Find your “hush” this Christmas

Mae’r neges hon hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg
This message is also available in Welsh

Because they are still familiar to many of us, the words of some better-known traditional Christmas carols don’t always have the impact which they might. Let me, then, encourage you to reflect on just one word and a couple of short sentences from two of them. The first is “It came upon a midnight clear”; the second, “O little town of Bethlehem”.

From the first, that one word is “hush”; from the second the sentences are “O holy child of Bethlehem . . . be born in us today”.

One of the things that surely must impact on all of us in the preparations for Christmas and the New Year is noise: noise in places like the streets, the shops, the school, the pub, and just about everywhere else. So please reflect on just how beautifully refreshing stillness can be when the noise stops. There are times when we all need a bit of hush! Find those times to be still; try to get your bit of hush. And, when you succeed, use the stillness and use the hush to remember what lies at the heart of the Christmas story: the birth of Jesus, a child born into poverty and need, soon to become a refugee, and later to be rejected for doing nothing more sinister and nothing more challenging than teaching about the vital importance of things like justice and truth, generosity and compassion, love and forgiveness.

Then, having remembered, move on and, in the stillness, in your hush time, reflect on the words, “O holy child of Bethlehem, be born in us today”, and remember, whether you are religious or not, your own personal capacity to be the agents of and ambassadors for those lovely things about which Jesus taught. They are things which many cry out for, things which millions long for, and things which we all need, both for our own individual good and for the good of the world and its communities. Allow his universal teaching and his generous example to be born in you today, and to become real in your own words and deeds every day.

None of us should underestimate the power we have to make a difference – every act of compassion, every deed of generosity, every loving and forgiving act changes the world for someone and for the better.

So, find some hush time, and let the holy child be born in you. I wish you the peace and hope of Christmas and the strength to make a difference in 2019.

Darganfyddwch eich “tawelwch” y Nadolig hwn

This message is also available in English
Mae’r neges hon hefyd ar gael yn Saesneg

Oherwydd eu bod nhw’n dal yn gyfarwydd i lawer ohonom, dyw geiriau rhai o’r carolau Nadolig traddodiadol mwyaf adnabyddus ddim bob amser yn cael yr effaith y gallent fod yn ei gael. Gadewch i mi felly eich annog i fyfyrio ar un gair a chwpl o frawddegau byr o ddwy o’r rhain. Y gyntaf yw “Yn nhawel wlad Jwdea dlos” [“It came upon a midnight clear”]; yr ail, “O dawel ddinas Bethlehem” [“O little town of Bethlehem”].

O’r gyntaf, yr un gair hwnnw yw “hush” neu “tangnefedd”; o’r ail y brawddegau yw “O holy child of Bethlehem . . . be born in us today”.

Un o’r pethau sy’n sicr o fod yn effeithio ar bawb ohonom yn ystod y paratoadau at y Nadolig a’r Flwyddyn Newydd yw sŵn; sŵn mewn mannau fel y strydoedd, y siopau, yr ysgol, y dafarn, a phobman arall i bob pwrpas. Felly meddyliwch o ddifrif mor brydferth o adfywiol y gall llonyddwch fod pan fydd y sŵn yn tawelu. Mae yna adegau pan fyddwn ni i gyd angen ychydig o lonyddwch! Darganfyddwch yr adegau hynny i fod yn llonydd; ceisiwch gael eich tamaid o dangnefedd. A phan fyddwch yn llwyddo, defnyddiwch y llonyddwch i gofio beth sydd wrth galon stori’r Nadolig: genedigaeth Iesu, plentyn a anwyd i dlodi ac angen, a fyddai’n fuan yn dod yn ffoadur, yn ddiweddarach yn cael ei wrthod am wneud dim byd mwy anfad a dim byd mwy heriol na dysgu am bwysigrwydd hanfodol pethau fel cyfiawnder a gwirionedd, haelioni a thrugaredd, cariad a maddeuant.

Wedyn, ar ôl cofio, symudwch ymlaen, ac mewn llonyddwch, yn eich amser tawel, myfyriwch am y geiriau , “O blentyn sanctaidd Bethlehem”, a chofiwch, pa un bynnag ydych chi’n grefyddol neu beidio, eich gallu personol i fod yn weithredwyr a llysgenhadon ar ran y pethau hyfryd y dysgodd Iesu amdanyn nhw. Mae’r rhain yn bethau y mae llawer o bobl yn galw’n daer amdanynt, pethau y mae miliynau yn dyheu amdanynt, y pethau yr ydym i gyd eu hangen, ar gyfer ein lles unigol ein hunain ac er lles y byd a’i gymunedau. Gadewch i’w ddysgu byd-eang a’i esiampl hael gael eu geni ynddoch chi heddiw, a dod yn fyw yn eich geiriau a’ch gweithredoedd bob dydd.

Ni ddylai neb ohonom danbrisio’r grym sydd gennym i wneud gwahaniaeth – mae pob gweithred o drugaredd, pob gweithred o haelioni, pob gweithredu gariadus a maddeugar yn newid y byd i rywun a hynny er gwell.

Felly, darganfyddwch eich amser tawel, a gadewch i’r plentyn sanctaidd gael ei eni ynoch chi. Dymunaf i chi heddwch a gobaith y Nadolig a’r nerth i wneud gwahaniaeth yn 2019.