Tag Archives: spirituality

Advent 2024: JOY

Advent Day 13, December 13, 2024 “We need a little Christmas now.”  Songwriter Jerry Herman If you’re looking for a prayer app, let me suggest Lectio365, a 10 minute devotional resource composed by leaders of Prayer 24/7, an international Christian movement focusing on prayer, mission, and justice. My reflection this morning is motivated by yesterday’sContinueContinue reading “Advent 2024: JOY”

Advent 2024: The Long Goodbye

Advent Day 12, December 12, 2024 Today marks the 10th anniversary of my mother’s death. She died at 94 after a long decline caused by dementia and Parkinson’s disease which left her a “two-assist,” an impersonal term meaning that it required two people to move her from her bed anywhere else, even though she only weighedContinueContinue reading “Advent 2024: The Long Goodbye”

Advent 2024: Notice

Advent Day 11, December 11, 2024 I am currently walking with a group through the book, The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach about Jesus’ Birth, by theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. It definitely isn’t Christmas Hallmark movie reading. Yet in spite of its scholarly depths, the authors make some intriguing observationsContinueContinue reading “Advent 2024: Notice”

Advent 2024: Love and Light

Advent Day 7, December 7, 2024 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  (Genesis 1: 3-4) You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. (1ContinueContinue reading “Advent 2024: Love and Light”

Advent 2024: Harmony

(Photo credit T. Brett McMahan) Eastern Europe Advent Day Six, December 6, 2024 Definition of harmony from the Cambridge Dictionary:  (1) a pleasant musical sound made by different notes being played or sung at the same time. (2) A situation in which people are peaceful and agree with each other, or when things seem right or suitable together.ContinueContinue reading “Advent 2024: Harmony”

Advent 2024: Look

St. Naum at Monastery of St. Naum, Macedonia, (c) T. Brett McMahan Advent Day 5, December 5, 2024 You Reading This, Be Ready ~ by William Stafford Starting here, what do you want to remember?How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?What scent of old wood hovers, what softenedsound from outside fills the air? Will youContinueContinue reading “Advent 2024: Look”

Advent 2024: Silence

Advent Day 4, December 4, 2024 Lo, in the silent nightA child to God is bornAnd all is brought againThat ere was lost or lorn. Could but thy soul, O man,Become a silent night!God would be born in theeAnd set all things aright. Whoever wrote this 15th century verse knew a truth about the giftContinueContinue reading “Advent 2024: Silence”

The Waiting: A Poem of Advent

Advent Day 2: December 2, 2024 The Waiting ~ A Poem of Advent “For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Do not fear.  I will help you.'”  (Isaiah 41:13) O, Isaiah, ancient prophet of doom, prophet of ancient hope,your proclamations resound like cymbalsjarring this stillContinueContinue reading “The Waiting: A Poem of Advent”

Advent 2024: Waiting as One

December 1, 2024 Welcome, any and all, to this season of Advent, the four-week period of waiting for the Light to be born. Whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, a believer of anything or of nothing, you are welcome here. We’re all alive, breathing as one, at this same moment, on this same planet, our common aches,ContinueContinue reading “Advent 2024: Waiting as One”