THE
P RTAL
January 2016
Page 6
Spirituality Matters
The New Year
Antonia Lynn looks forward to the New Year
January: named
after the two-faced god Janus, guardian of gates, doors and thresholds. There
used to be a tradition at the turn of the year to open the front and back doors of the house, to let the wind
blow through, sweeping away the sorrows and disappointments of the old year and blowing in the blessings
of the new.
O Clavis David
In the way of journals and periodicals
I am writing this early; by a delightful
synchronicity it is the day of the
Advent antiphon O Clavis David.
‘O Key of David, and sceptre of the
house of Israel, who opens and no
man shuts, who shuts and no man
opens: come, and lead forth the
captive who sits in the shadows
from his prison.’
Year of Mercy
This Year of Mercy could be a
good time to revive the custom of
opening the doors for New Year, as
the Holy Doors stand open across
the world. Two things we might need
to remember if we do: the blessings at
the front door will not look as we might
expect but will come in the guise of the
‘other’; and we must not forget to open the
back door too, to let the old go so that there is
room for the new.
cast our sins behind us
God has cast our sins behind his back (cf. Isaiah
38:17), and in return he may well invite us to put some
things - old habits, old beliefs - behind our own backs.
the salt of the earth
We are called to be the life-giving salt of the earth,
not to be deadened into a pillar of ‘spendsavour salt’,
like Lot’s poor wife, by turning backwards to the things
of the past.
Perhaps we can join in Dag Hammarskjöld’s prayer:
‘for all that has been — Thanks. For all that shall be —
Yes.’ Easy to say but harder to mean and live by. (He also
said, by the way, ‘the myths have always condemned
those who “looked back.” Condemned them, whatever
the paradise may have been which they were leaving.’)
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The doorway is indeed a place for prayer, for
it is where we meet the One who knocks,
at both the front door and the back, but
leaves it to us whether we open to him
or not.
So I wish you a bright and joyful
Epiphany and a blessed New Year
with these words from a sermon
by St Ambrose of Milan:
‘God, the Word, stirs up the
lazy and arouses the sleeper.
For indeed, someone who
comes knocking at the door is
always wanting to come in. But
it depends on us if he does not
always enter… ‘May your door be
open to him who comes; open your
soul, enlarge your spiritual capacities,
that you may discover the riches of
simplicity, the treasures of peace and sweetness
of grace. Expand your heart; run to meet the sun
of t