Lights in the Darkness

These are dark days ~ in so many ways. Fear and suspicion, despair and hopelessness are palpable ~ As the days grow shorter and the nights longer, we long for light, for hope, for peace to come to our broken world and our broken hearts. Whatever festival we celebrate at this time of year, light is central. Perhaps it points to the necessity of that which is essential for life.

In this season of lights, on the third Sunday of Advent and the last night of Hanukkah, I share a new Hanukkah prayer by Rabbi Brant Rosen ~ As we light these lights, may we resolve anew to make of ourselves a light, that by our very lives, we might be instruments of the peace we seek ~ And may our collective light dispel whatever darkness …

Lights of Advent

We light these lights
for the instigators and the refusers
the obstinate and unyielding
for the ones who kept marching
the ones who tended the fires
the ones would not bow down.

Lights of Diwali

We light these lights
for the sparks that guide us on
through the gentle night
for the darkness that swaddles us
its soft embrace until the moment
we inevitably emerge
into life renewed.

Lights of Kwanzaa

We light these lights
for the spirit of resilience that remains
after our strength has ebbed away
for the steadfast knowledge even as
the bullets echo repeatedly
off bodies lying in the streets
that the impunity of the powerful
cannot last forever.

Lights of Hanukkah

These lights we light tonight
will never be used for any other purpose
but to proclaim the miracle
of this truth:
it is not by might nor by cruelty
but by a love that burns relentlessly
that this broken world
will be redeemed.