10 Trinity Sq
Toronto, ON
M5G 1B1
416-598-4521
416-598-1432 (fax)
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Rental space available
Weddings at Holy Trinity
weekly services
Sun. 10:30 am, 2:00pm;
Wed. 12:15 pm
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reflections and sermons posted here are the work of individual members of Holy Trinity. Opinions expressed are those of the writer or preacher and do not necessarily reflect an official or even popular opinion within the parish.
We Have Arrived
SARA BOYLES
We have arrived. The shops are closed. The family has gathered. The moment is here and we are in Christmas. May whatever is done be blessed, whatever is undone be forgiven. Let us breathe deeply of this instant, this moment. Let us remember our story with its elements of birth and death, its joys and heartache, its pleasures and its pains, its riches and poverty. Let us not forget the terror that stalks our streets and the planets that continue on their courses. Chaos and order are all wrapped into one.
Life can be bitter and lonely and into that can come a moment of beauty. Life can be rich and full only to give way to emptiness and a barren landscape. Many seemingly opposites co-exist and are part of the same whole. No one part is isolated from another. The chalice of life itself is so boundless nothing floats free.
On one particular night long, long ago, in a far away place a man and a woman were looking for shelter. No one wanted them. They finally found shelter in a stable and there, this young woman had a baby. That baby was as beautiful as every baby born and as helpless and demanding. That baby contained all the joy of this world and all of the pain. That baby shifted the gaze of those young parents and eventually shifted the gaze of much of the western world. Ever since, wonderful and humane things have been done in the name of that child as well as atrocities too awful and cruel to recount. The opposites contain one another.
We contain it all and we are it all. The story is written on our DNA, in our genes and in our cells. We cannot erase it or cover it up. It is faithful. It is powerful. It is unique and universal. Perhaps that is our task. To listen to the story that is written inside us and to act towards it - to love with all our hearts and minds and strength, and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.
May your Christmas be rich in blessings,
Sara November 30, 1999 |
