ADVENT
WAITING...
In Silence
Waiting
in silence, creating space for steadfast love to grown within,
may be the most essential practice of all. It is in many ways
the spirit of Advent, that time of the Christian liturgical year
when we practice the waiting of gestation and hoping, of trusting
in new life not yet fully known...
With
Awareness
What would it be like if we were to change our
attitude for a year and experiment with a tradition of waiting
and preparation? It might be that we would find the party at the
end much more
glorious...
With
Expectation
The Advent faith always moves us to the
future instead of locking us into the past. Therefore, we can
expect surprises...
Day
by Day
An Advent calendar featuring a thought a day
for the 22 days of Advent.
CHRISTMAS JOY...
The
Christmas Story
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This
one line is the entire Christmas story. The entire message of
the birth of Christ. The Word, God's fullness, the second Person
of the Trinity, sent by God as a message, the message of love
and goodness and God's real presence in the world, sent to dwell
in flesh, sent to be human, to live among us and speak our language
so that we might receive Him and understand what God wants us
to hear from God. ...
Being
Like Jesus
Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. But
even more than a birthday, Christmas reminds us that God became
a human being just like us, with eyes and ears, with a mouth and
hands, with a heart and feet. These
simple children's prayers are a gift we can give to Jesus any
time.
The
Celtic Understanding
of Christmas
We
are in a season of contradictions. Lights glitter from every structure;
meanwhile, the days lengthen, and darkness begins to come earlier,
stay later. A little shiver runs through our pre-electric-light,
primordial selves. The ancient human family viewed this time of
year with trepidation...
Hints
from Yesterday: A Christmas memory
My
grandfather Houk was an undertaker. He lived in an Illinois farm
town some forty miles south of Kankakee and ninety miles south
of Chicago. The year my mother Pearl was born six hundred and
fifty people lived in Piper City...
Messages
in the Music of U2
U2’s
song seems to capture the place that we are in right now. Standing
in a hotel lobby yesterday, I saw Christmas decorations and heard
Christmas carols playing: “Silent night, holy night, all
is calm, all is bright”; and part of me wanted to shout
No! No!
Nothing is calm, nothing is bright!
Making
Our Way toward Christmas
Eve: Unexpected perspectives on the Holy Night
The
village streets were narrow, the houses close, in the shadows,
they looked hunched up as if braced for the cold. The two angels
trudged on, their boots crunching the snow....
Spoken
Meditations:
God
is With Us
Visited
by Awe
