First Week of Advent: making space for the sacred

November 28, 2021 | Advent

‘Tis the season to decorate, shop, wrap, bake… Nope! This season of Advent is made for just the opposite: waiting, anticipating, resting, praying. It’s a beautiful season but so countercultural. I dare you to join in drop out and revel in the slow goodness of this beautiful season. I thought I’d share a few goodies to help you start things off right.

Although I have not written a new book of Advent reflections for this year (I’m currently editing the book I wrote for Advent 2022, so stay tuned for that!), I did write a series of Advent reflections for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. You can find the first one posted today:

We stand on the threshold of the Advent season, called to practice the pause, to savor the waiting, to patiently take this season day by day, step by step, even as the rest of the world races toward the finish line, tinsel and gift wrap trailing behind like a holiday parade float. This is a season that calls us to rest in the tension between darkness and light, between birth and death, between what is and what will be. It’s not easy, but if we are willing to venture onto this road less traveled, what we will find is the peace we have been seeking, the beauty of a world unseen, the joy that comes not from exterior trappings but from interior wisdom built around the One who is and was and is to come. As we begin our journey, plunged into the darkness of the physical world around us, can we set our lives to a slower cadence, a sacred rhythm… continue reading HERE.

If you’re looking for more inspiration this Advent, check out the free, on-demand TV show about Jesus’ life: The Chosen. I’ve written about that in this space before. If you missed it, you can find that original column HERE. Trust me, this is a show that will definitely deepen your Advent practices and help prepare you for Christmas. But that’s not all. The creators of The Chosen have released a short Christmas movie and concert that will be playing in select theaters this season. I was able to get a sneak peek before release, and it’s definitely worth your time. The music is beautiful, the Scripture reflections are thought-provoking, and the story of Jesus’ birth is everything you want it to be and then some. HERE is a website that will help you find information about any and all news related to The Chosen. THIS LINK will take you straight to the Christmas movie page.

I found two other digital Advent devotionals that are worth a look. I have not had a chance to dive deep into either of these, but they look wonderful so I’ll share here and hope for the best. The first is a FREE Advent devotional by Kate Bowler, author of No Cure for Being Human, which you should read if you haven’t already. Fantastic book. But I digress… If you head to Kate’s website, you can sign up for her free Advent devotional, which also includes recipes and lovely graphics. Check it out.

If you are a Mary Oliver fan, you might like The Poetry of Advent, available in digital format for $10 from SALT. You can find the link to that HERE.

Finally, I put together an Advent playlist for my day job at the Diocese of Albany, but I kept the original copy on my own Spotify channel, so if you’d like to give that a listen, you can find that playlist below:

Photo by Laura Nyhuis on Unsplash

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