Week 542–Wisdom from the Abbey–Mother Hilda–You’re the reason for the Season

Wisdom from the Abbey–Mother Hilda–You’re the reason for the Season (Mother Hilda tells the powerful but sad story of Billy, a woman who spent many years praying with the nuns at Jamberoo. Every Christmas she would remember the years past when, as a young alcoholic mother, she'd spend Christmas Day, and indeed most days in an alcoholic haze and her four small children would always do without. No matter how many years she lived in sobriety, those memories would always come up to haunt her. There are lots of Billies out there, people who've deliberately gone away this Christmas, so they don't have to face the past or relatives with whom they have differences. People who've been dreading today because someone they loved is no longer alive and therefore not there, or they have someone who hasn't remembered them this Christmas. So often Christmas tends to show up what divides us, what's unhealed, who and what is missing. Grief is so often worse at Christmas. Today we celebrate the person Jesus, who does unite, who heals, who restores, and who, by his very presence in our lives, tells us that things don't have to stay the way they are. I wish Billy had seen that; she could have lived without the haunting memories. When you wish someone a happy Christmas today, may I suggest that you look them in the eye, and when you utter the words, Happy Christmas, pray swiftly in your heart for that person; “May you know that he came for you.” Go fill as many houses and streets as possible with that wish and prayer. Souls will hear it and the Christmas good news will truly have come. The Benedictine nuns of Jamberoo will praise specially this this Christmas that you, the listener, will feel that prayer deep within you. Are very happy Christmas to you all.)