AECI Advent 2025 Reflection: 'Plunge into a Trust; Awaken in Hope'

Week One : Trust

'Plunge into a Trust

Losing the noisy intruders,

Deceit, delusion, desire.

To break thus

Into a Trust without trepidation

Is soothing to the poor soul,

That tires of the day's dictates.

Here, in a bold flip on Time,

At the foot of Splendour's heights

Your Star breathes full,

And holds for a universe to illuminate.

Today,

Be no more of this raging earth

You have everything one needs to rejuvenate'

Our individual and collective hopes can seem so very fragile. It is as if they somehow just manage to remain afloat in our hearts and heads as different tides and tempests toss them to remote places in our subconscious, where they barely speak to us in their unique language of potential and fulfilment.

Through all the characters we meet in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke (Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph) we can glean a common feature. Their 'hopes' are rooted in a deep sense of divine 'mercy'. The liberating God of the Exodus story is what shapes their daily outlook. In their lives they hold to a pervading truth, open to what Zechariah describes as the capability 'to enable us to serve him without fear' and 'to guide our feet into the path of peace' (Luke 1:74, Luke 1:79). His own son John indeed embodies these purest hopes.

In this first week of Advent 2025 we might reflect on:

The frustrations that can arise when losing sight of our innermost hopes for ourselves, for others and for the world around us.

The mysterious sense of return and rejuvenation when our hopes take on a new or distinctive direction or shape throughout our lives.

How we might best grow to lose the 'day's dictates', if only for a brief moment . To lose any 'noisy intruders' on our spiritual space and on our grasp of inner peace.