Tending to the Small

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM   December 15, 2023

The Advent and Christmas seasons trumpet the significance of the small and the hidden. This time of year reminds us that our seemingly small practices can set in motion on a spiritual plane what casting a tiny pebble into a lake causes in ripples on a physical level. Continuous movement forward out into the expanse of the universe.

The mystic and writer Annie Dillard relates a childhood practice—I would call it a spiritual practice—of taking one of her precious pennies and hiding it for someone else to find. She delighted in imagining the first passerby who would receive her free gift from the universe. This spiritual practice was the starting point of her learning to see and pay attention, to notice, as she says, that “The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.”

Perhaps you’ve engaged in this spiritual practice by paying in advance for the Dunkin Donuts driver behind you in the Drive Thru. Or left your shopping cart unchained at the supermarket so that the next person coming along might find your quarter still in the slot, pre-paid. Maybe you’ve straightened up part of a messy, picked over aisle of Christmas items to spare a weary store employee some extra time on the job. Or applauded a restaurant server, overwhelmed and harried by having multiple roles because of staffing shortages. How can these acts of kindness and compassion not be called spiritual practices? Surely, they are the stuff that makes the universe a more gentle, welcoming shelter and home for all of us.

In these days leading to the celebration of the birth of Emmanuel, God-with-us, we remember similar small acts of kindness that are memorialized in the Nativity accounts. In a recent Advent retreat I led, one of the participants, who had spent many years ministering in Africa, shared something she had learned from the African women. Of course, they observed, Mary would not have been left alone to face the pain of childbirth by herself. Without knowing anything of her story or her background, the women of the village would have seen her distress and anguish and would have immediately hurried to assist her.

Shepherds, considered outcasts because of their long days and nights apart from the community and because of “the smell of the sheep” which Pope Francis urged pastoral staff to cultivate in a spiritual way, approached the newborn baby and his family. They knew what it was like to be hidden and to exist outside a loving community and so they offered the gift of their presence. Perhaps a wool blanket for the little one as well?

Travelers from the East, foreigners to the community of Bethlehem, dressing differently, speaking a strange tongue, braved the dangers of a long and difficult journey. Impelled by their research and spiritual practices, they followed a star, firm in their belief that wondrous events were still possible. How amazed and how deeply grateful Mary and Joseph must have been, every treasure and every bow from these wise ones a wonder.

So in this season that lifts up for us the Divine taking on our human flesh, let us celebrate the small. Let us be open to the tender Presence that transforms us and changes the world: a newborn baby lying in a manger and hidden away. And however we celebrate the holy days of our traditions, whether our hearts are alive with joy or weighed down by grief and worry, may we be comforted, consoled, and encouraged by the coming of Emmanuel, the Holy One choosing to be God-with-us in our time, in our place.

Takeaway
Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
You may want to place before you a Nativity set or object that is small but significant.
Gaze with love at this symbol.
Ask the Holy One to deepen in you the gift of noticing and paying attention to the small and the hidden in your everyday living.
Breathe a blessing to our beautiful yet wounded world.

Featured Image: Greyson Joralemon, Unsplash

NOTE:
Please continue to hold in your prayer all who are part of this ongoing guided retreat for the Sisters of IHM of Monroe, Michigan. Please also pray for my safe and uneventful flights home on December 18. Thank you!

Wishing you and those you love every blessing of these holy days. Thank you for giving me the gift of following my blog, Mining the Now.

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