Advent 2025: Entering into the Mystery of the Cosmic Christ
“The Cosmic Christ” – Opening Song
Ariell Watson Simon’s Opening Remarks for The Solemnity of Christ of the Universe – November 23, 2025
We’re calling today’s solemnity “Christ of the Universe,” referencing the term “the Universal Christ.” But what does it mean to associate these two words – christ, and universe? And what does “King” have to do with it?
Well, let’s start with a bit of context. This solemnity is actually a relatively new one on the church calendar. Unlike many feasts which go back centuries, it wasn’t until 1925 that the Pope instituted a “Feast of Christ the King.” 1925 was an era of rising sectarianism, nationalism, and fascism. Sound familiar? Yeah. The pope wanted Catholics around the world to remember that Christ is our true leader and our true allegiance, not any political party or figurehead. He used the word “King” to describe Christ, because this was a familiar symbol at the time, to illustrate that Christ was a leader, sovereign and unifying. But of course, the “king” analogy is in other ways a poor one, because Christ’s leadership forgoes the trappings of wealth, power, and privilege that we associate with royalty. As today’s gospel reading illustrates, Christ doesn’t act as one would expect a king to act. Christ does not lead from above – not like a king on a throne, elevated above the people. This is not the historical Jesus, just floating somewhere above the clouds. As Richard Rohr jokes “Christ isn’t just Jesus’s last name.”
When we talk about “Christ,” “Christ of the Universe,” or “the Cosmic Christ,” we’re talking about the Word of God, incarnate in the universe from its very inception. Today’s reading from Colossians tells us that “in Christ all things in heaven and on earth were created: everything visible and invisible…all things were created through Christ and in Christ…and now all things hold together in Christ.”
In other words, Christ infuses all of matter. And because the whole cosmos is made up of matter, Christ is in all. Universal.
This idea has its roots in early Christianity and is reflected in the scriptures, but got lost in the Western church somewhere along the way. In the early 20th century, paleontologist and priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrestled with how to understand God in a worldview informed by evolution. He coined the term “the Divine Milieu” to describe the world infused with God’s presence, and wrote about the entire world as a Holy Mass in which all of matter is Christ’s body. More recently, contemporary thinkers like Richard Rohr and Ilia Delio have brought these ideas into our century and explored them further in a blend of science and Christian mysticism.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, this FutureChurch community is going to explore together what it means to welcome the Cosmic Christ in Advent. From this perspective, the incarnation is not only the birth of one baby one time in Bethlehem. Christ is born in all, and through all. Our Advent journey is not simply about remembering, not simply about waiting. It is about awakening! Waking up to the presence of Christ in our midst, and clearing the path for Christ’s presence to grow among us, until it reaches its fullness in God’s kin-dom of peace and justice.
In 1925, the world needed a reminder of who was really in charge – that Christ, the peaceful one, leads from within as the animating force of the universe.
Today, one hundred years after that first Feast of Christ the King, we have again fallen asleep to the truth of the Universal Christ. On this solemnity, let us awaken anew to the presence of Christ Incarnate.
Cosmic Christ Advent Prayer – Closing prayer by Ariell Watson Simon
O Christ,
By your Incarnation the cosmos was formed,
The stars born, and the Earth established.
Open our eyes to see your Light inside all that is.
Cosmic Christ, create us!
O Christ,
Through the deepening of your Incarnation,
You revealed your presence among us,
The divine made manifest in the form of a child.
Bring your Light to birth anew.
Cosmic Christ, dwell with us!
O Christ,
In the fullness of your Incarnation,
Your presence will one day break forth,
Reuniting all the whirling elements of the universe in yourself.
Awaken in us the expectation of the dawning of your Light.
Cosmic Christ, come!
Amen.
First Sunday of Advent Introductory Remarks by Rosemary Marusak
Awakening to God in All things
The readings this week, along with our theme of the Cosmic Christ, inspired me to start our Advent journey asking how each of us can awaken ourselves to God being in All Things, in other words, awakening ourselves to God’s Spirit both within us and in everything around us, which is communicating with us and calling us to be co-creators with God towards the Good.
My personal journey with this began when I first heard Richard Rohr describe the creation of the Cosmos as the first incarnation, the point when God first “joined in unity with the physical universe” or in other words, when God’s Spirit first joined with matter. As a scientist, I asked, “what does this mean?” So I began reading the works of Jesuit priest, theologian, and paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin, and in his book, “The Phenomenon of Man (or the Human Phenomenon)” he stated something that I, a chemist, found absolutely remarkable: “The volume of each [atom] is the volume of the universe”. Reflecting on this I wondered, “is this a link between science and my faith?” I thought of the Jesuit, St. Stanislaus Kostka’s “Finding God in All Things” when in 1568 he said, “I find a heaven in the midst of saucepans and brooms”? Maybe I find heaven in the midst of chemistry and atoms.
Physicists describe the beginning universe as a baseball size fireball of extremely dense pure energy, 1027 times hotter than our sun and containing the brightness of 2 x 1023 stars. And from this energy [expanding over 13.8 billion years], has evolved all matter that we observe in the universe, the stars, our planets, our Earth, ourselves. By reason and by faith, Teilhard de Chardin, Richard Rohr and Ilia Delio call this original fireball of energy that contains the universe, God’s heart or the Spirit or consciousness of God. And that is how all matter, including ourselves coinhere with God’s Presence. Learning of this was absolutely astonishing and life changing for me. By the very nature of the atoms of which we are composed, God is within me and God is in all things outside of me. God is, therefore, so very close, communicating and comforting always. I started looking and listening for God everywhere, and by doing this practice regularly, in gratitude for even the smallest of things, I gained a new love and respect for all of creation. With this new lens, I started grieving for the Earth with climate change and the destruction through war, of people and the materials through which God communicates and brings them comfort. I learned that each of us are unique, co-creators with God and that there is great hope that comes with understanding that we can help guide our future towards the Good if we find, listen to and align ourselves with God in All things.
In our second reading, St Paul says, “it is now the hour for [us] to wake from sleep”. Can we spend this Advent awakening to God in all things? Isaiah in our first reading says, ‘beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks’. Can we use the precious materials that are leant to us on this Earth for the Good? Jesus says in the Gospel reading, ‘Be vigilant! …The Promised One is coming at the time you least expect.” Can we find God’s Spirit in all matter and materials now, and in thanksgiving, enjoy the amazing gift of matter through which God calls us into friendship? Fr. Phil Cooke, SJ of the Midwest Jesuits offers this “readiness prayer” to help us: “Jesus, I don’t know when You will come again. Send your Spirit and prepare me here and now!”
In the remaining weeks of Advent, our leaders will journey us through ways of discovering and listening to God as we await the birth of Jesus, God’s second incarnation – God’s Word and Consciousness expressed through Christ fully human.
QUESTION for Breakout rooms:
Each of us is unique in how God communicates with us. What is the most important way God communicates with you? How can you spend more time in conversation with God this Advent?
First Sunday of Advent Opening Prayer:
Second Sunday of Advent Introductory Remarks by Carrie Roach
Who do you see in your imagination when hearing these words/ phrases?
Sass,
Chutzpah,
United in joy,
interiority,
burning love
diversification
complexity with no clinging?
In your imaginative exercise, is a Cosmic Christ created?
Privileged as an economically circular based ,certified , environmental science teacher with a graduate degree in theology , in 1995, one of my most powerful moments was when, Ms. Napoli, our brilliant vice principal, announced, she was moving on. JoAnn shared with us as her faculty and staff that the “only certainty in life is change.” “To fear change is to fear life.”
Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis ‘ Genesis Farm in New Jersey unveils teachings of the unstuck Jesuit Priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. What a blessing to learn of this stretcher barer on the “ Front” during World War One. Sister Miriam worked with Fr. Thomas Berry, a Passionist Priest whose work was our core curriculum at IPM. Ethics of Earth Care gave perspective within our South Florida late 1980’s unsafe HIV-Aids epidemic space. What a testament to the gospel message . So many young people were mysteriously dying from the unknown virus. Professionals from every arena were my peers. What an amazing practical theological setting. Our green institute of pastoral ministry, IPM, lived Teilhard ‘s three values of an evolutionary thriving: differentiation, subjectivity within the safe space of communion. A generation later, Sister Ilia Delio’s book: The Not Yet God explains again that without evolution, religion dies and without religion, evolution is BLIND. (p. 241)
I do not want to be stuck or blind. I hope to grow and own my becoming.
Upstanding as one more different, special and in community, seems like the natural flow as one who is now more physically disabled. I desire to continue the process to develop within a sense of wholeness.
Our readings this week invite us to trust in transformational change. Transitions are an indication of our flourishing. To fear change is to fear life.
“May all your transitions be joyous.” *
“Joy is the sure sign of the presence of the sacred.”
Second Sunday of Advent Opening Prayer:
O God,
You created the universe in infinite diversity
Even as your Spirit binds all together in unity.
Within your very trinitarian personhood,
You hold differentiation in communion.
Open our hearts to transformation,
That in this dynamic world,
We would embrace complexity over contradiction,
To welcome your peace
And see the wolf lay down with the lamb.
Grant this through Christ
– whose presence is already inbreaking among us,
and whose fullness draws near –
who lives and thrives with you and with us all
In the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
Third Sunday of Advent Introductory Remarks by Pat Pickett
“Caitlyn” (name changed to protect her privacy) is a child who is doubly diagnosed with severe autism and ADHD. When she attends ABLE TOGETHER, our ministry for neurodiverse children, Caitlyn does nothing but run, giggle, jump for three straight hours when she’s with us.
One Saturday a few weeks ago, we were on overload.
There was a crash, a chair is flipped and Caitlyn runs in, slams both arms on one of the tables and I hold my breath. She picks up a brush and roller. There is paint in bowls and I close my eyes. But, it is quiet. It is dead silent. Caitlyn is painting a picture.
Then, she’s finished. Up she jumps! She starts running. Then she stops. I put her picture on the drying table. She runs, gets it and gives it to me again. I tell her it needs to dry. She picks it up again and with both hands gives it to me. She is insistent! I am to take/keep her picture. When I hold her picture, promising to keep it, she runs off.
The volunteers looked at me, and me them. What happened? I guess maybe God TALK happened and we didn’t even realize until it was over. Caitlyn was talking to God, and maybe God was talking through Caitlyn. Caitlyn had experienced that thrill of creation and being in touch with someone beyond herself. Her joy, and the joy we each felt at that moment was tangible.
Most of us use words as our symbols to communicate. But before words, like Caitlyn, we shared our feelings through gestures and sounds and coloring on paper. There was color in those early drawing we made which were so expressive but cutoff just as we were learning to love our creativity. As adults we tell ourselves, “I’m not an artist.” Thing is – you were made in God’s image and creativity comes with that! We participate in the Cosmic Christ when we co-create with God.
Visio Divina is a way of wordless prayer. Twin of Lectio Divina it takes us into Mystery through color and objects. It helps us move to that earlier time in our lives when no words, but our early expressions brought us into contact with Mystery. We were all born creative and expressive, like Caitlyn, and like God. That creativity never left.
Color is inclusive; it speaks to everyone in their own vernacular. When we express ourselves in color, we meet the Cosmic Christ in an uncluttered love.
Today we celebrate Gaudete, the Advent feast of Joy associated with the vibrancy of the color pink. For the next few moments, I invite you to pray through Visio Divina while looking at Caityln’s picture, and listening to a piece of music recorded by our FutureChurch community member Sonja on her harp. This picture is raw joy from all of us, from Caitlyn and from God. This is Gaudette!
So relax, Take a few moments to let these colors speak to you and allow yourself to respond.
Caitlyn’s Gaudete – image for Visio Divina
Third Sunday of Advent Opening Prayer:
Creator God,
Through your inbreaking the wilderness blossoms,
The nonverbal become expressive,
And our fearful hearts break forth with joy.
Open our eyes to the color you put in our lives.
Free our creativity,
That our prayer and witness
to the joy of the Gospel
Would transcend words.
To all who long for Christ’s fullness,
Grant perseverance and patience,
That we may announce by our lives
The good news of your kin-dom.
Fourth Sunday of Advent Opening Remarks by Sonja Grace:
Sonja Grace is author of Garlands from ashes – healing from clergy abuse, (a collection of healing journeys told by 18 courageous women and men in New Zeland), published 1996.
Where is the Cosmic Christ being born today, in our time?”
Our holy womb is where the soul of the incoming child or idea, like a seed is invited to gestate. In the depths of winter, when nature is still and quiet, it is a special time for retreating inwards, descending within to listen to the cosmic feminine Christ residing deep within our womb/heart.
As we reflect on Mary, let us consider the young pregnant mothers today in Palestine. The women who have lost their homes, their land, are living in tents made of plastic sheets which don’t keep out the rain, snow, or the biting, cold winds. The recent heavy rains have meant their tent is awash with mud. The baby clothes have been ruined, the recently bought nappies, baby formula and what remains of food are now all unusable. Still the divine feminine force insists on giving birth to new life.
One might ask, Why?
These people, who have lost hope in a never ending war, say we are now just bodies without souls. For them, a new life brings joy, brings the blessing of love in a place, surrounded by devastation. For those who have lost so much, what is most important for them remains their family and God. Where love is, there is God.
I can reflect on my own life. When I was pregnant for the first time, I was not married, because the Church refused to marry us. I had just left an abusive relationship and was dossing down with various friends. And yet, despite everything, I bore a healthy girl. At the time I was riddled with guilt, it felt wrong to be blessed with a living baby, when I had not much materially to offer. A woman who had everything, a home, a nursery for the baby to be, a supportive husband. She finally managed to carry a baby to full term. Yet, it was born dead. She was devastated. I asked God, Why me? Why have I been blessed and not her?
I can only say, giving birth taught me how to be a mother and how to love. It was to be another twenty five years before my father freely hugged me. Children teach those of us who have never known love, how to love so that we may freely share our love with others.
When the feminine Christ emerges, it is not just about giving birth to children, it is also about giving birth to new ideas, new creations – be it with the written word in a poem, a story, planting a garden, composing music, singing a new song. The love of Christ shines through us in the darkest of times. The divine feminine love is strong, it is powerful, it is courageous and creative. It brings blessings to many.
Through acknowledging the sanctity of our holy wombs let us transmit love, peace and justice through all of our creations out into our world, instead of violence and trauma.
For me, I have found the Cosmic Christ in prison inmates, and in the homeless living on the streets of our cities.
I would like to end with sharing a song, Lost my Job. I wrote this song to capture the words of one woman living on the streets. I’d like us to imagine the word “wine“ standing for love?
Lost my job,
Couldn’t pay the rent,
Thrown out onto the streets, in the city.
Welcome angel into my home without walls?
My home without walls.
Refrain: Dreaming, dreaming of turning water into wine.
Dreaming, dreaming of turning water into wine.
Enough to feed the whole wide world.
Refrain:
There’d be no more hunger.
Everyone be smilin’.
Refrain:
Fourth Sunday of Advent Opening Prayer:
More Resources:
- This article provides a very quick overview of major theological themes related to the Cosmic Christ
- -Richard Rohr introduces this idea in a 5 minute video or a brief article.
- Richard Rohr’s reflection on the “First Incarnation”: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-first-incarnation/
- -For further reading, check out The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr or the Center for Christogenesis at https://christogenesis.org/