings for your brothers, 
are you doing anything exceptional? 
Even the pagans do as much, do they not? 
You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.'

Matthew 5.47.48

That smile. Those few words, the offering of a seat on the bus; these little gestures are Good News, sharing the Message of Jesus without being explicit. Preaching the Good News without using words. As people get stressed in the run-up to Christmas, a few smiles will not come amiss.

“A smile costs less than electricity but it gives out as much light.” Abbe Pierre