According to Christian tradition, Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year. Advent is the four-week period of preparation leading up to Christmas in late November or early December, and the liturgical year ends with Christ the King Sunday in November of the following calendar year, before beginning again with a new First Sunday of Advent. The liturgical year is the cycle that gives rhythm to the life of the Church throughout the world around the events of Christ’s life, with highlights such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost.
Like the rhythm of these cycles, our newsletter will take you through the story of current, recent and future events, of all those heartbeats that give rhythm to the life of our Village. Each of our lives is a story, a story we tell ourselves and others, a story that takes us from the heights of happiness to the depths of unhappiness. It’s the very condition of our human experience. While it’s true that we have no control over the events we often categorize as “positive” (a professional promotion, a long-desired romantic encounter, recovery from a painful illness, the trip of our dreams finally realized, freedom from an addiction, ….) or “negative” ones (the death of a loved one, an accident or illness that “diminishes” us, a destabilizing loss of money, the unexpected break-up of a relationship we held so dear, …), we can still find inner serenity in the midst of external changes. We can be that tree with a solid, well-anchored trunk that nonetheless dances with its welcoming branches in the elusive wind of life. In the Gospel of John 3:8, Jesus reminds us of the following: “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it; you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. So it is with every human being born of the Spirit.”
At this time of Christmas and the New Year, in the climate of both joyful celebrations and threatening global insecurities, we invite you to plant this tree of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love (the four traditional movements of the four weeks of Advent) in your being and in your life. Certainly, we don’t know what life has in store for us, but anchored in the Spirit within and dancing in the Spirit without, we can sail through the winds of life with the certainty that God’s Spirit brings us all the experiences we need to grow, according to His Will and not according to our personal, limited parameters.
So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and may each breath in the Divine Breath be the occasion for renewed life at every moment: “every day is a potential new year” (H.D. Thoreau).
Thank you to all the villagers for your support of the Mosaic Village through your presence, your color of soul, your participation in activities from near and far, your donations, and for your exceptional enthusiasm in co-creating a more beautiful story than the one that is sometimes imposed or told to us, to act a story of a world more inspired, filled with wonder and solidarity, where each soul that we are has its place and can fully express itself in the mosaic of the great human family and the great family of living beings that we all form together, in one living body.we all form together, in a single living body.
Religion is about Life
God is the Living God who connects us,
And our wounds from the past untie like knots,
By the love we learn to give ourselves with envy,
And by the love that the bond with the other satiates.
While the sun in the celestial blue shines with its marble,
As the earth beneath our feet widens,
Life marvels at all the magic
And all the distress that humans marry,
But who are the two wings that allow it to fly?
So, like Birds of Freedom,
Let us soar with confidence, in our divine destiny.
After monastic experience and extensive travel between Angola, Sweden and the United States, Claudio has deepened his understanding of cultures, religions and spiritual approaches. Life Coach and certified preacher at the United Methodist Church in Princeton (USA), he is currently pursuing pastoral training at the University of Geneva and within the Swiss United Methodist Church. Father of two, he joined the co-creation of Village Mosaïque in 2022.
