A heartbeat!

When the Prodigal Son returned home, his Dad clasped him to his breast and the repentant son was comforted by the heartbeat. Imagine that strong steady pulsing of his Dad's excited and thankful heart for his lost son who had at last returned to the nest called HOME.

Cindy heard a heartbeat this week. She was listening to the swollen belly of her pregnant daughter. The pulsing of her daughter's blood giving sustenance to a grandchild not yet born was a pregnant moment in itself. A moment filled with promise and future — a moment full of the unknown, the mystery of a baby growing in the darkness. Will the baby be a boy or girl and what will be its very special name? By name I have called you.

Whilst falling asleep later that night Cindy could hear the regular thumping of her own heart beating. Again it was comforting as Cindy thought of it beating away all night while she slept. She thanked God for her healthy heart and prayed for those whose hearts do not function as they should.

A heartbeat is a very comforting sound. Mothers know when a baby is restless — sometimes placing a clock under the mattress of the crib will bring the baby to peace. The clock has the familiar regular pulsing sound it heard for 9 months while in the womb of the mother.

Even little kittens and puppies can be settled by the sound of a ticking clock. As we grow older a loud ticking clock may be very annoying and make sleep difficult. Perhaps we have grown up and no longer need that kind of 'mother' comforting.

Whilst pondering the miracle of our hearts beating around eighty times a minute, every hour of every day for up to as long as one hundred years, Cindy cannot understand how anyone cannot believe in a God.

Sharing in the “sacred heartbeat”...

Perhaps what Cindy wants to say this week, is that if we are the children of God, then we too share a sacred heartbeat. The pulsing loving heartbeat of God is also our heartbeat. We are all pregnant with God. Deity bursts forth from within each one of us. The Spirit of God is growing and maturing within each human heart, soul and mind. It is up to us to bring this Spirit to birth in our world. We are the heartbeat bringing truth and justice into our society. We each have a sacred commission in this world, to bring the very heart and spirit of God alive wherever we are and in whatever we are doing.

At St Michael's this week, parishioners are feeling anxious. Fr Cunning, the strong heartbeat at the very heart of the parish, is moving on. People have become used to the regular rhythm and pulse of how he likes things done. Change is threatening. The parishioners don't know yet who the new priest will be, though the Bishop has assured them that he will send a priest as the parish is enormous. The heartbeat of a new priest may pulse with a different beat — parishioners will need to fall into the pattern.

The parish will continue, the dance will go on, the beating heart of God will be heard all over the world in people and nature and virtue.

Maybe people will sense the power of nature in the bushfires raging in most States of Australia.

Meanwhile, preparations are now underway for Advent. Is it really almost a year since last Christmas!

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Cindy the Sacristan is the pseudonym of one of the long-time members of our community. In real life she has spent many years in a voluntary capacity as sacristan in a large outer suburban parish.

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