The light in the world

My dear Friends
Now that I have got over the excitement of my sixtieth birthday I can concentrate on the real plot, which is the Light coming into the world. In pagan times they lit bonfires and celebrated the light to alleviate the darkness.

In 160 B.C. in Palestine the Greeks, under the emperor Antiochus, overran the Jewish Temple and desecrated it. A small band of zealots, called the Maccabees, under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, fought against the Greeks and won and went to rededicate the Temple. They found that the light above the Ark, supposed to burn permanently, had been extinguished. They searched around for some oil and found only enough to burn for a short while. But God made a miracle and the oil lasted for eight days, long enough for them to get replenishments. Hence the Feast of Dedication, Chanukah, when the Jewish people light candles for eight days, to commemorate the power of God and the miracle of the light.

140 or so years later, Jesus was born. In John's Gospel we don't have the narrative of His birth, as in the Gospel of Luke, but we have an extended mystical description of the Light coming into the world. This is the Christ, the Logos, who was with the Father before time and space began. Not only was everything made through Him, but He came into the world so that He could be the Light and life of men and women. It is a Light that the darkness cannot extinguish or overpower, and, more, a Light that the darkness cannot (according to the original Greek) even comprehend.

I met a young German woman at university who was an atheist. We became friends and she told me that she had an African boyfriend. She once travelled with him to Africa. They arrived at night and she was struck by the darkness of the Veldt, the huge rural expanse of the African landscape. They were taken into a room, where there was nothing but a matress on the floor.

Then someone lit a candle. She told me that that was the closest to a religious experience she had ever had.

Every blessing for Christmas, may the Light shine on you.
Health and happiness in the new year.
Shalom from
Sister Gila

Till 120 Years

My dear Friends
I am halfway there! In the Jewish tradition and also the Arabic tradition when you have a birthday you say to the person 'Till 120 years!'. This presumably refers to the figures in the Bible who were purported to have lived that long, Moses being the most famous amongst them.

My own mother, God rest her beloved soul, lasted, and in good shape too, to 97 years. My friend Eva's mother mde it till 102 and we know that in the Caucasian mountains people live until 160. I have always thougth it was due to a combination of vodka and honey, both of which I take by the way.

Getting back to my 60th birhtday, which I celebrated yesterday on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, so it was even more special, in the Korean tradition 60 is the most important age of all. I am not sure why. I think of life as a play, with successive ages or decades as different acts in the play. Now surely 60 is coming up to the curtain on the final act, whether the act lasts one year or thirty seven as in my mother's case. I have a feeling that these years may be the most fulfilling of my life. and so far I have had an interesting and adventurous life.

I have only one unfulfilled ambition, apart from seeing my friends again in Amsterdam. That is to go the Metropolitan Opera in New York. I listen to it on the radio, and enjoy the intervals, when a very friendly lady gives credit to everyone from the Producer down to the cleaner. I love the Americans and their country and the fact that they are so egalitarian. So I have collared a close Polish friend of mine and virtually extraced a promise from her that we will 'do' New York together sometime in the coming years.

I celebrated my birthday by starting on Saturday with a group of diverse friends, food and drink. Yesterday I went to Mass, where grace was poured out and I felt overwhelmed by the love of it all. In the afternoon more friends came round, and also in the evening.

I have a friend who celebrated her 60th birthday for the whole year. So watch this space!

Love and shalom
Sister Gila