ComplineNYC wraps up the calendar year this Sunday with the final Compline service of 2006. However, this is hardly the end. Compline has had a wonderful beginning – both in singing and in the community – and it will continue to grow.  

 

For me, this morning had a rough start.  The toilet overflowed all over the bathroom, retrieving a necktie off of the overloaded rack resulted in an explosion all over the closet, and I realized that I have only two weeks left until Christmas and that I will be spending the better part of the evening scrubbing the bathroom floor.  Now it seems that the last thing needed in this flurry of fitting everything in is one more “must do”.  I imagine that we all respond to the slew of holiday invitations now filling our inboxes with, “That would be nice if I had the time.  Alas, I have to go to this meeting … or write this paper … or scrub the bathroom.”  

 

During the time of preparation for Christmas, a voice of one in this wasteland cries out that soon “the crooked and entangled places will become plain.”  But when?  All too often at its end, we sigh, relieved that Christmas is over and we can finally take a breath.  We need a time of recovery, a time with reduced traffic, time to temper our rough moments with smoother ones.

 

When he lived in New York, my friend Stephen had a gift.  Continually, he recognized celebrities on the street.  Regaling me with stories of “guess who I saw today”, I would complain that I never saw any famous people.  I was busy checking off lists in my head, scrolling through the phone book in my mobile phone for someone to chat with, and all the while (like the typical New Yorker) avoiding eye contact at all costs.  Of course, Stephen and I were surrounded by the same crowds, but I brushed past them as I dashed through the streets.  Stephen’s state of mind was receptive to recognizing a familiar face in the sea of strangers.  His mind was open to seeing the unusual.  This came with preparation – anticipating and expecting to see, and actually desiring to see, the famous face.  The same holds true with our experience of the joy of the holiday; we do well to prepare ourselves.  The wonder is in a place where we might not be looking, and if we’ve not prepared the way, we may miss an amazing appearance in the crowd.

 

On Sunday, December 17, at 6:00 PM, there’s a half-hour opportunity to detour off of this rugged terrain onto a highway of Gregorian Chant meditation.  I invite you to use this as part of your own preparation this season.