Image: Wise Women Also Came © Jan Richardson
Friends, it is the time of year when I get to wish you a Merry Women’s Christmas and share a gift that I’ve created for you in celebration of the day!
You might know that in some parts of the world, Epiphany (January 6, which brings the Christmas season to a close) is also celebrated as Women’s Christmas. Originating in Ireland, where it is known as Nollaig na mBan, Women’s Christmas began as a day when the women, who often carried the domestic responsibilities all year, took Epiphany as an occasion to enjoy a bit of respite and celebrate together at the end of the holidays.
Whether your domestic duties are many or few, Women’s Christmas is a good time to pause and take a break from whatever has kept you busy in the past weeks or months. As the Christmas season ends, this is an occasion both to celebrate with friends and also to spend time in reflection before diving into the responsibilities of this new year.
It has become a tradition for me to create a retreat that you can use for Women’s Christmas—or any time you’re in need of a space of respite and regathering. This year’s retreat is titled “What the Light Shines Through.” As I continue to make a new life, I’ve thought a lot about the work of mending, restoration, and healing—the ways by which the brokenness within us and around us becomes transformed. This year’s retreat offers an invitation for you to do some reflecting, wondering, and dreaming about how this happens in your own life, and how we are called to do the work of restoration and healing together.
The retreat is very flexible, easily adaptable to your own purposes. You can do the retreat anytime you wish, by yourself or with friends near or far. It includes an introduction with some thoughts about how you might use these reflections.
Clicking the link below will take you to a page on this Sanctuary of Women site where you can download the retreat as a PDF file. There is no cost; this is my Women’s Christmas gift to you! If you wish, you can make a donation in support of the retreat; contributions will be shared with the A21 Campaign (a21.org), which is devoted to ending human trafficking and providing sanctuary, healing, and hope for those rescued from slavery.
Download the 2020 Women’s Christmas Retreat
(If you don’t see the 2020 retreat when you click the link, just refresh your browser so that you’re seeing the most recent version of the Women’s Christmas page, and the new retreat should appear.)
You are welcome to make copies of the retreat to share with friends. I would be delighted for you to offer this gift to others by sharing this blog post; you can use any of the social media icons at the bottom of this post or simply forward the link to others.
This year’s retreat opens with a new blessing I’ve written for you, which you can find below. As we celebrate the day and enter into the year ahead, I pray that you will be attended by many graces. Merry Women’s Christmas!
Singing to the Night
A Blessing for Women’s Christmas
Who would have thought
the sky could be so pierced,
or that it could pour forth such
light through the breach
whose shape matched
so precisely
the hole in the heart
that had ached
for long ages,
weary from all its emptying?
And what had once been
a wound
opened now
like a door
or a dream,
radiant in its welcome,
singing to the night
that would prove itself
at last
not endless.
Call the piercing a star.
Call it the place the light begins.
Call it the point that tethers us
to this sheltering sky.
Call it the hope
that keeps holding us
to this broken,
blessed earth,
that keeps turning us
toward this world
luminous beneath
its shadows.
Call it the vigil fire
kept in that place
where every last thing
will be mended
and we will see one another
finally whole,
shining like the
noonday sun.
—Jan Richardson
[The image Wise Women Also Came is © Jan Richardson from Night Visions. To use this image or order an art print, please visit this page at Jan Richardson Images.]
Looking forward to this resource… and possible connections to the new stained glass windows goin in at my church (what the light shines through!)
Blessings!
Lauren, thank you so much! Lovely to hear you have new stained glass windows going in at your church. Blessings to you!
Thank you for sharing your gift
Julia, thank you kindly! I wish you many blessings in this new year.
Thank you so much for such a “de LIGHT filled “ gift.
Merry Women’s Christmas to you and to all the women out there !
Merrily,
-Thelma
Simply beautiful.
Your blessings and retreats have touched my heart, helped me to ponder anew, and opened spaces in my heart. Thank you for sharing this gift with us. I look forward to Women’s Christmas!
Jan, I feel like I know you though we have never met face to face. Your writing has inspired and comforted and nurtured me for a long time. I have a question. Might I create a Facebook page and invite just a few friends to join me in this for a week, copying your writing in and crediting you. Then next year, I shall plan a day apart for women in this rural Texas county made up of 3 small towns. Thank you! and PEACE!
Thank you for sharing this beautiful blessing & retreat! I just sat down at my desk to research a bit more on Women’s Christmas in preparation to share with a small group of women in ministry leadership. I am very much looking forward to sharing your words with them.
Also, thank you for your books of blessings. The pages of Circle of Grace and The Cure for Sorrow are bookmarked and adorned with sticky notes. Your words have offered shelter on my own journey and for those I love. With much appreciation and gratitude – thank you.
Dear Jan, What a gift you give to us with your retreat and thru your art and words. Years ago, I was introduced to one of your early books, which helped me in a time I felt quite broken in my relationship with the church. As a woman, your book helped me to find an edge where I could belong and remain connected.
I was thrilled to find that you continue your writing and art, and am looking forward to delving into what you’ve created in the past decade since i last saw your work.
With much appreciation,
Jenna
Jan,
I am representing a book club that has about 12 members, have been meeting for 20 years, read Christian Books or books about spirituality. We have used your retreat before as an adjunct to our regular reading night. This year we had a retreat day and used your 2020 format. It is exceptional and was meaningful in so many ways to everyone present. It was truly a wonderful experience that God was invited into. We had so much meaningful conversation and prayer. Thank you so much. We have loved your book- In the Sanctuary of Woman- that we read several years ago. Bless you and thank you for sharing so generously.
Thanks for the blessing you have given me.
SKB
Jan! Every beautiful and good thing surround and uphold you in this coming year.
I have not looked at the website for two years as I have been on a medical retreat of letting go and silence. It is good for me to return with your images, poetry, prose, and Word reflection. You reflect the light and love, the beauty and peace of the I Am which undergirds all of our forms…and blesses us wholly. I share the comfort, even in its challenge, of your work with parishioners, patients, colleagues, and friends. We are all drawn in some deep plateau of deep rest in the Life that comes through the Word in your words.
Ever grateful for you and your work.
Abiding peace and love to you.
Deborah L Adams
Washington state
United Church of Christ clergy & hospital/hospice chaplain