Today is All Saint’s Day and tomorrow is Looking for Circles Day, two days that on the surface have nothing in common, but when we look closely are intimately related.
God creates in circles. They are everywhere–from the patterns on our fingerprints, raindrops, snowflakes, petals and flowers, to the orbs of the sun and the moon and the earth itself. Then there are the circles of days and nights, of seasons, and of life too. And in our faith, there is the circle of God’s love embracing us and of God’s presence in us and in all of creation. Then I imagine the circle of all the witnesses whose lives we celebrate on All Saint’s Day standing in an incredible circle of support and love around each and every one of us.
Part of my love for circles comes from my attraction to Celtic Christian spirituality and especially the Celtic cross with the circle at its center. I have quite a collection of Celtic crosses including one large wooden cross whose pattern I sometimes trace my finger around in the same way I use a labyrinth.
I am also drawn to the circling prayers that were so much a part of their spirituality and have written a number in the past, several of which feature on our Celtic prayer cards.
My first rock painting was of a Celtic cross too and I still love to create Celtic crosses on pieces of rock I find on the various beaches we visit. My first painting began with one of the patterns from a book on Celtic art, then I decided to get more adventurous and paint a Celtic cross – not an easy exercise but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I heartily recommend it to you.
The cross sat on my desk for a number of months and I used it each morning as a focus for reflection. I added words that exemplified what the cross of Christ means to me. I started with love, joy, peace and grace, but this morning added mercy, and forgiveness. Eventually the area around the cross became so crowded that I relegated it to my box of rock art.
My cross is nowhere near perfect, and the ones I have created since are just as imperfect, but as I gazed at my photo of this cross again this morning I realized how fitting that was. After all, my view of the cross, its power, its pain and its beauty is nowhere near perfect either. I keep discovering new depths of meaning and purpose in it. I keep unveiling new ways in which I need to bow before it and absorb its messages for my life and for the world in which I live.
This year I did not create another piece of Celtic rock art. Instead I created a circle of candles around my sacred space/office area. This is my new way of celebrating both All Saints Day and Looking for Circles Day. Not surprisingly my reflections led to the writing of another prayer/poem.
Today I sit in God’s circle of light,
Breathing in, breathing out.
Today I sit in God’s circle of light
Light behind, light before, light circling all around.
Today I sit in God’s circle of light
With all the people of the world.
Loved, comforted, cared for,
On the journey to being made whole.
What is your response?
As you celebrate All Saints Day today, spend time thinking about that enormous circle of witnesses that surrounds you, encouraging you, supporting you and standing with you in good times and in bad. Now imagine that circle of God’s love extending out from this circle of witnesses, into your life and around all the people of the world. Perhaps like me, you would like to create your own circle of light, or otherwise draw a circle on a piece of paper and run your finger around it as you recite a circling prayer as a reminder that you are indeed embraced by God’s circle of light and love–not alone, but together with all the people of the world.
top photo from Unsplash
Join Christine Sine and Tom Sine on Wednesday, November 10th at 9am PDT (check my timezone) for our next FB Live! Can’t make it? No worries–we upload the sessions on our youtube channel so you can still enjoy the lively discussions and interesting topics discussed. And catch us live for the next session–happening here every other Wednesday!
A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below:
“Kristus Din Ande (Jesus, Your Spirit in Us) — Taizé Song” Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
“The Law of God is Love — simple arrangement” By Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“God is Forgiveness — Taizé Song’ Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
“Kyrie” Music and Text by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus” Public domain hymn, arrangement by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org
When I was a child Guy Fawkes night on 5th November was the big fireworks thing. Halloween was not really on the radar at all in the UK. When I started going to church I got introduced to the “Festival of Lights” children’s parties on 31st October, but it was still not a big deal really. Then when I moved to Belfast in 1996 I met Halloween in a big way. The road outside my house exploded with fireworks as soon as it got dark on 31st October and kept going for hours. We had only arrived three weeks earlier and wondered what we had let ourselves in for! There the Baptist church saw it as just a thing, though it was very much just an overload of fireworks.
On returning to England three years later Halloween had grown and “trick or treating” was becoming a thing. The charismatic, evangelical churches were saying Halloween was wrong, evil, satanic, demonic, etc. Then I joined YWAM and lived in a community house filled with mainly American evangelical Christian families and was introduced to a different take of Halloween, where children were encouraged to dress up as scary creatures, garner sweets from strangers and see it all as a big thing. Without this introduction twenty years earlier my reaction to Lily Lewin’s post FreerangeFriday: Halloween Candy Prayers would have been that she was not a “proper” Christian. Knowing Lilly as I do, I know she definitely is a Proper Christian with capital P and C. 🙂
This got me thinking of how we box and judge other things and other people without taking time out to know the heart behind them; “signed and sealed” as either good or bad. This led me to Matthew 7:1&2 where Jesus says “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged ...”, which I thought I would look at in context. In the preceding verses, Jesus says that God cares for us so much that we are not to worry about anything. ANYTHING!! Then he goes on to say not to judge. Coincidence?
My suspicion is that God knows we judge because we worry about things, about how we’ll be perceived, whether we’ll “get into heaven”, be “good” witnesses, etc, etc. We think we’re looking at others to “help” them but actually, we’re also looking and judging ourselves. Jesus says “in the same way you judge others you will be judged”. Many sermons talk about it being God who judges us by the standards we judge others, but I think Jesus might just be saying that in the way we box and judge others so we are boxing and judging ourselves. And living in fear because of that.
As Christianity swept through Europe and into Britain many early Celtic Christians saw the pagan practices of the people of the lands they were engaging in. They were not afraid of what was going on or how they would be judged. They also did not judge the people but showed that they were “missing the mark” [which is what the word sin really means] then showed how to adapt what they were doing to show Jesus in all fullness.
So for me this Halloween I am going to use it as a time to see where I am judgemental, where I miss the mark, and work out how I can change myself rather than looking outwards judging and trying to change my fellow human beings–whether professing Christians or not.
A Festival of Light for myself that will sparkle out to those around me rather than the darkness of judgment.
Photo by Maddy Baker on Unsplash
Join Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin on Saturday, November 20th 9:30-12:30 PST (check my timezone) for an interactive, multi-sensory, creative retreat focused on the WONDER OF ADVENT! This retreat will be LIVE via zoom, but if you are unable to join live, you can sign up to watch the recording and participate later! Come with a creative heart, be inspired, have fun, and reconnect with the WONDER of the season.
It is amazing to me that the calendar is flipping to November next week. This year has flown by! While my emotions are still stuck somewhere back in August, I’ve started thinking about how to celebrate the upcoming season of Advent and Christmas. How do I want this year to be different from past years? How do I need to take time to prepare Him room?
I love Isaiah 40!
ISAIAH 40: 1-5 THE MESSAGE
“Comfort, oh comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem, but also make it very clear , That she has served her sentence, that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!She’s been punished enough and more than enough, and now it’s over and done with.”
Thunder in the desert! “Prepare for God’s arrival! Make the road straight and smooth,
a highway fit for our God. Fill in the valleys, level off the hills, Smooth out the ruts, clear out the rocks. Then God’s bright glory will shine and everyone will see it. Yes. Just as God has said.”
Take time to read this passage in other translations.
What do you notice? What inspires you? What brings you hope?
How do you want to prepare your heart for the arrival of Jesus this year?
What are the things that you might want to do differently this year than in years past?
What barriers do you see that might need moving out of your way so you can celebrate the arrival of Jesus?
What are the rocks blocking your way?
What do you see that needs to be made smooth in your life, so you can celebrate a peaceful Advent and Christmas Season?
Take some time to journal about this. Take time to discuss this with your family, housemates, etc
Do you need to clear things off your calendar?
Do you need to make more space for quiet, for play, for time in nature?
Remove the Rocks! Prepare the Way!
Consider what truly fills you with joy and wonder in the Advent and Christmas Season: Take time to ponder this. Take time to journal and discuss it with friends and family. Then, make sure you include these things in your plan for this Season.
Find some advent candles
Last year many of our traditions got upended due to the pandemic. Maybe you missed something that you’d like to recapture this year. Maybe you found some new ways to celebrate the season that you’d like to continue. What were your memories from last year? What do you need to keep? What do you need to clear away? Talk to Jesus about this!
Last year, my good friend Joanna Cummings started a new business called A Sacred Home. As a Children and Family Minister, Joanna wanted to help people of all ages engage God at home around the table and in the midst of everyday life.
a sacred home advent box
Joanna designed a Box for Advent and has a new box launching this week called Everyday Faith. Both of these boxes include hands-on practices, crafts, candles, and creative discussion questions to help families, friends, and housemates draw closer to Jesus. A Sacred Home Box would make a great Christmas gift to share with a neighbor or family member too! And while designed with kids in mind, many adults without kids at home loved creating and experiencing the Advent Box last year!
Everyday Faith Box
There are MANY RESOURCES at godspacelight.com for Advent and Christmas.
Advent Prayer Station
And finally, at my website, freerangeworship.com, we have prayer station based Sacred Spaces that you can create for and with your church communities, youth group, and even for your neighborhoods. Sacred Spaces, like the ADVENT WAITING and CELEBRATING the INCARNATION for Christmas, are great ways to reach out to neighbors and friends who might not go to a regular church service but would like to experience the story of the birth of Jesus using all their senses! Sacred Spaces are creative, interactive, and for all ages! If you know Montessori schools, I like to call Sacred Space prayer experiences Montessori Church!
PREPARE YOUR HEART!
This weekend, take some time to clear out the rocks, smooth out the path…go out and take a walk and pick up a rock to remind you to get your heart ready for the arrival of Jesus!
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Bundle and save on our updated and new resources for Lean Toward the Light This Advent & Christmas! Choose from several bundle versions, conveniently available either to ship to you or download.
art and thoughts by Keren Dibbens-Wyatt
Autumn is my favourite season. I am grateful for the slowing down of nature that mirrors my own, the slight chill in the wind that freshens everything, the leaves that die dancing, knowing they will become the nutrients that feed Spring.
But mostly I am grateful for the change in colours. For someone housebound who views most of the alterations of time through windows, and in the changing light, it is the softness of hues which ease my heart. Spring and Summer can be too brash for me, showing off their bright greens and zesty life. When you spend most of your life struggling with a dearth of strength and energy, these seasons bursting with the things you lack can feel hard.
Instead, I prefer the burnishing of nature, as though all has been polished to bring out its true value and the deep shine that was there all along beneath the vibrancy. As an artist too, it is the soft, sweet light of chestnut and mist that enthrall me. I am inspired more at this time of year than ever, knowing that the world is finally in tune with my own dozy, curled up slowness. I don’t feel like playing catch up or pretending that I am more than I can be at this time of year. Everything can just hold up and take a breath. For this I am grateful.
Contemplation isn’t limited to one season, of course, but there seems to be a richness of harvest this time of year that speaks more to my listening heart and my artist’s imagination. Perhaps, like one of my favourite subjects to draw and paint, I am hoarding up treasure for the long, cold months ahead. The squirrel St Francis spoke of knew that gathering sacred things was a holy endeavour, and that everything imparts God’s grace.
It’s here! As promised, Gearing Up for a Season of Gratitude is now available as an online course! Inspired by the celebrations of Canadian Thanksgiving at the beginning of October and American Thanksgiving at the end of November, we designate October and November as gratitude months on Godspace Light. Lilly Lewin and Christine Sine will encourage you to get ready by providing a collaborative retreat process that will help us enter this season of gratitude with joy and delight in our hearts. This course provides a fun process of interaction, creativity, and reflection.
How do we approach the world with gratitude and delight even in the midst of the most challenging situations? What if gratitude is more than an emotion? What can we do to bring more gratitude into our daily lives? These are some of the questions we grapple with as we look ahead to the changing seasons. What are your questions about gratitude? Join us and explore them in this interactive mini-retreat “Gearing up for a Season of Gratitude”.
by Lucinda Smith photo by Annie Spratt
Exotic and vibrant colours, tall and dangly, flinging themselves over the edge of the vase, weighed down by their glorious heads. I love Dahlias – I’ve just discovered them. Hadn’t really known about them before, and I had certainly never planted any, but this year I had a go–resulting in a glorious chaotic jumble of flowers and leaves and long stems, all tripping and falling over one another! But what joy! Every time I open the front door, I can’t help but smile and a sense of gratitude arises within me for this stunning display of glory and wonder, for the transformation of seed to flower, for the sense of summer that they bring to my little patch, even when the sun is not shining.
An article in the magazine Psychology Today states this, “Whether you choose to write a few sentences in a gratitude journal or simply take a moment to silently acknowledge all that you have, giving thanks can transform your life.”
A couple of thousand years ago, St. Paul, follower of Jesus, writing to the church in Thessalonica encouraged them to, ‘Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’ (1 Thess 5:16-18, emphasis mine).
When we have so much – more than enough daily bread, comfortable homes and clothing, pensions and healthcare, church community, good coffee and Dahlias, why do we find it so hard to be grateful? Is it that we have grown complacent and take it all for granted? Even assuming, perhaps, that we have a right to live as we do, forgetting that every good gift comes to us from the hand of God (James 1:17). When Paul wrote to those brothers and sisters in the first century, he was not addressing people who had access to doctors, to a plethora of material goods, or to overloaded supermarket aisles. He was speaking to men and women who lived without electricity or running water, who ate the same meals day in and day out!
I believe that a sense of real gratitude for the material and physical aspects of our lives is certainly a big step towards true contentment. However, dig a little deeper and we unearth longings and strivings, a restlessness and an unease in our souls that is more profound and less easily placated. When we think on what might have been, on our regrettable choices and those dreams still unfulfilled, that’s when true contentment still eludes many of us.
To experience contentment in spite of these stirrings, is to understand the nature of God. This peace springs from knowing who He has been for us, who He is for us today and who He will be for us in the years to come. Our confidence in the consistent, unswerving, faithful and good character of God must elicit from us a level of gratitude that in turn produces the peace spoken of by Jesus and also described by Paul as that which passes human understanding and reasoning.
This, surely, is contentment, with or without answered prayer. Its confession is the goodness of God defined by who He is and not by our feelings or the circumstances of our lives. Its expression is born of an unshakeable faith in God who is for us and not against us, ever. Gratitude for His willingness to keep us and sustain us and hold us in the hardest of times. Gratitude in the mystery of not knowing and not understanding the whys and the whats that life throws at us. Gratitude that God is who He says He is, and that we are who He says we are – nothing more, nothing less. Full stop.
Join Christine and Lilly TODAY for the next session of Facebook Live on Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 9am PT. If you are not able to join live, you can check out the recording on YouTube later.
Advent is just around the corner, and many of us are busy already preparing for the season. We wanted to gather some of our resources together in one place–when planning and searching up ideas, it’s nice to have a reference sheet and to know what is timely. For example, you may want to note on your calendar the upcoming virtual retreat Walking in Wonder Through Advent! It is sure to be a refreshing fun time getting into the wonder of the season. Of course, if you aren’t able to attend on November 20th, you can still sign up for the retreat and access it later at your convenience.
Walking in Wonder Advent retreat
There are some new items for 2021 as well as updated ones, but also several lovely past assets and ideas that may spark some wonder and contemplation for you this season. Many of our Advent resources can be found in the shop and on Godspace, but here are some ideas we wanted to highlight!
If you are looking for something fun and festive, our Advent in A Jar free download has activities and ideas to help you celebrate individually, corporately, or with your family. Check out this particular Meditation Monday if you’d like to see one in action, or click here to download. Another fun (and free!) activity for the season can be found in the downloadable Colour Your Way Through Advent and Christmas. To enrich this activity, you might pair it with A Journey Toward Home: Soul Travel from Advent to Lent, as the coloring activities were created to enhance the devotional (which is currently conveniently available on Amazon). Perhaps you are hoping to connect to the anticipation, the waiting of the Advent season, and would like something contemplative as well to go with a devotional. You might try this free download of a collection of poems by Jeannie Kendall, Waiting.
Bundle: Lean Towards The Light This Advent and Christmas
Speaking of devotionals, we are SO pleased to announce that we have a brand new journal for our most recent Advent and Christmas devotional, Lean Towards the Light This Advent & Christmas! To celebrate, we have put together several lovely bundles for savings and ease. You might like to purchase the journal and devotional bundled together, or both books bundled with Advent Prayer Cards. A set like this also makes a nice gift! All of these bundles (and the individual products) are available as downloads if you’d prefer an electronic copy. Additionally, we are presenting Lean Toward the Light in retreat form, available for you to work through at your own pace over 90 days. Enjoy a time of rest and contemplation in a visual yet interactive format.
Advent Prayer Cards can be purchased as a standalone resource, as a download, or in a set of three! Beautiful art and designs adorn 12 cards which include Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany prayers to delight and invite reflection across the season. We also offer card bundles with two other Advent devotionals. Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional is available bundled with cards in our store, as well as bundled with the devotional mentioned earlier, A Journey Toward Home: Soul Travel From Advent to Lent.
If you are keen to get started with your planning and preparation today and are looking for some inspiration, try visiting our Advent, Christmas, New Year, and Epiphany Resource page. In addition to the supports listed above, there are many other posts and pages that will help you to create your roadmap ahead of the busy season and set your heart with intention. We wish you blessings this season!
Join Christine and Lilly TOMORROW for the next session of Facebook Live on Wednesday, October 27th, 2021 at 9am PT. If you are not able to join live, you can check out the recording on YouTube later.
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