ADVENT
How will you use the weeks of Advent to prepare to welcome Jesus at Christmas? We have curated prayers, reflections, activities, and traditions to help you create your own meaningful Advent-ure. Do you need to add tradition to your family's experience? Do you want to grow closer to Jesus through prayer? Do you feel moved to action this year, wanting to give more of yourself to those in need?
Make this a personal preparation for you and your family. Choose from the videos, activities, and actions, and make an "ADVENT PLAYLIST" that helps you/your family make room for Jesus. Pay attention throughout Advent. Reflect on your experience, your family's experience, then share your reflections with us. Where did you see God? How is God at work in your life?
Have fun! Advent is a JOY-FULL season!
How will you use the weeks of Advent to prepare to welcome Jesus at Christmas? We have curated prayers, reflections, activities, and traditions to help you create your own meaningful Advent-ure. Do you need to add tradition to your family's experience? Do you want to grow closer to Jesus through prayer? Do you feel moved to action this year, wanting to give more of yourself to those in need?
Make this a personal preparation for you and your family. Choose from the videos, activities, and actions, and make an "ADVENT PLAYLIST" that helps you/your family make room for Jesus. Pay attention throughout Advent. Reflect on your experience, your family's experience, then share your reflections with us. Where did you see God? How is God at work in your life?
Have fun! Advent is a JOY-FULL season!
What is Advent? What do we do during Advent?
Advent is a liturgical season marked by prayerful expectation, waiting and preparing for the coming of Jesus, the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus Christ at Christmas. Sometimes we wander. We get busy. And sometimes we forget to pray, or we forget to be thankful. Or we forget to live out our discipleship to Jesus, as the world calls us to our busyness. Our liturgical year reminds us there is another way. Advent especially calls us to be present. To be quiet. To wait. To listen. To be mindful. To allow for the unexpected. To be open to being surprised. |
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In her book Silence - And Other Surprising Invitations of Advent, Enuma Okora writes:
"Advent is a season to ponder, to listen, to understand that prayer is as much about cultivating stillness and attentiveness as it is about offering our words to God. This listening for God is a difficult business. It requires a willingness to be patient and to be still. It requires disciplining ourselves to consistent times of sitting quietly before God and waiting for God to meet us in that space. When we are still we can better attune ourselves to the thoughts and feelings that well up within. Contemplative prayer, the posture of listening for God in silence, is a distinct type of praying that opens our entire selves up to hear and receive God in possibly surprising ways. It requires a deeper willingness to be honest about the contents of our hearts and to relinquish control of our desires and of our growth. It is a response to God’s own invitation to deeper communion with the Holy."
“…open our entire selves up to hear and receive God in possibly surprising ways.” Wow! Imagine being so open that we see God working his wondrous deeds daily, that we see God's presence in our lives always. Advent is about waiting for Jesus, but I’ve heard it called a funny waiting, because we wait for someone we know is here! So our waiting is about looking, listening, paying attention, allowing ourselves to be surprised.
So around the dinner table during Advent ask your friends and family the question where did you see God today?
ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE SURPRISED!
Be open to seeing Him in the unexpected.
"Advent is a season to ponder, to listen, to understand that prayer is as much about cultivating stillness and attentiveness as it is about offering our words to God. This listening for God is a difficult business. It requires a willingness to be patient and to be still. It requires disciplining ourselves to consistent times of sitting quietly before God and waiting for God to meet us in that space. When we are still we can better attune ourselves to the thoughts and feelings that well up within. Contemplative prayer, the posture of listening for God in silence, is a distinct type of praying that opens our entire selves up to hear and receive God in possibly surprising ways. It requires a deeper willingness to be honest about the contents of our hearts and to relinquish control of our desires and of our growth. It is a response to God’s own invitation to deeper communion with the Holy."
“…open our entire selves up to hear and receive God in possibly surprising ways.” Wow! Imagine being so open that we see God working his wondrous deeds daily, that we see God's presence in our lives always. Advent is about waiting for Jesus, but I’ve heard it called a funny waiting, because we wait for someone we know is here! So our waiting is about looking, listening, paying attention, allowing ourselves to be surprised.
So around the dinner table during Advent ask your friends and family the question where did you see God today?
ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE SURPRISED!
Be open to seeing Him in the unexpected.