Guest Writer - please welcome Sr B for our daily inspiration

Today for the first time EVER… we have a guest blog writer ;o) Please welcome Sr Brigid to our blog post…. Brigid had a come away retreat day yesterday her time, today my time. Often she forwards the reflections of the day onto me. This one though I want to share with everyone, as I think its a beautiful reflection. It is by no means the complete of the day, just a section she wrote that I have taken out…. enjoy!

The Song of our Lives: How can I keep from singing?

... For you to listen while reading... 

Everyone touched by a piece of music hears it differently. The composer hears it in the chamber of the imagination, the audience hears it with their senses and emotions. The members of the orchestra hear most clearly the sound of the instruments closest to them. In a sense we are members of God’s orchestra and we each have a note to play in life. What a thrill it must be when for the conductor when all those notes come together into a harmony that touches the hearts, souls and emotions of all involved.

I can’t sing a note and yet I am daring enough to say that my life is a song. I also venture to say that each one of you here is a beautiful song. Like me I imagine that there are still many more verses to add to your song and many more notes to learn. Our lives are a song in process and none of us have yet reached the last verse-thankfully.  Perhaps there will be no last verse because as Christians we believe that our real song continues to be sung in eternity. It may be easy to see that others’ lives are a song – for example Mary Mackillop, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi or many other people whom you can all name.

So how do we come to know our song?

We learn the first words and notes in our birth families and our song unfolds a word, a line or a verse at a time as we extend our learning and pick up new notes and melodies in school, with friends, through the experiences of our lives. We discover the depth of our song when we fall in love with a person or a cause or a dream of who and what we are called to be. 

Mary Oliver, an American poet puts it this way: One day you finally knew what you had to do, in other words you began to listen to your own inner voice – the call to be true to yourself- as with determination you moved into adulthood and followed your dream – or as Mary Oliver puts it

‘Determined to do the only thing you could do- determined to save the only life you could save.’

This can be a verse of our song that we learn through experience, some joyful and some painful but learn we do and that learning can bring us to the place or the time when we can freely sing our song and claim the free gift that is God-given. We learn that we are children of the Universe and that for the Universe to be the best it can be I have to be the best I can be.

We are born to make manifest 

the glory of the universe that is within us,

it’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine

we unconsciously give other people

permission to do the same.

Marianne Williamson

We learn through our experience to extend our song through our love and care for others, through family, through ministry, through work and through play. We learn to sing our song in harmony with the songs of others as we share life and friendship through our relationships. At times it may seem that notes we are hearing are discordant and at such times we are invited to be gentle with ourselves as in the words of another song:

I will be gentle with myself

I will love myself

I am a child of the Universe

Being born anew today.

As we are liberated from our fears and reassured that our notes and melodies are valued then we also help to liberate others to sing their song with confidence. In this way our song continues to echo in the lives of others and will be remembered and celebrated. Joan Chittister says

 ‘It’s the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to 

recognise the beauty around us.’

I often think that this must have happened with Mary, whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow. In meeting her cousin Elizabeth the exchange of love and affirmation that took place between them liberated Mary to speak her truth in the most beautiful expression which we know as the Magnificat. My soul glorifies the Lord-Mary’s song

Image printed / painted by Claire Joy

I invite you now to come on a journey with me- lay down all you have in your hands and become comfortable enough to be still but alert for the next few minutes. 

Be aware of the gift of this day, the gift of life, of breath. Simply breathe. Relax and breathe! 

You are invited to take a little walk into the garden of your life and to your surprise you have a companion walking with you. Jesus is at your side and walks along with you as you get in touch with the song of your life and remember the notes you learnt as a child and how those first verses came to be written, you continue your little walk and as you do you notice how your song unfolded with the growth and the flowers- the fruits of your life. 

You may also notice that at times the notes for the next verse of the song are hard to find and the words do not come easily but those times are also part of the experience that produces new melodies of care, compassion and forgiveness. Be aware that through these times -Jesus is still at your side even if at times it has been hard to see exactly where he is- he promises to be there always as every note is formed and every verse is completed.

As you go deeper into the garden walk you see beautiful trees where you can shelter and from within that place of shelter you can view the landscape that nourishes the trees and how each aspect of the garden is in relationship with everything else but at the same time each flower and even each weed have their own identity. Each is its own song and you have your own song and you can only sing your own song-you have all the notes you need and all the words necessary to sing your own song – rejoice in your song-your life is a song and that song is a gift to the Universe-

As you sit there in the shelter of the tree you are set free to sing your song within. You are able to see the new life that is springing up – the buds waiting to burst out with the coming of the warmth of the spring sun and you are filled with joy as you realise that- new notes still wait to write themselves into the next verse of your song. You feel special …….. the longing that gave birth to the stars, the longing that gave birth to all life, who knows what that longing can give birth to within You? 

GO INTO THE WORLD DETERMINED TO SHINE!

My soul glorifies the Lord……………rejoice.