Category: Advent
Let the Weary World Rejoice! Advent Reflections for Runaway Lives
The Advent season refers to the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas Day. In a season cluttered with busyness and distractions, Let the Weary World Rejoice is a devotional for individuals or families who desire to be more intentional, move more slowly, and make room for the coming of Jesus not just as a child ...
Advent Prayer-Week 4 A Present Reality
The coming of Jesus incarnate ushered in the kingdom of God and marked the beginning to the present rule and reign of God in our hearts and lives. So Jesus was not only talking about a place, an afterlife or future return, but a way of seeing, thinking and living right now. A distinguishing mark ...
Advent Prayer: Week 3 “How Long, O Lord?”
This is the third Sunday of Advent. Advent means "Coming". There is usually anticipation, excitement, and tension all mixed together while we wait for that which is expected. Our prayer this week focuses on the Advent practice of waiting. The season of Advent gives us the opportunity to practice something that is hard for most ...
A Prayer for Advent – Week 2
Last week we began our journey through Advent. Our prayer centered around how in a culture and season cluttered with distractions and busyness, we are desperately in need of something more sacred than all of our hurrying. Today, as we begin Week 2 we focus on Mary's embrace and even delight in God's, often disruptive, ...
Christmas Changes Everything
The story of our lives has more to do with what God is doing than our ability to manage it. Gail Johnsen This is my all-time favorite quote about Christmas: “God has interrupted our ordinary expectations, as cherished as they were, to conceive something. We cannot manage it. We can’t even understand it. All we ...
An Advent Prayer by Henri Nouwen
Lord Jesus, master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas. We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day. We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us. We who are blessed in so ...
Consumerism vs. Discipleship
Today’s post is a blog by Tim Morey*. It’s a challenging message to the consumer mentality that has subtly invaded the Church. Take time today to honestly ponder the questions posed at the end. What better way to start the New Year than an exercise in self examination. Tim writes: A friend put this manger ...
The Attentive Life
“The secret of waiting is the faith that the seed has been planted, that something has begun. Active waiting means to be fully present to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it. A waiting person is someone who is present to ...
Christmas – The Initiative of God
“When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son….” Gal. 4:4 “God comes to us like the sun in the morning…when it is time. We must assume an attitude of waiting, accepting the fact that we are creatures and not the creator. We must do this because it is not our right to ...
An Interrupted Life
God’s grace comes often in severe ways to open our eyes to a greater reality that we have yet experienced. Our part is to be open to it and let it transform us. In speaking about Mary the mother of Jesus, Craig Barnes writes, “God has interrupted our ordinary expectations, as cherished as they were, ...
Gail Johnsen 