Advent Devotional by Michelle Harmon Cook

Hebrews 10:9-10

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth century Benedictine nun, visionary, mystic, healer, poet and composer. She was a woman who did not accept her place as prescribed by societal constraints. Rather, she chose to explore her relationship with the Divinity in every facet of her life and work. The Latin phrases in The Pathway Home are taken from Hildegard’s extraordinary musical and poetic liturgical song cycle Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum. These little jewels of poetry and music are an astonishingly meditative and peaceful edition to advent season playlists.

The reference to Madelon, by contrast, is tied to the Medieval legend of the shepherdess whose tears are turned into Hellebores Niger or Christmas Rose. These stunning flowers of white were presented as a humble gift for the Christ child alongside the dazzling offerings of the wisemen. The root of the plant was used extensively by experienced healers throughout the centuries to treat myriad forms of disease. It remains, even today, a plant coveted for its ability to grow in cold climates when other flowers lie dormant.

The Pathway Home

The steps of Sanctuary                                                    

were covered in a sugar of white

Sidewalk luminaria glow

was my Bethlehem starshine

two minutes to midnight

Just me

and an outstretched bough of evergreen

waiting in silent kinship

for the Love of all ages

with nothing to gift but presence and wonder

Karitas habundat in omnia1

Concrete became an earthen hill

And I a daughter of Madelon

a shepherdess leaving her flock

to weep at the miracle

and the mystery of God incarnate

Snowfall became a sea of hellebore

Ever blooming with its communion cup

Freely offered

Root that heals

Regenerates

Multiplies

A Christmas rose for all time

Hodie aparuit nobis clausa porta 2

Dickensian echoes gathered in a halo of breath

That rushed in like a subsonic symphony

As I pressed my nose to the windowpane

straining to see the creche through locked door

Here was the practice of waiting

Of making music the sacrament

And from pew to pulpit

Learning discernment alongside

The witness of humanity

And waiting

Wading through questions not easily answered

O quam mirarabilis est inspiration3

There was no tolling bell

No rush of wind

No passerby

breaking midnight’s solitude

with arresting shouts or waves

Just my numbed fingers 

And the miracle of silence

Heralding the birth of a Savior-sacrifice

So that I could love and be loved

The steps of Sanctuary

my pathway home

Qui omnia liberavit4

1Love abounds in all,  2Today was opened to us a shut -up gate,  3How wondrous is that breath,  4He has freed all things

Michelle Harmon Cook