The Christian Community in Johannesburg
  • Home
  • About
  • Programme
  • Community Notice Board
  • Articles 2025
  • Contemplations 2025
  • Market
  • Links

Reflect, Contemplate, Consider

2/1/2021

0 Comments

 
PictureJanus
by Rev. Paul Corman
​

By the time that you read this, the Christmas season and the strange year 2020 may well have ended and a new one, 2021, may have begun. It is logical, in the sacred days and nights of Christmas, and even if the holy nights have ended, we can well take advantage of what they provide for and encourage us to do: think about what has been and what is to come. In ancient Rome, the 1st of January, indeed, the entire month, was dedicated to the god Janus. He was the god of the state, the god of doors, beginnings, portals, transitions, endings, changes, steps in any process and transformations. Vicissitudes and the uncertainties of life were associated with him, and one looked to him for help in these situations. The doors and thresholds to homes, public buildings, even places of worship, were consecrated to him. He symbolised the becoming in life and evolution. He was depicted with two faces, one looked back, contemplating and watching over the past; the other face looked forward, contemplating and watching over the future. He could look back and ahead at the same time.

We can find in the figure of Janus much of what Christ later incarnated and brought down to Earth, especially the reality of becoming. However, Christ inserted a new element into all that Janus represented. Christ permeated vicissitude and uncertainty with hope, faith and trust, and above all with divine love, as a driving force of destiny, of what already was, but still in need of being understood and amended or perhaps forgiven or thanked, and also of all that was as yet to come. In addition to being just logical, looking back and forward during this season of transition of the years, it can be said that we have an obligation to take a few moments, day or night, to enter into what Janus represents: a contemplation of what was and a consideration of what will come, while reflecting on what Christ has given us to care for and apply to living: His love. There is a saying that elucidates this: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” With these words we arrive again at this festival time, which reveals the essence and work of Christ as it is expressed all year long in the Act of Consecration of Man: "Christ in us.” In this time of year so propitious to looking both back and forward, we can find ourselves engaged in the three different, but compatible, thought processes mentioned above: contemplation, consideration, reflection.

Reflection has to do with a mirror and the image it “reflects”. This form of thinking is excellent for analysing a project or problem, but not as useful for appreciating a work of art. When we reflect, we take distance from the object of our reflection, perhaps weighing what course of action we should take with respect to it. We are, in some way or other, seeking what to do, how best to engage our will in relation to the object. Reflection belongs more to the world of God the Father. It is a moon–like event.

In contemplation we become more mindful of our heart than of our intellect. When we contemplate something, we are looking to think of it "with-the-temple", the abode of the divine. We take into the temple of our soul, the object of our contemplation in hopes that divine light will illuminate our thoughts from within. We hope that Christ will be at home in the temple of our being, in our contemplations. It is more of a sun–like happening.

In consideration, our intention is to think about something with the stars, the “sidereal”. We make an inward movement to approach the world of the stars and ideals, the source of divine thinking, to give the spiritual world an opportunity to be present in our earthly thinking. Consideration can bring us into the sphere of the Holy Spirit through its affinity to the cosmic world and workings of the stars.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Use Ctrl-F to search this page
    Contemplations

    Article Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020

    2024 - January to December
    2023 - January to December

    ​2022 - January to December
    2020 - January to December
    2019 - January to December
    2018 - January to December​
    ​2017 - January to December
    2016 - January to December
    2015 - January to December
    ​2014 - November & December
    2013 - July to December
    2013 - January to June
    2012 - April to December
    Picture
    Send us your photos of community events.

      Feedback
      Please give feedback on anything,
      anonymously or with your name

    Submit

    Subscribe to our newsletter or notifications

    * indicates required
    I wish to receive
    Email Format

    Articles (prefaced by month number)

    All
    01 - A Worthy Opponent
    01 - Faith In The Future
    01 - Family Bicycle Ride
    01 - January
    01 - Old Testament Initiations
    01 - Peter
    01 - Reflect Contemplate Consider
    01 - The Twelve Apostles Of The New Jerusalem
    01 - Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil
    02 - February
    02 - Is It True? What Is Truth?
    02 - JOHN
    02 - JOHN The Brother Of James Son Of Zebedee
    02 - LOGOS – Consecrating Humanity
    02 - The Threefold In Daily Practical Life
    02 - The Tower Of Babel
    02 - Thoughts On The Word
    03 - About Abraham
    03 - Abraham And Sarah
    03 - An Angel In The Clouds
    03 - And Come Follow Me
    03 - JAMES THE GREATER
    03 - March
    03 - Melchizedek
    03 - Prophet Priest And King Understanding Ourselves As The New Community Of The Christ
    03 - Sodom And The Pillar Of Salt
    03 - The Nature And Significance Of Sacrifice
    03 - The Old And New Paths Of Chakra Development
    04 April
    04 At The Heart Of The Market
    04 “I Am – Fear Not”
    04 - Jacob Esau And The Birth Right
    04 - Lot Ishmael Isaac And The Father-son Principle
    04 - Phillip The One Who Is Found And Chooses To Follow
    04 Poem: READING FOR THE DEAD
    04 Report On The Africa Seminary Module
    05 - Apostle Thomas
    05 - Conversation On The Act Of Consecration Of Man
    05 - ‘Heaven To Earth’ To ‘Earth To Heaven’
    05- May
    05 - Son Of Man Son Of God
    05 - The Old Testament Study
    05 - The Preparation For Confirmation
    05 - Thoughts Around Easter
    05 - Understanding The Etheric
    06 - Christ Ascending The Ten Heavenly Hierarchies Ascension Study
    06 - Jacob And His Sons
    06 - June
    06 - Spirit Descending Becoming The Tenth Hierarchy The Whitsun Study
    06 - The Twelve Apostles Of The New Jerusalem Andrew
    07 - Ages Of The Earth To Come And Further Cycles Of Time
    07 - Judas Iscariot And Matthias
    07 - July
    07 - Mindwalk
    07 - Planetary Cycles Of Time And The Solar System For The Earth Cycle
    08 - August
    08 - Nathanael Bartholomew
    09 - A Contemplation From Namaqualand
    09 - Discovering The Meaning Of Christian Symbols
    09 - James The Son Of Alphaeus (James The Lesser)
    09 - Old Testament Study - The Plagues In Egypt
    09 - September
    09 - The True Nature Of The Second Coming Of The Christ
    10 - Matthew – Levi - The Tax Collector
    10 - October
    10 - The Old Testament Study On Moses And Israelites In The Desert
    10 - The Twelve Apostles Of The New Jerusalem – Matthew
    11 - A Michaelmas Thought
    11 - Meister Eckhart A New Mysticism That Speaks To Our Times
    11 - Michaelmas Conference
    11 - November
    11 - Old Testament Study - Moses
    11 - Thaddeus Jude
    11 - Thoughts On The Royal Wedding Feast (Matt 22)
    12- December
    12 - Simon The Zealot

    RSS Feed


On this site

Home
About us
Community Notice Board            Articles of events      Community Programme       Contemplations
Businesses in the Community    Links to other Communities 
Links to other websites of our community
Artists in our community

Services

The Act of Consecration of Man
Sunday                            10h00
Wednesday                    07h00
Friday                               08h30
Always check the programme for the latest information.
Sunday Service for Children precede by a story
Monthly and on festival Sundays        09h30

Contact information

​Address
46 Dover Street corner Pine Avenue
Ferndale
Randburg

GPS:S26.0887400, E27.9962600
​Telephone & Email
Telephone             +27 11 789 3083
WhatsApp              +27 76 697 1340
​Email                       [email protected]
​Office hours           08h00 - 13h00

Priests

​Rev. Michaël Merle
Mobile  +27 83 675 0836
​Email​     [email protected]
Rev. Reingard Knausenberger (retired)
Mobile  +27 82 218 1515
​Email     [email protected]

Webmaster

[email protected]
Copyright © 2012 to 2025. | All rights reserved. | Powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Programme
  • Community Notice Board
  • Articles 2025
  • Contemplations 2025
  • Market
  • Links