Spiritual Disciplines of Advent: Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

Reading of Advent Scripture of your choice

Reflection on Gathering:

We have arrived, Christmas has come. Christmas Eve and Christmas day finds us gathering in many ways. We gather with our faith communities for worship, with family and friends for meals and gift giving. We gather to celebrate and spend time with those important to us. We gather to hear once more the ever important story of Jesus' birth and the message of God's love come to earth. How are these acts of gatherings important spiritual practices that feed the soul?

Practice for the week:

In the next days, as you gather with your various communities, how will you practice hospitality? How will your practice of gathering and hospitality show clearly and with out question God's love come to earth in Jesus Christ?

Time spent in quiet reflection and prayer

Amen

Spiritual Disciplines of Advent: Week 4

Reading of Advent Scripture of your choice

Reflection on Giving:

This is the season of giving, we see it proclaimed all around us. But let's take the idea of giving just a bit deeper. How can we make our giving more than just a token, but instead an act of God's presence come to earth?

Practice for the week:

Think of giving beyond just giving of gifts or end of the year donations. How might you give of yourself? How might your acts of giving help those on the fringes of society know that they are not forgotten?

Time spent in quiet reflection and prayer
Amen

Spiritual Disciplines of Advent: Week 3

Reading of Advent Scripture of your choice

Reflection on Loving:

It is easy to love those who we like, it is harder to love those that perhaps need love the most.  How are we as God's people of love called to be present to those who need to know the ultimate gift of God's love that comes in the birth of Jesus?

Practice for the week:

Take time to think of those who we find hard to love or those we know who are suffering and in need of love and comfort.  Lift them up in prayer each day. Discern what actions of love and caring you might engage in to be the action of God's love in our world.  What changes do you notice in yourself?

Time spent in quiet reflection and prayer
Amen

Spiritual Disciplines of Advent: Week 2

Reading of Advent Scripture of your choice

Reflection on Being:

At this time of year there are many messages all around us that confuse what the season is to be about. With this can come and endless, busy list of things we "should be doing." An alternative response might be to focus on how to be fully present to the waiting in expectation for the coming of God in Christ. What kind of courage does it take to put away the list of "shoulds" and focus on just being in the season?

Practice for the week:

Take time to just be fully present to a friend or family member. Set aside a few minutes each day to be in the presence of God. How do these things change your experience of the season?

Time spent in quiet reflection and prayer
Amen

Spiritual Disciplines of Advent: Week 1

A while back I began thinking about different ways of approaching the four Sundays of Advent and how I might approach them from a more contemplative perspective. As I wandered around this idea, I began to think how my journey through Advent might look if I approached if from the perspective of spiritual disciplines. It is out of this wondering and pondering that the following devotional practice developed.

These practices are designed, not out of specific scriptures, but rather out of ideas that I have found important to approaching Advent from a more contemplative perspective. This also provides room for them to be paired with any of the Advent scriptures/themes that you may be choosing to follow this season. They are also written so they may be used either individually or around a table with family and friends. I encourage you to enhance the experience with the lighting of an Advent Wreath.

So please join me here each Sunday of Advent to spend a more contemplative moment in our journey towards Christmas. 

Reading of Advent Scripture of your choice

Reflection on Waiting:

In our frenzied pace to get to Christmas and the manger, what are we missing? By slowing down and giving attention to the proclamations of the weeks to come, we create room for the fullness of the story that is to unfold before us.

Practice for the week:

Make a list, individually and as a family, indicating what your hopes and dreams are for deeply experiencing the full Christmas Story this year. What is one way you can be intentional about slowing down and being attentive to these desires?

Time spent in quiet reflection and prayer

Amen