Gospel Reading: Luke 2: 41 -52

Dear Community of Christians,

Who doesn't know about Russian dolls, where one can lift several small identical dolls out of each other? What a pleasure to take smaller ones, little by little, out of a slightly bigger one. This is a picture of the archetype of our humanity, the archetype of the members of our being as they interlock and make our life on earth possible. If, of course, one of those members of our being is not fully developed, they may not ‘fit together’. Life in a physical body becomes very difficult.

The Luke Jesus child radiated an incredible fullness of love and innocence into the world, but because of this innocence he was not equipped for practical life.

After returning from Egypt, the parents of the Matthew child also settled in Nazareth. Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science conveys to us that both children became very close friends.

The sacrificial power of the Matthew child grew out of this love-borne friendship.  He wanted to give the Luke child everything he could, his wisdom, his knowledge of the world, his forces of will, so that this Luke child could fulfil his earthly task.

Today, many children are born with their members of being fully integrated, like we see in the neatly stacked Russian dolls. But by no means all. In particular, these special children need our love and attention. For this is the goal of earthly life, that all people can prepare and purify the members of their organization so that our ‘I am’, our highest spiritual being, can sit at the centre of our being, much like the tiniest of the Russian dolls.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 2: 1-12

Dear Community of Christians,

​If we have been awake as citizens, all over the world we have been able to experience many Herod’s. Figures that in everyday life are courteous and obliging, but at the same time secretly considering other, perhaps evil, thoughts.

Are we human beings helplessly at the mercy of such powers which work through human beings?

Finally, the three kings find their way to the child through the advice of Herod and, of course, also through the star. Can this too encourage us? The path to the child, the youngest part of our personality, which we have to develop in the here and now, is not possible without guidance through a path full of stones and obstacles. They come from our inner weaknesses. Herod is present in each of us inwardly. And the obstacles come as well from without. Our development as an independent thinking person can be prevented by external restrictions.

A dream saved the wise men from returning to Herod. Doesn't this show the importance of being much more awake in the future, including what we bring with us from the night and listening to our inner voice? Then the evil of the Herodian powers can only harm us as much as we allow them to do.

Dear Community of Christians,

Our recent past shows that the tragedy of science is the struggle for the only correct truth. For many people, scientists are, so to speak, wise men. It is commonly perceived that they alone know the right thing.

In fact, there once were genuinely wise men in the past. They knew the power and importance of their knowledge, and that it was not their personal possession. Therefore, there was no question for them; to give certain gifts, qualities to a higher principle. They recognized the limits of their personal possibilities of action. It was necessary for the three wise men giving their precious gifts, developed over long periods of time, to the one who will make these gifts fruitful for humanity in a much higher sense. For them it was a gesture of inner necessity. It was an act of selflessness whose example reaches into our time. And which was then immeasurably exalted by the sacrifice of Christ.

Science of today, which believes itself to be in exclusive possession of the indispensable truth and indoctrinates society with it, needs above all the power of sacrifice, or we can also say selflessness, for the future.

Over the Holy Nights, we shared several days exploring themes in The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily (a fairy story by Goethe 1795). What follows is a summary of our exploration.

The series commenced on Sunday 12 noon (after the Service) of St Stephen's Day 26 December 2021, with a summary of the fairytale. More than a few of us expressed regret at having missed this first session.

Goethe's fairy tale The Green Snake and Beautiful Lily was the topic of a study group, in the time between Christmas and the New Year, meeting every other day. There were three sessions which culminated in a final recapitulation on Sunday 2 January at 12noon,after which time (around 1p.m.), we broke bread at table together, and then reconvened at 2pm for the read-through in whole.

The experience of delving into this timeless story on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday made the totality of the work accessible, meaningful, stimulating, and alive. We read aloud, and discussed the pictures formed inwardly from the tale; holding these images as potent icons of wisdom and mystery, as well as relevant considerations to our world situation as it is today, 2020/2021/...

The discussions sometimes kindled a passion in convictions and perspectives, and more than one of us brought the reflections home, but we always returned to the unique aim which was to hold those pictures which derived directly from Gœthe's story in the foreground. We returned to giving our best attention and focus on the themes, pictures, and soul language of The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily.

There were varying levels of familiarity with the story, from the purely uninitiated to those who'd lived through more than one form of the work brought to life.

On Sunday 26 December was the summary of the Fairytale in its entirety; an overview was explored.
Next, Tuesday 28 December: the proposed conversation and consideration was on
the Ferryman, Snake, the four Kings, and the beautiful Lily.
Finally Thursday 30 December, the conversation and consideration were on the Youth, the Old Man, and the Old Woman.

The final "performing-aloud" took place on Sunday 2 January 2022, from 2 to 4:45 pm. We had the aide of a slender volume authored by Benedict Wood, a dramatisation for the Fairytale. Additionally, with the 7 colour plates from paintings of David Newbatt, based on the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily viewable in the background (how rich were we in accessing these external pictures to accompany our inner ones), our humble troupe devoted ourselves to this inspired, thoughtful, and not altogether unpleasant task.

~ words captured in my journal during the study of Gœthe's Green Snake and Beautiful Lily fairytale.

Peneleapaí
An Scairbh, Co an Chláir
4 January 2022

Gospel Reading: Luke 2: 25-35 and 39-40

Dear Community of Christians,

The new year will confront us with diverse events and challenges. Regardless of what we will experience, we could inscribe something like a yearly motif for the coming months in our own souls.

In view of the attacks of evil on the human soul and mind, could be this our most important impulse be to have "Christ in me", in my soul, always present. "Healing is done through you," says our Christmas epistle. We may not feel or experience the healing power of Christ, but it is nevertheless present.

​The organ we need for this perception is already predisposed and effective, but often we do not pay enough attention to our experiences. Sometimes, when we are in great need, we experience a special help, but we are usually not able to make the connection to the healing power of Christ. Since the year is still very young, we could give as much attention as possible to this motif, the healing power of Christ, and this could become effective like a shield against the attacks of the evil one.

 Gospel Reading: 1. John 4: 7-13 

Dear Community of Christians,

We are now in the midst of the 12 Holy Nights, a time that lies ‘between the years’. The outer life, the busy world has not yet picked up speed again. This offers the chance to take more care of our inner world and to turn our thoughts inwards.

And then we can find an incredibly rich world as it is laid out in each of us. In the gold ground of our soul lies the treasure of our infinite capacity for love.

In Christmas lies the original source of all love, when the pure soul of the Christ Child of the Luke Gospel, is ready to be born on earth. The power of the love of the Child Jesus is based on complete selflessness. This selfless openness and love made the inner space as a then-future vessel of the solar powers of Christ.

This power of selfless love is the first thing with which we are received with on earth when the mother envelops us with her love, and gives us warmth, security and full attention.

Now it is up to us to pass on love in the broadest sense to every human being. That is certainly a very difficult task, especially to include also the one who does evil.

Gospel Reading: ​John 21: 15–25 

Dear Community of Christians,

In the presentation of the child Jesus in the temple we meet two people: Hanna the very old widow and Simeon the most pious person in the land. When Hanna saw the child, she recognized the appearance of his heavenly splendor and even foresees the salvation for the world will come from this child.

And also, Simeon, saw the clear purity and the divine appearance of this child.

Why we are told in detail about the encounter of these two people with this child? With this encounter we can unmistakably recognizes that an old world, without strength for the future, meets the new impulse that will renew the world.

In the individual and in the view of humanity as a whole, growing old is inevitable. Because we have used up our physical strength, never can our physical childhood and youth powers retrieve.

And yet today we can experience many rejuvenation forces in the old grown humanity. This child has prepared a vessel for the rejuvenating powers of Christ to enter into the earthly physical world.

​Whoever can fully absorb the powers of Christ becomes, like this child, a vessel for the renewing powers of a humanity that has grown old. Only by absorbing the all-pervading, rejuvenating Christ forces can humanity, prevent that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ from having been made in vain.   

Gospel Reading: John 21: 15–25 

Dear Community of Christians,

John the Gospel writer mentions clearly, his testimony is the truth. At a time when the world is struggling for truth, no Christian will deny the truth of the Gospel of John. And so, his important last words in the Gospel are of all the other things that Jesus Christ did, that would be written down in books one after another, the world cannot take in those books.

A mysterious word. 

But when we are deeply imbued with the truth that Christ is present in all human hearts since the resurrection, the word loses its mysteriousness. 

Today we can look back over 2000 years on a large scale and recognize the unbelievably great works that have been accomplished by people in word and writing. Here is just one representative of the many who, with and through Christ in their hearts, have handed over their works to the world of live for the earth.

In the time of the cruelest racial persecution in USA, Martin Luther King called out to the people:

"Love must guide our actions. Throughout the centuries, the words of Jesus should echo in our hearts today. Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who insult and persecute you. If we fail to do this, our protest will end up like a meaningless drama on the world stage of history and the memory of it will be wrapped in the ugly garment of shame”. 

Those words are written in the live sphere of the earth.

And so, for the future every single person can take part in writing, through the deeds, in word and action, the books that will fill the world through and with Jesus Christ.