Advent begins November 30 and in the rush to get things done for the Christmas season our spirit cries out to slow down and pay attention to what is important and what is the true reason for the season. Don’t forget to savor the sacred moments. Breathe in silence. Sit in silence. Sing carols. Ponder the manger. Read slowly about the birth of Christ. Look deeply into the hearts of your friends and family. Listen to the sounds of the season.
Read an Advent devotional. I would be amiss not to mention the devotional I wrote a few years ago, Christmas Crossroads, 30 Devotionals for the Holiday Season.
Here are some quotes to bless your Advent season:
“For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning – not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last.”
― Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat
“At this Christmas when Christ comes, will He find a warm heart? Mark the season of Advent by loving and serving the others with God’s own love and concern.”
― Mother Teresa, Love: A Fruit Always in Season
“Advent Prayer
In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.
And in this privileged place
we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we
and by those who despair more deeply than do we.
Look upon your church and its pastors
in this season of hope
which runs so quickly to fatigue
and in this season of yearning
which becomes so easily quarrelsome.
Give us the grace and the impatience
to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes,
to the edges of our fingertips.
We do not want our several worlds to end.
Come in your power
and come in your weakness
in any case
and make all things new.
Amen.”
― Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann
“One of the essential paradoxes of Advent: that while we wait for God, we are with God all along, that while we need to be reassured of God’s arrival, or the arrival of our homecoming, we are already at home. While we wait, we have to trust, to have faith, but it is God’s grace that gives us that faith. As with all spiritual knowledge, two things are true, and equally true, at once. The mind can’t grasp paradox; it is the knowledge of the soul.”
― Michelle Blake
“Advent is the perfect time to clear and prepare the Way. Advent is a winter training camp for those who desire peace. By reflection and prayer, by reading and meditation, we can make our hearts a place where a blessing of peace would desire to abide and where the birth of the Prince of Peace might take place.
Edward Hays
You could more easily catch a hurricane in a shrimp net that you can understand the wild, relentless, passionate, uncompromising, pursuing the love of God made present in the manger.
Brennan Manning
He became what we are that he might make us what he is.
St. Athanasius
May this season be filled with peace, love and hope for you and your family!
You’re always my bellwether for the beginning of Advent, Jean. I feel the need to slow down just visiting you. Thank you, friend!
Thanks Lisa. I know December/Advent always reminds me to slow down too. Hit that pause button.