Advent
An Advent Pause for Joy
I’ve been thinking again about the complexity of joy. In the very last line of a reading from the book of Ezra, the historian writes “the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping. And there, I think, we have it, the doorway to joy, the reality…
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The Candle of Peace
There’s been talk here and there this past week of leaving the Advent candle for peace unlit. There is a desire to do something extraordinary in the face of the horrifying violence being visited on the people of Gaza. But for me, leaving the wick of peace unlit seems an act of despair, a signal that we have…
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Advent Pause: Hope
It’s Advent and perhaps you are not even ready to get ready for the mystery of Christmas. But perhaps you are longing. Perhaps you can find a candle or two to help you. Really, you are all that is necessary. You and your intention to pause, to be present, with intention, for Love. So wherever…
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A Christmas Tree Hymn
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas TreeYour leaves are so unchangingO Christmas Tree, O Christmas TreeYour leaves are so unchangingNot only green when summer’s hereBut also when it’s cold and drearO Christmas Tree, O Christmas TreeYour leaves are so unchanging O Christmas Tree, O Christmas TreeYour lights they shine so brightlyO Christmas Tree, O Christmas TreeYour…
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A Blessing for Christmas Ornaments
Holy OneOver these ornaments we invoke blessing The blessing of love and of memoryOf laughter and of lonelinessThe blessing of joyThe blessing of small hands with eager fingersWho crafted paper wondersand of skilled handsthat stitched and shaped reminders of their care. We invoke blessing,through these fragile, lovely thingsreminders of our fragile, lovely livesand of You…
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Love and Long Nights
There are some mornings I wake with dread; things press in and I lie gathering my courage to drop under it all to where that terrible tension will be distilled in Love. This is the Advent week of Love.
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A Carol for the Longest Night
Silent Night, Holy NightHere we long for your LightHere your Presence is achingly nearHere your Love gently touches our fear Hold our tears in your heartHold our tears in your heart
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Portals to Joy
What if I dive down under the distortion . . . I now know that it’s not only me who doesn’t always enter Advent gracefully. Perhaps you’ve had your own less than elegant entry.Perhaps there’s been an entry that you’ve missed because it didn’t look the way you imagined Advent pause and practice should, deep…
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Bending into Advent
I entered Advent as a bent woman. I could not raise my head to see the blue stem of the candle and its blossom of light. I was a woman bowed for a week and today I am straightened, unfurled.
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Receiving the blue
This first morning of Advent I am filled with the sense of colour that is more than colour. It’s longing already tinged with fulfillment. I am infused with, wrapped in, the weightless, substance of blue. I am hushed and humbled and reverently haunted. I am a pool both fluid and still.
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An Advent Hymn: new words for a familiar tune
Advent words for Hark the Herald Angels Sing Listen to the angels sing News of coming joy they bring Hopes abandoned are restored In the ever-birthing Word
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Drawn through the Prophet’s Heart: An Advent Sermon
The journey to God, Sufi Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee says, begins with “the homesickness of the heart, (you can find Vaughn-Lee speaking of Sufisim here https://goldensufi.org/a_interview_st.html Perhaps it begins like this pain in Isaiah’s heart,the pain that was in the heart of his people,He knew the people’s longing,their loneliness,the tiny piercing dart of emptiness,the pinpoint of absence…
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