I find it interesting that today, December 16th, was the day I chose to write an Advent reflection on Peace. Are you kidding me? Today of all days, I am not feeling peace. This is the busiest weekend of the whole season for me. What was I thinking? Between today through Sunday night, I have 2 dress rehearsals, 2 concerts, a tamale sale, 3 church services, and tour planning deadlines. Peace? Hardly……

Maybe the universe played a trick on me when I picked this date. Perhaps God knew that I would need to take a moment to close my eyes, breathe, release some stress, and focus on something other than the lack of peace I feel right now. Sometimes, for me, moments like this need absolute 100% silence.

Some people chose to put music on to relax. Sometimes that is really hard to do as a musician. It’s our work. Sometimes my brain cannot simply shut down and just enjoy sounds without analyzing the performance, the music, the choir, or the instrumentation.

But as soon as I started to think about peace and what I needed at this very moment, I thought of a favorite church anthem by John Rutter, which uses the Gaelic Blessing as the text. Maybe I needed to just stop for a minute and take a 1:54 second break to shut the world out and focus on something other than the noise, the hustle and bustle, and all that is the antithesis of peace. Maybe you need this, too. I’m happy to pass it on.

A Gaelic Blessing

Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the gentle night to you
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you
Deep peace of Christ the light of the world to you
Deep peace of Christ to you

Today’s Advent Meditation is offered by Jenny Tisi, our Director of Children’s & Youth Music