I wrote this litany several years ago for the Advent devotional Waiting for the Light but decided this year that it needed some revision and updating.
In this Advent season we await the coming of Christ
Come, Lord Jesus, come, We await your coming.
We await the coming of God’s revealing light,
Come, Lord Jesus, come, We await your coming.
We await the coming of God’s saving hope,
Come, Lord Jesus, come, We await your coming.
We wait the coming of God’s redeeming child,
Come, Lord Jesus, come, We await your coming.
(Pause for lighting of the Advent candles)
We wait for the God of life,
We wait for the Christ of love,
We wait for the Spirit of truth.
Come down, come in and dwell among us.
We wait in expectation of your coming,
We wait in hope for your promises,
We wait in joy for your salvation.
Come down, come in and dwell among us.
Come into our hearts that we may love you,
Come into our minds that we may know you,
Come into our lives that we may serve you.
Come down, come in and dwell among us.
(Read Scripture for the Day)
Child of promise come,
Revealer of God come,
Bringer of life come,
Come to the beaten and the battered,
To the despised and rejected,
To all in whom the divine image is still distorted.
We wait in joyful expectation.
Not for a distant emperor but for a helpless babe.
Not for a prince in a gold palace, but for a displaced and frightened refugee.
Not for a man of power, but for a vulnerable infant.
Come to those outcast like shepherds in the field.
Come to foreigners like Magi watching from afar.
Come to rich and poor, young and old, male and female.
We wait in hopeful anticipation.
Come and bless all creation with your love,
Bring salvation on the earth,
Rule with justice and in peace.
Come Child of promise, open the windows of our hearts
Come Christ of compassion, open the doors of our homes
Come Prince of Peace, open the pathways to our lives
We wait with all the peoples of the earth,
Child of hope we welcome your coming,
Christ of life we welcome your coming,
King of glory we welcome your coming.
Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
Come Lord Jesus and lead the captives from their prisons,
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Come to bring peace in the midst of war,
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Come to offer comfort in the presence of mourning
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Come to provide abundance in the midst of hunger
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Come to show forth justice for those who have been oppressed
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Let us put on hope to guide us,
Let us put on love to surround us,
Let us put on joy to sustain us,
Let us put on peace to inspire us.
And clothe ourselves with Christ.
Amen.
When I posed the question “What song bubbles up within your heart at this season?” I got a number of responses. Most of them were Christmas rather than Advent songs, so I thought I would list some of my favorites for Advent.
This selection focuses on Advent themes rather than the Christmas carols that the secular culture grabs onto before Christmas is seen vaguely on the horizon. These songs really help me to keep my spiritual focus in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Then when Christmas arrives (or at least gets close) I can enjoy the carols fully. I love Advent chants, especially Gregorian chants, and also contemplative music so obviously this is the focus of my suggestions here.
Everyone’s favorite is O Come O Come Emmanuel which is often used in the days leading up to Christmas so I thought it was a good one to start with.
Gregorian Chants to Inspire Us.
Gregorian chants especially during Advent are a wonderful way to calm my soul and rest my spirit.
I also highly recommend acquiring is a set of Advent chants recorded by The Benedictines of Mary “Advent at Ephesus” These hit the top of the classic music lists a couple of years ago and it is easy to see why.
And another favourite of mine an hour of contemplative music from Hildegard of Bingen Voice of the Living Light
And I just came across this amazing set of chants recorded in 1930
Advent Songs from the Black Gospel Tradition.
Paul Neeley at Global Christian Worship posted a link to this wonderful collection of inspirational African American gospel songs that are appropriate to Advent. It included this inspirational recording.
Celtic Music for the Season
My favourite Celtic style musician is Jeff Johnson. His Selah service meditations on Psalms are beautiful to listen to at this time of the year to help us maintain our peace. His Christmas album A Quiet Knowing Christmas is also one of my constant companions.
I also enjoy this great collection of instrumental Celtic Christmas music.
Another inspirational recording is this one from Celtic Woman.
From Pentatonix
I love these not quite so traditional songs from Pentatonix
And Carol of the Bells:
A Few More Traditional Christmas Suggestions.
If you are looking for more traditional Christmas Music here are some that are hard to beat:
One song that remind us of the season of Advent rather than Christmas:
The Three Tenors Christmas Concert in Vienna 1999
Andrea Bocelli Christmas songs
And for those that want to check out the vast range of what is out there.
Top 40 Pop has a list of their top 100 Christmas songs .
And a fascinating list of 50 top Christmas Songs from TimeOut London.
A great list of classical Christmas albums. from Ranker.com.
Looking for an International Christmas:
I love this Arabic Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity.
Some beautiful songs for peace, from Latin America:.
African Christmas by Ed Jordan is a very powerful song to listen to at this time of the year.
Betelehemu – a Nigerian Christmas song sung by the African Children’s Choir
I was not able to find this song on You-tube, but one Asian carol I would recommend is The Hunger Carol with words by New Zealander Shirley Erena Murray and music by Taiwanese hymnologist I-to Loh
And for more inspirational carols from around the world you might like to do a Christmas search on the Global Christian Worship site. Check out the carols in Arabic, Yoruba (Nigeria), Pidgin from Papua New Guinea and many more languages.
For several years I produced an Advent meditation video with background music by Jeff Johnson. These can be viewed on YouTube but here are my favorites
As a free gift to you all, a small way to say thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement, we offer, as well as Advent in a Jar, our Advent/Christmas colouring book, Colour Your Way Through Advent and Christmas. Colouring pages are based on the O Antiphon images drawn for us last year by Danielle Poland for our popular devotional A Journey Toward Home: Soul Travel from Advent to Lent. Additional Christmas images were created by our new volunteer Shelby Selvidge.
And don’t forget our prayer cards and other Godspace resources
Prayer Cards. I have loved putting these together and their popularity suggests you enjoy them too. There are three sets available – two that provide short reflections and prayers for pausing through the day and a third with a Celtic theme. These are available as separate sets or you can bundle them together to receive one of each set. I find these cards enrich my own devotional time and I hope they will do the same for yours.
Waiting for the Light – An Advent Devotional – Christine Sine
A Journey Towards Home: Soul Travel From Advent to Lent with contributions from a number of Godspace authors
Advent Waiting Experience by Lilly Lewin
A Fragrant Offering: A Daily Prayer Cycle In The Celtic Tradition – John Birch
Seeking the Light: Poetry for the Soul – Ana Lisa DeJong
This is part of a series on Christmas/Advent resources. Check out the other posts here
by Christine Sine
This year I am creating an Advent calendar with succulents. It all started when I was browsing Pinterest one day and followed a link to what purported to be a succulent Advent calendar. I was so disappointed when all I found was a box with 24 succulents in it.
“I can do better than that I thought and started to brainstorm. I went to the local thrift store and came across this amazing stand which I think is probably for cupcakes. It has 24 spaces in it. Perfect I thought and at $4 a real steal.
Then I went hunting for terra cotta pots and not surprisingly Amazon ha
d just what I wanted – 24 small terra cotta pots that I then had fun spray painting some purple, some pink (from Hobby Lobby where it was half the price of Amazon) to be consistent with the 4 weeks of Advent. The hardest thing was getting the lids off the cans.
Finally I added some remote controlled, battery operated candles that I can light when the pots are fully planted. They ere not cheap but I know I will use them again next year. Real candles would have been great but I was afraid of using real candles as that many might burn the place down.
I numbered the pots from 1 to 24 and have started planting succulents in them. My original plan was to plant one a day, but that is a little messy to do each day so I am getting them all planted over the next couple of days and will decorate one each day as the month progresses. It is a fun alternative to my usual Advent garden and means that I can leave my gratitude garden on my desk as part of my sacred space. All I needed to do was add a few candles to give it a more Advent/Christmasy feel.
Part of what I have enjoyed about creating this calendar is that it has had me thinking about Advent for weeks – not just about the calendar but about the whole purpose of Advent. It has reinforced my exploration of Celtic Advent and has helped me to get into the spirit of the season in a very powerful way.
You may not want to make a succulent Advent calendar but maybe there is something else that you love to do that can provide the materials for an Advent calendar maybe for next year as it is probably too late to work on it for this year. Alternatively you might like to start brainstorming for the Christmas and Epiphany season. Is there something you enjoy doing that could provide the materials for a unique and creative way to celebrate the season?
By Rodney Marsh —
John tells us that all of creation “received its life” from God and God gave “light to everyone” with the gift of life (John 1:3,4). No exceptions – no time ,place or person in all creation has been, or will be, without the light of God. Darkness will never eliminate God’s light from our world.
There is parable of the light and life of God in the Thai cave rescue. In June 2018, twelve Thai Soccer boys became trapped in a dark, flooded cave for twelve days. Yet God’s light and life was with and within the boys and their with coach, Ekkapol Chantawong (Ek). It was God’s light and life that enabled Ek to show the boys a path through the crisis. After the death of his father, between the ages of ten and twenty, Ek had been a novice Buddhist monk. The mind training Ek received at the monastery was a vital source of his capacity to care for and encourage the boys during the dark days and nights of waiting for rescue. Ek’s fatherly guidance was the reason the boys’ situation did not descend into a “Lord of the Flies” scenario. God’s light within Ek enabled him to teach the boys to meditate and discover the light within them instead of allowing their minds to be trapped by fears prompted by their dire circumstances.
The “Wild Boars” boys and their coach reminds us that God’s light is always searching for incarnation in our darkness. We learn that just as God’s light found embodiment in Ek and the boys, it will find embodiment in you and in me in our darkest times. God’s light will enable us to communicate hope to others in our common darkness. John emphasised the embodied “light keeps shining” at all times and no darkness has been, or ever will be, able to extinguish God’s light of love while time a space endure.
However, Ek and the boys needed rescuing and to be rescued, they needed rescuers. The story of their rescue contains another analogy to coming of the light of Christ into our world. As John says of Jesus, “The true light that shines on everyone was coming into the world.” and the light of rescue was coming for the boys. Like the shepherds on a hill long ago, a frightening light soon shattered the boys’ darkness. In oft repeated TV footage, we see the befuddled boys being blinded by the bright lights of the British divers who found them. It was different for the shepherds. Though the light shone on the shepherds they could see into the light. In modern campouts, mutually blinding LED head torches mean we see neither who is looking at us nor who we are looking at. The boys were blinded by the light and, like the shepherds, needed to hear their rescuer’s words of reassurance.
The rescue of the boys was eventually led by Adelaide anaesthetist and expert cave diver, Dr “Harry” Harris. He was called to help by the British team who found the boys. They knew he was uniquely qualified and experienced to manage the risks of the rescue. Harry later admitted thinking, at the time, that the there was only a small possibility of getting all the boys out alive. Harry, along with his dive partner, Dr Craig Challen (a Perth vetinarian), spent over 70 hours in the cave. Harry was the last to emerge. However, “Speaking to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull via FaceTime, Dr Harris said the “big heroes” were the 12 children themselves, and the Thai Navy SEAL divers who looked after them in the cave.” (ABC news). What a beautiful story of the light of compassion reaching into our dark world. Harry paid a price, because shortly after he emerged from the cave he was informed his father had died whilst he was on the rescue mission.
Harry, like all of us, faced a choice to remain a dark person bringing no light into the darkness or to become light to others in a dark place. His boss said of him ,”Harry is a quiet and kind man who did not think twice about offering his support on this mission.” Just so Jesus, who “gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us.” Jesus, our Rescuer, “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:13). However, we can only show we are in the light by ourselves becoming an incarnation of light.
The message of Christmas is that light of God is always seeking embodiment. The light first found complete embodiment in Jesus. Now Jesus names his followers as ‘the light of the world’ and when Paul wished to speak about the commitment to love in relationships, he tells Jesus’ followers at Ephesus “you were darkness, but now … you are light” (Eph 5:8 lit). God’s eternal love and light is always seeking incarnation. Christmas always asks us a question “Are you light in the darkness or are you darkness in the darkness?”
Prayer: Lord, you tell me, I am light in you. Today and every day grant me the gift of the Spirit of your Son to be light in the dark places I will encounter. Amen.
by Christine Sine.
I am embarrassed to say that I have just purchased another Advent devotional. At least I would be embarrassed if it were not for the fact that one of my resolutions during Advent this year is to pause 3 times a day to pray and reflect. Having three devotionals has greatly facilitated that. Now I have one for the morning, one for midday and one for the evening. The reflections in each only take a few minutes but I find myself pondering the words in the times between. It is refreshing and energizing.
God is in the Manger is by one of my favorite theologians Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Evidently Advent was one of his favorite times of year and his powerful reflections, written mainly from prison are powerful and inspiring. Here are a couple of glimpses from my initial readings:
Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent” Bonhoeffer wrote his best friend Eberhard Bethge as the holidays approached in 1943. “One waits, hopes, and does this, that, or the other – things that are really of no consequence- the door is shut and can only be opened from the outside.”
Of course for Bonhoeffer the door never opened and he was hanged on April 8, 1945 just ten days before the German forces began to surrender.
Christ is knocking. It’s still not Christmas, but it’s also still not the great last Advent, the last coming of Christ. Through all the Advents of our life that we celebrate runs the longing for the last Advent, when the word will be: “see I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5
The Advent season is a season of waiting, but our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
Like Bonhoeffer I long for that last Advent, that time when all things will be made new and Christ will come again in all his fullness.
Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the the fruit when it has hardly finished plating the shoot. But all too often the greedy eyes are only deceived; the fruit that seemed so precious is still green on the inside, and disrespectful hands ungratefully toss aside what has so disappointed them. Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting – that is, of hopefully doing without- will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment.
Waiting is hard, and as we begin this first week of Advent, waiting for the coming of Christ, whether we wait for the remembrance of his birth, for new birth within ourselves or for that final Advent at the end of time, the longing sometimes seems overwhelming and we are very tempted to taste of the fruit before it is ripe.
God may we learn to wait patiently for what you are giving birth to.
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Week 2 of Advent from John Lewis’ book, Finding the Treasure in Christmas: A Guide to celebrating Advent for Families —
Special Activities:
- Put up some or all of your ornaments and your Nativity set.
- Read a suggested story from the New Guideposts’ Christmas Treasury, found in Appendix II.
- Watch Frosty the Snowman (Theme: the snow coming to life and then melting symbolizes Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection).
Read:
- John 1:14 about the Word becoming flesh as you light the second Advent candle, which is the “Bethlehem candle.” In Bethlehem we will find all the details of Jesus and His coming.
Reflect:
On our tree are ornaments we’ve bought, and ones others have given us. Some were homemade, some picked out in a store. Some are shiny, some faded. These ornaments make our family’s Christmas tree unique. Each year we have added new ornaments to the mix, filling our tree with memories. So, when we decorate the tree, we remember the people, places, and particulars of our family’s story.
Just as our ornaments remind us of our family’s specific story, they can also remind us that Jesus has a story, full of particulars and details. Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, in the small backwater country of Israel. He arrived on a particular day and year sometime around 4 BC. In the Nativity, we see the stable’s manger, Jesus’ swaddling clothes, and the shepherds from a nearby field who sprinted to see Him first. These elements all point us to the truth that Christmas is rooted in a story, which, like all good stories, is full of details.
When we put up our ornaments and Nativity set, we remember that the “Word once became flesh, and dwelt among us.” God came to earth as a person, a child, an adopted child even, so people could see God in all the particulars of Jesus’ everyday life-and our life, too. Jesus was God’s ornament for us all to see. His glory became inseparable with the ordinary routines of eating and cleaning, listening and learning, working and playing.
Here is the good news: Jesus came embedded in a time and a place. He, the sinless King of Glory, experienced all the everyday details of life so that we could have a new perspective on every aspect of our lives. The places and people of every culture, the ordinary and sometimes the dreary circumstances of life, all of these matter to God. We, Christ’s body, are God’s ornament.
Do/Discuss:
- Share some of the stories or memories of your favorite ornaments.
Sing:
“O Come All Ye Faithful” (verses 1 and 3)
Pray:
God, You were, are, and have always been full of life. In dogs and dolphins, strawberries and sunsets, and Adam and Eve You have shared Your life with us. That first Christmas when Jesus came down to Earth, You pitched Your tent in our very own neighborhood. You came to us fully human and fully divine, full of light and life. For all those times You have made Yourself known to us through people, relationships, and circumstances, we thank You. Amen.
John Lewis lives in Tacoma, Washington and is a father of three grown children and husband of one Christmas-loving wife. He is the director of Kingdom Story Ministries and passionate about seeing the next generation of Jesus followers grow and stay faithful over their life time. Building meaningful and enduring traditions during the Advent season, the month before Christmas, was certainly one way their kids found long term faith roots. Those 15 years of trial and error, singing carols and squirming in their seats, reading and sharing, putting up the tree, lights, ornaments and star one week at a time, they were well worth the effort. Though far from perfect, we offer to you our flexible approach and variety of ideas for developing Christ centered Christmas traditions. May your kids, year after year, grow anticipate the faith element of Christmas alongside all the fun of the season; may their roots run long and deep for the challenging life they have ahead of them.
by Christine Sine
This last week I set up my sacred space for Advent. I got out my icon of the Annunciation and my beautiful photo of the Magnificat stained glass window at Taize. Then I started working on my Advent calendar – this year a rather spectacular succulent calendar (to be unveiled tomorrow). As I worked on it I realized that there was still something or should I say someone, missing from my display — Joseph.
So I went looking for images of Joseph with a pregnant Mary. They are hard to find, unless I want Christmas card images of them heading towards Bethlehem. The photo above is from the Catholic Cathedral in Wichita Kansas, a beautiful sculpture by Rip Caswell that has held me enthralled for the last few days. I love the sense of protection and caring this sculpture conveys. Joseph must have been an extraordinary man yet we rarely think about how loving his behavior towards Mary was.
According to New Testament theologian Kenneth Bailey, we misinterpret Matthew 1:20 “As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit” He says “he considered this” should be translated “he became angry” and planned not to marry her. Not an unexpected reaction for a righteous man who finds his betrothed is pregnant by another”man”.
The amazing thing is that Joseph changed his mind because of a dream. How easily he could have ignored the angel. His acceptance of Mary and the baby she carried had consequences not just for her reputation but for his too. From the viewpoint of those around either the child was his and he was not quite as just and righteous as they previously thought or the child was someone else’s and he was a fool to accept Mary. He would have been” just” in condoning her stoning. Yet he stood by her. What courage it must have taken to stand against the culture of his day.
I love the way that Kenneth Bailey talks about Joseph in his wonderful book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.
In his cameo appearance, Matthew presents Joseph as a human being of remarkable spiritual stature. He possessed the boldness, daring, courage and strength of character to stand up against his entire community and take Mary as his wife. He did so in spite of the forces that no doubt wanted her stoned. His vision of justice stayed his hand. In short he was able to reprocess his anger into grace. (46)
That Joseph’s extraordinary love protected and surrounded Mary and eventually Jesus continues to be seen as the story unfolds. The trip to Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt, his teaching of Jesus to be a carpenter are all indications of his love and care.
Once again Kenneth Bailey helps me understand:
… in the Middle East, men usually represent their families in any official or legal matters. Why did Joseph take Mary with him to Bethlehem for the registration? The easiest explanation is that he was unsure what might happen to her if he left her in Nazareth without his presence to protect her. It behooves us to see Joseph as the hero of the story without whose courage and understanding of the prophets there would have been no Christmas story to tell. (46)
What Is Your Response?
Take a few minutes to contemplate the Rip Carwell’s sculpture above. Pay particular attention to Joseph standing behind Mary. Imagine Joseph as a courageous and loving man, supporting Mary by standing against the law of his culture. What are your thoughts as you gaze on this image? How does it change your impression of Joseph and his place in the story of Jesus.
Now take a few minutes to think about your own father. Some of us have loving fathers and it is not hard for us to imagine them standing in support of our mothers when they were pregnant with us. Others have less loving impressions. The abuse and violence of my own father meant that I ignored Joseph for a long time. I also ignored the loving gestures my father made towards me. When I was premature infant in a baby incubator it was my father who brought the milk my mother expressed to the hospital each day. It was my father who provided a home and food. As I look at this image I can imagine his love for me and my mother, even though he was rarely able to express it.
Who else has been a father to you? For those of us who don’t have loving fathers to look back at, God often provides substitutes, loving friends or relatives who take the place of fathers and help us create healthy images of a father’s love. I suspect that Joseph did this for Jesus. The stories of his conception by the power of the Holy Spirit must have created distant father images for Jesus, extraordinary as his knowledge of God was. Was it Joseph who formed early impressions of a God of love for Jesus before he fully understood who he was? Was it Joseph who provided loving images that made it possible for him to call God “Abba” and became stories of the warm welcome for prodigal sons? Obviously we do not know but it warms my heart to think of these possibilities.
Now watch the video below. What else comes to mind as you think about Joseph singing a lullaby to Jesus? Is there a response that God is asking of you?
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