Given as a light to the nations
A star rises, and we don’t know how or why, but we follow it. We know we need to follow it. And when we get there, to the place where I needed to go, to where the star that I saw guided me, I find…you. And you find me. And gathered around the Christ Child, you and I become we.
This year, the star has given us the company of two Cistercian sisters from Vietnam. They’re studying English and Theology at a college in town, but for Winter Break, they’re staying here. They’ve prepared Vietnamese dishes, shared a Vietnamese carol, and inculcated in us – just through their presence – an admiration of the faithful in Vietnam, so reverent and courageous and sweet.
Our sisters’ presence has also renewed in us a felt gratitude for one of the a founding documents of the Cistercian Order, known as the Charter of Charity. This document ensures that our autonomous communities are bonded, both practically and spiritually, by relationships of accountability and support. In medieval France, this was revolutionary. Now, more than nine hundred years later and all the world over, it continues to sustain, stretch, and strengthen us.
Maybe someday a star will rise faraway East and it will be our turn to follow into the vast unknown. Or maybe even now there is an undiscovered place in my heart where a new light is inviting me to go. Maybe going inward will lead us outward, and we’ll find ourselves gathered around a Christ Child who has our sisters’ and brothers’ features, singing a hymn we can’t quite pronounce but do very much recognize, laying down the little gifts of our whole lives, together, for Him.
