Rev Brigid’s message concludes with a guided meditation on both video and audio versions.

To switch from video to audio, click the blue “Show Audio Player” box below the player.
To download audio, use the down arrow at the top right of the audio player.

The following poem by Jan Phillips was referenced in the talk.

What If?

What if Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin, but of a mother
who burned with desire, wrapped herself
around her man like ivy on an oak?

What it he was born in a comfortable house in Nazareth,
the third of seven children, hungry for experience,
on fire for justice?

What if he sailed off to Egypt and India to learn from the masters,
sink his teeth into Emptiness, compress the ten thousand things
into a handful of parables?

What if he came to Earth for the same reasons we did:
to smell jasmine, taste pomegranate,
touch the cherry blossom cheek of a blushing lover?

What if the whole shebang about salvation and sin
and your multitude of human shortcomings was made up
by people who lusted after power?

What if the real truth of your life
is that you came here to be a mighty light?

And when you left those radiant beings at the gate
waving and cheering you on—you promised
you wouldn’t forget where you came from,
but look at you now, hanging by a thread,
every day wondering if it even matters.

What if you closed your eyes and sat still for awhile?

Would you remember that Light is still Who You Are—
that flame inside you, that tongue a-blazing,
that burning star in the sky of your mind,
all light, all yours, all joyful and triumphant.

O Holy Night!

© Jan Phillips    janphillips.com