May the blessing of Light be on you
Light without and light within,
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
And warm your heart till it glows like
A great peat fire, so that the stranger
May come and warm himself at it,
And also a friend.
And may the light shine out of the two eyes of you,
Like a candle set in two windows of a house,
Bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.
Raindrops on leaf
And may the blessing of the Rain be on you
The soft sweet rain. May it fall upon your spirit
So that all the little flowers may spring up,
And shed their sweetness on the air.
And may the blessing of the Great Rains be on
You, may they beat upon your spirit
And wash it fair and clean,
And leave there many a shining pool
Where the blue of heaven shines,
And sometimes a star.
Barefoot on Maroubra Beach
And may the blessing of the Earth be on you
The great round earth; may you ever have
A kindly greeting for them you pass
As you’re going along the roads.
May the earth be soft under you when you rest upon it,
Tired at the end of the day,
And may it rest easy over you when,
At the last, you lay out under it;
May it rest so lightly over you,
That your soul may be out from under it quickly,
And up, and off, and on its way to God.
I was sent this blessing several years ago. It is so beautiful and I felt appropriate for this season. Enjoy.
by Christine Sine
The Chi Rho page from the Book of Kells is a wonderful image to meditate on as we prepare our hearts for Christmas (and for Thanksgiving here in the U.S.) I was reminded of this as I continued to read through David Cole’s Celtic Advent today.
I pulled out one of my copies of some of the beautiful images from the Book of Kells and spent much of my devotional time running my fingers round the intricate patterns of what is the most magnificent and ornate example of calligraphy I have ever seen. It is probably one of the most magnificent examples of calligraphy ever created.
Most of the pattern is built around the Greek letters XP (Chi Rho) to represent the first word Christi. The remaining words translated h auteum generatio from the opening words of Matthew 1 v18 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ”, are almost lost in the midst of the amazing swirls, knot work, faces and animal figures of the plate. We need a magnifying glass to separate the details of the interweaving pattern and one wonders how the monks created such delicate work in the days before such tools existed.
Legend has it that this magnificent folio was created by St Columba on Iona but our first real knowledge of it is from the Abbey of Kells from which it was stolen in 1006, then buried for three months. When recovered its jewel encrusted golden cover was gone forever. It was gifted to Trinity College Dublin by Charles II in 1661 and has remained there ever since.
Whoever created these pages, they must have poured a good deal of time and energy and I suspect, love into them. Can you imagine the preparatory meditation and prayer that was required? Or the loving reverence and passion for God which inspired and ultimately preserved it. Did the spirit of God hover over them as they painstakingly crafted the intricate figures? Did God, the master craftsman guide their pens and improve their eyesight to create the minute patterns? And then did God provide a wall of protection to keep this loving testament to Christ alive for all of us to appreciate?
A Doorway Into the Life of Christ
David Cole comments that “this artwork was an entranceway, a doorway into the gospel – a contemplative and meditative way into the story of the life of Christ”. I agree and it is a very fitting doorway, one that invites us to sit and contemplate not just the beauty and richness of the image before us, but also of the life of the One whose birth we are preparing to celebrate.
Set aside time today to contemplate this image. Read 1:18 in The Voice, several times: Here finally is the story of the birth of Jesus the Anointed (It is quite a remarkable story) Run your fingers over the intricate (and remarkable) knot work and spirals in the pattern. Allow them to open a doorway into the remarkable story of Jesus’s birth.
Close your eyes and contemplate the image you have been admiring. What comes to mind of the remarkable story of Jesus as you do so?
Respond with a prayer, a poem or craft your own image.
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The Lectionary Gospel reading for American Thanksgiving Day is Matthew 6:25-33. It’s a passage that’s very familiar to those of us who live with anxiety and deal with fear. And it’s a great passage to consider as we approach the holiday season ahead. Take some time to read it slowly. Read it through a couple of times. Try reading it aloud and let the Holy Spirit speak to you through the words. What word or phrase pops out to you? What image speaks to you? What questions come up as you read and listen to it? What do you notice?
Matthew 6:25-33
“If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
Are you fussing about life or are you steeping in God reality?
I realize that I fuss about a lot of things, especially around the holidays. House cleaning, presents, food prep, money, not enough time, not enough energy. Wanting to host parties for neighbors and family but feeling like there are not enough days! For me:
FUSS= Fearfulness, Ungratefulness, Selfishness & Stress!
When I let these four things get the better of me, I cannot experience the CARE of God!
As we approach the holiday season, I need to be reminded that God is taking care of things. Jesus has got this! I don’t have to fuss! I can choose not to “toil or spin.” I can choose to let Jesus have my bag of worry and carry it all for me!
What things do you worry about the most in your everyday life? Do you worry more about food, clothes, or something else? What else?
How much time do you waste worrying, or FUSSING?
How would your life be different if you lived “careless in the care of God”?
“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? Why is this hard to believe and trust in?
As I sat with this passage, God used the image of a teapot to encourage me to be more steeped in GOD’s REALITY for me. I had to pause and think about what God Reality actually is! I made a list: I am Cared for, Loved, Attended to, Honored, Provided for, Created Uniquely, Gifted, and God wants what is best for me! WOW! these are some much better things, better realities than FUSSING! I truly want to be STEEPED in these things!
I am now carrying around an actual TEABAG with me in my journal and in my back pack as a visual reminder to STEEP in God’s Reality!
How can you STEEP your life in more God Reality and less worry, less comparison, less competition? What image would help you FUSS less in the days ahead?
Take some time this week to consider this. Brew some tea, make a list of the things you Fuss about and give them to Jesus! Or maybe an image of a bag filled with all your worries would help you release these to God. Maybe you need to carry around a teabag too! My prayer for us is that this holiday season, we will all steep in God’s love and reality for us rather than spending any time fussing!
Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Advent to you all!
by Sara Easterly —
November is National Adoption Awareness Month in the U.S. – a good time for adoptive parents to grow their awareness around the importance of honoring birth mothers. I’ll make my case, first and foremost, by going biblical.
Moses is the first abandoned baby mentioned in the Bible (Exodus 2). Moses gets a lot of airtime throughout the Bible, but what about his hardly-mentioned birth mother, Jochebed?
For three months Jochebed harbored her infant son indoors because of the Egyptian edict that all Hebrew (Jewish) boys must be killed. But hiding her baby wasn’t feasible for long. Growing Moses risked drawing attention – presumably beginning to babble, working up to rolling over, intensifying his opinionated cries. And so Jochebed made a sacrifice play: choosing to set her baby afloat along the edge of the Nile River over a certain and violent death at the hands of the Egyptian rulers.
Surely Jochebed knew the potential for Moses to drown, become breakfast for the Nile crocodiles, or get discovered and murdered anyway. But her decision was likely born of hope and trust. Hoping the Pharaoh’s daughter would approach the reedy area along the Nile where she often visited. Hoping the princess’ reputation for empathy and kindness would result in compassion for infant Moses. Trusting that God would watch over her baby boy when she could not.
While the Jewish mother is often negatively stereotyped as suffocating and intrusive, all caricatures are erroneous – as Jochebed proved. She did her best to shield her son, but when faced with the futility that she could not, Jochebed orchestrated the next-best scenario for him: letting him go in order to give him a second chance at life.
Birth mothers, whether biblical or modern, must be celebrated. The decision to relinquish a baby she has shielded inside her home or inside her uterus – whether driven by hope and trust, and/or as a last-ditch option in the face of evil – is full of agony for the birth mother. If the agony is too much to bear, then it is full of denial – agony disguised.
We honor birth mothers because it is the humane thing to do to pay homage to their sacrifice and suffering.
We also honor birth mothers for the others in the adoption triad: the adoptee and the adoptive mother.
As an adoptee, I’ll fill you in on an insider’s secret that’s backed by developmental science and hundreds of other adoptees’ anecdotal experiences: If you don’t honor your child’s birth mother, you may be causing your child great pain and endangering your relationship. Which brings me to the personal case for honoring birth mothers.
My adoptive mother was uncomfortable talking about my first mother. And so I followed her lead. I hushed the questions that longed to spill from my heart. I did my best to make Mom happy. I had no choice – I couldn’t risk losing another mother. It was a matter of survival. But quietly, unknown to my parents, I concealed an overwhelming battle with rejection.
It took me years to wake up to this, but I felt a divide. The significance of my first mother ignored, I felt I had to choose between mothers. One good. One bad. I don’t think my mom minded much … until realizing she might not be the chosen one.
There were fantasies. I could fall in love with an imagined birth mother more deeply than I could attach to my mom.
I learned grief is something to bury, never to express. I lived out the very definition of depression – pressing down upon my emotions into numbness, hopelessness, thoughts of suicide.
I questioned my faith. What kind of loving God allows for this kind of primal pain that nobody around me would acknowledge and help me work through? How could I believe the Christian story that it’s a good thing to be adopted by God, when adoption means completely severing bonds with first attachments and never looking back?
I was denied my story, my sense of rootedness in the world.
I might have even been denied my divine destiny.
After all, without an honoring of his birth origins, Moses never would have lived out his destiny.
As Jochebed had hoped, the pharaoh’s daughter indeed discovered orphaned Moses and took him in as her adoptive son – gifting him not only life, but also the education and circumstances that later proved essential in delivering the Hebrews out of slavery: Moses’ divine destiny.
Sadly Moses’ adoptive mother doesn’t get a lot of biblical fame, herself. We aren’t even told her name, this member of the royal family, though many scholars believe her to be Hatshepsut. Not only did she mother Moses as if her own, but she rebelled against her father’s tyrannical ways, bucking genocide in a seemingly small but significant way – the way of all great adoptive mothers: heart-led action and fierce love.
Hatshepsut was aware she had adopted an illegal Hebrew boy – even crossing racial lines by hiring Jochebed as a nursemaid until Moses was weaned, likely for the customary 3-7 years. Because of this I have a strong hunch that this became an open adoption. It’s hard to believe that Hatsheput didn’t realize – even if only on an unspoken level – that Jochebed was Moses’ birth mother. It’s hard to imagine Jochebed successfully faked her way through years of breastfeeding, pretending to be a random stranger. Open or closed, though, the act of hiring a Hebrew mother to nurse her adopted son was an honoring that probably wasn’t easy for Hatshepsut on many levels. But it was the right thing to do for all three of them: Jochebed, Hatshepsut, Moses.
Honoring doesn’t have to mean hiring your child’s birth mother as a nursemaid. It doesn’t even have to mean meeting her or ever so much as conversing with her if an open adoption isn’t feasible.
Honoring can be as simple as telling your adopted child the truth, the full story – not a one-dimensional fairy-tale with a false happy “ending” that is really just the first day of your child’s life with you. But the real story – the one that includes the complicated blending of joy, mixed with loss, and will last a lifetime.
Honoring means opening your eyes to your child’s heartache and acknowledging your child’s sadness, even if it’s beyond you and your best parenting to fully soothe away.
Honoring can take the form of embracing your child’s heritage … or gifting a trinket – something your child can wear to remind her that before you loved her so passionately she was also loved by another … or letting your child know that you’re sure his mother is or would be proud of him … perhaps making mention that you sometimes see his birth mother’s eyes in his smile.
There are countless ways to honor your child’s birth mother, and there are countless rewards gleaned by doing so – even if honoring is something you only do once a year during National Adoption Awareness Month.
However, or whenever, you honor isn’t what matters. And it is never too late. Even though it took a Moses-like number of 40 years, my parents bravely began to honor my birth mother, bringing forth healing and a deepening of our relationship.
What matters is that by honoring your child’s birth mother you are expanding upon that foundation that delivered her baby into your arms: hope and trust. Hoping for healing. Trusting, that with God’s help, it will come. Hoping that through your honoring you are modeling God’s love – a love that is wide enough to make room for all without squeezing out a single soul. Trusting that your child’s heart will find rest in the power of love, feeling it from the robust trifecta of a birth mother, an adoptive mother, and always, of course, from God.
by Christine Sine
The theme for Advent on Godspace this year will be Light Emerges from Darkness, and as I have begun my Advent celebrations early this year with Celtic Advent which began yesterday, it seemed an appropriate time to share this.
Seeds are planted and grow in the darkness of the soil, just as a baby is planted and grows in the darkness of the womb. The Jewish day begins at dusk and our church celebrations usually begin at night. All Saints Day begins with All Hallows Eve October 31st, Celtic Advent begins the evening of November 15th and Christmas begins with Christmas Eve. The whole season of Advent was designed deliberately to coincide with winter and Christmas Eve is close (at least in the northern hemisphere) to the day of longest night. Even in the southern hemisphere where Christmas occurs in the height of summer and nights are short, there is still the sense that each new day emerges out the night’s dark embrace.
We all go through periods of darkness and there is no season like Advent to provide us with hope and promise. We hope you will join us for our daily reflections on Light Emerging from Darkness. What seeds have been planted and are growing within you? What is slowly emerging and being birthed? How can you nurture these emerging seeds until they are fully birthed to bring light and life to the world as Christ did.
Lean Towards the Light
As I thought about this today, I was reminded of our theme several years ago Lean towards the Light. In celebrating the birth of Jesus, we often forget that the light of Christ is already shining in our world. In the northern hemisphere, we may be aware that darkness is the place in which seeds germinate. In the southern hemisphere, leaning towards the light engenders images of growth and summer sunsets splashed across the sky. Wherever we are in God’s world, let us learn to lean towards the light.
So as we prepare for the season of Advent and Christmas I thought I would continue my journey towards the light by posting my Advent video Leaning Towards the Light from 2015. It contains amazing photos by Craig Goodwin and Tom Balke (Title photo) and beautiful music by Jeff Johnson. I hope that you enjoy revisiting it as much as I did.
Produced and written by Christine Sine for Mustard Seed Associates.
The music is “Antiphon” from the CD, ANTIPHON by the Coram Deo Ensemble. Music by Janet Chvatal, Jeff Johnson & Brian Dunning
℗© 2011 Sola Scriptura Songs / ArkMusic.com
Used with permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
We will post daily reflections, prayers and music throughout the season to inspire and challenge all of us. Leaning towards the light is not just about our personal preparation. It embraces our response to world crises, our attitudes towards those at the margins, and compassionate care for friend and stranger alike.
In addition, we have a variety of Advent/Christmas resource lists you might like to explore including this beautiful Advent candle lighting liturgy by Emma Morgan of Melbourne, Australia.
New Gift and New Resources for You this Advent Season
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 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
I love getting ready for the Advent and Christmas season and am already planning our activities and decorations so thought you might like to do so too. I update this resource list each year but realize that many of you may not see that so thought that this year I would repost it too.
Think Outside the Box
In some ways I am a traditionalist when it comes to Advent celebrations. I love to set up our Advent wreath and decorate the Christmas tree. However I also like to get creative during the season and love to encourage others to do the same.
Thalia on Sacraparental has put together a wonderfully creative resource list in her post What We’re Doing This Advent: Six Families Share Their Plans
Colouring Books are all the rage at the moment and there are plenty of them around for Christmas. Mandy Groce at Ministry to Children has created an excellent Advent Colouring Book for Kids that can be downloaded for free.
I love these templates that Sybil MacBeth of Praying in Colour has made available for what she calls a count up, not a count down to Christmas.
Here is a creative Advent prayer walk idea which Jodie Thomae will post during Advent this year – what she calls an ADVENTure walk.
Create an Advent Wreath
The most traditional project to prepare us for the new liturgical year is to create or acquire an advent wreath. An Advent wreath typically consists of greenery with four candles, three purple and one pink. Each candle has a specific meaning:
Candle one (purple) represents hope. It is often called the prophets’ candle.
Candle two (purple) represents peace. It is often called the angels’ candle.
Candle three (pink) represents joy. It is often called the shepherds’ candle.
Candle four (purple) represents love. It is often called the Bethlehem candle.
Many advent wreaths also include a Christ candle in the middle of the wreath.
To celebrate with an Advent wreath, you light a candle on each Sunday of Advent. The first Sunday, you light candle one; the second Sunday you light candles one and two, etc. You can often find readings to go along with the candle lightings on the internet or at Christian bookstores. Or find a Christmas book that represents the theme of the week and read it with your children.
There are lots of ways to make Advent wreaths. It is a fun craft to do with kids and adults alike and may establish a new family tradition for you.
Here are a few that I find useful:
Here is a link to a fairly traditional Advent wreath. It does require an electric drill, fine tooth saw and wire cutters so obviously not something to let your kids do on their own.
A succulent Advent wreath – and for those of us who collect succulents this is a great way to put them to good use over the Advent and Christmas season.
We can also make wreaths to hang on our doors or windows.
Here is a simple Advent wreath made from an old coat hanger – great fun for all the family.
And here is a low cost eco-friendly wreath – again fun to make
Or perhaps a junk wheel wreath with mason jar tealight.
And I love this one for making an Advent wreath with children’s hand prints. One of my friends used her own and her husbands handprints for the wreath and gave it to give to her grandkids prints as an Advent gift. Alternatively get the kids to make the wreath and gift it to the grandparents!
Go bird friendly with your Advent wreath and Advent decorations. We tried this a couple of years ago. The gelatine suggested in most of these goes moldy if you leave it inside too long, however we planned to try it again with lard which should be more durable and also nutritious for the birds but have not yet managed to do that.
Create an Advent or Winter Spiral
This is not a long standing Advent tradition but is associated with Waldorf schools in the United States. It has similarities to walking the labyrinth and I think is a wonderful tradition to consider establishing for your family.
This site has great instructions for making an Advent spiral complete with Mary on a donkey with dough.
Sparkle stories has another rather more ambitious outdoor winter spiral.
Mountain Hearth has the most ambitious of all – a beautiful Advent walk that as they say really sets the mood for a different sort of holiday season filled with more stillness, reverence, contemplation and beauty amongst the prevalent hustle and bustle of shopping, parties, and general busy-ness that surrounds us in November and December.
I love this Advent spiral design from Holland.
And this very creative and relatively simple homemade Advent spiral – A new way to mark time
Create an Advent Garden
This is an idea that I came up with a couple of years ago when I was feeling a little bored by the traditional Advent wreath which we had used for the last 20 years. I am a keen gardener and decided to create my own mini garden specifically for Advent.
I filmed this short video to explain my process and the reasoning behind it. This was a very meaningful and fun way to celebrate the season. It has become an important Advent activity for me. In fact now I create meditation gardens for all the seasons of the year.
I continue to work on this concept and find new inspiration each year. I loved this one from 2015.
2016 we were traveling so I did not make a garden. Then in 2017 I started experimenting with a little more creativity.
This year I am thinking of some new ideas – asking myself “What plants speak to me of the season of “Advent waiting”. It should be fun.
I also came across this very creative Advent calendar/garden idea and so am working on a succulent Advent calendar too.
Make Your Own Advent Calendar
Advent calendars always seem to represent the more commercial side of Christmas to me with cheap chocolates, wooden toys and glittery paper being the predominant images. However this is a wonderful tradition and there are many ways in which we can make it meaningful for our families
I love the suggestion from the post Celebrating Advent with Children, to make an Advent calendar with matchboxes, placing slips of paper in each one with different activities to do each day. Some of these are simple fun games to play, others are ways to reach out with acts of kindness and still others are family activities that are fun to do together.
Advent in a Jar is a simple but effective way to help children enter into the season of Advent. Make a prayer jar with your kids in November before Advent begins. Use strips of paper rather than wood so that you can fit 24 or more days of activities, scriptures and prayer points that lead up to Christmas into your jar. Pull one out each day as a way to focus your kids attention on the real meaning of Christmas.
Another possibility is this recycle bin Advent calendar. – what a great way to introduce kids to the season and to the need to be more responsible. The combination of inward reflection and outward caring is wonderful.
Countdown Christmas Traditions used to have a fun kid friendly Advent calendar where as you clicked on each day of Advent you read about traditions in different countries of the world. Unfortunately it seems to have disappeared but you could use The Christmas Around the World site to create your own list of traditions to talk about with your kids. You could use matchboxes or just write the name of a country on pieces of paper, put them in a jar and pull one out each day and then talk about the traditions of that country.
CAFOD: Just One world in the U.K. has some great Advent liturgies available as well as a downloadable Advent calendar for kids.
Susan Forshey put together this helpful Advent calendar Forty Days of Joy and Love which is a great concept to use for your Advent calendar without investing in funky toys or more unnecessary chocolates.
And here is a really fun one to explore – The Hubble Telescope Advent calendar
Catholic Mom has downloadable instructions for an Advent chain which has some similarities to an Advent calendar, but is especially designed to encourage kids to think beyond themselves at Christmas.
A couple of years ago Jill Aylard Young put together a similar kit called Advent in A Jar which we have published this year. It is downloadable for free from Godspace.
Explore Christmas traditions and recipes from around the world with your family
If you wanting to establish new traditions to enjoy with your family or friends, read through these descriptions of traditions from around the world and discuss the possibility of adapting some of these as part of your own celebration during the Advent and Christmas season.
Buzzfeed life has a wonderful array of recipes associated with the Advent and Christmas season in many different parts of the world. Just reading through some of these has my mouth watering. Choose a few to make with your kids and create some special prayers for the countries the traditions come from at the same time.
I love to experiment with new recipes from different parts of the world especially for our Advent Open house.
Set up a nativity set.
This is always a fun activity that tends to grow even more important as we age. Set it up with the manger empty and the wise men at the other end of the room or house. Throughout the Advent and Christmas season the wise men move closer to the manager and of course on Christmas morning the Christ child appears in the manger.
One of my friends has a rich collection of nativity sets from around the world which she sets up in different parts of the house to remind her that the story of Jesus is powerful in every culture. World Nativity has an amazing set of images of nativity sets from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. YonderStar is another site that sells Nativity sets, many of them fair trade. They also contribute 10% of their profits to Nature Conservancy and Food for the Poor.
One creative twist on the traditional nativity set is to give each family member an empty manger on the first Sunday of Advent. A small cereal box covered with bright paper will do as well. At bedtime, the children draw straws for each kind deed performed in honor of baby Jesus as his birthday surprise. The straws are placed in the child’s manger or box daily. It is amazing how much love a child can put into Advent when she or he is preparing for his redeemer’s coming in grace.
On Christmas, each child finds an infant in his manger, placed on a small table or a chair beside his or her bed. Usually it is a tiny doll, beautifully dressed. This custom fills the child with a longing in Advent, and provides an image of the redeemer as the first happy glance in the morning and the last impression at night during the entire Christmas season.
Make a Jesse Tree
The Jesse Tree represents the family tree, or genealogy of Jesus Christ . It tells the story of God’s salvation plan , beginning with creation and continuing through the Old Testament, to the coming of the Messiah. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” (NASB)
Each day of Advent a homemade ornament is added to the Jesse Tree, a small tree made of evergreen branches. These symbolic ornaments can each represent a prophecy foretelling of Christ. Other variations include creating ornaments that represent the ancestors in the lineage of Christ, or using the various monogram symbols of Christianity as handmade ornaments. Before a symbol is hung on the branch, a Bible passage or a story from a story Bible is read.
My Jesse Tree: The Ultimate Guide has a good explanation and lots of ideas on how to make a Jesse tree.
Here is a pattern for making a Jesse tree Advent calendar and another for making a more traditional Jesse tree. The Reformed Church of America has a good set of Jesse tree Advent devotionals
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
Welcome to Celtic Advent.
Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year. In the Western church, it begins 4 Sundays before Christmas Day but for Celtic Christians , it begins the evening of November 15th – forty days before Christmas Day. Celtic Christians always prayed and fasted for 40 days in preparation for any major life event, whether it be the planting of a new monastic center, the beginning of a new adventure as well as for preparation for Christmas and Easter.
We are entering a season of waiting, not a passive, idle and maybe boring waiting, but an active, soul searching and prayerful season. I love the Celtic invitation to begin 40 days before Christmas Day, before consumerism ramps up to a fever pitch and we become too distracted and overwhelmed by the busyness of the season to really take notice of what matters most. We prepare to celebrate our remembrance of Christ’s birth, 2000 years ago, we prepare to welcome him afresh as savior in our lives and anticipate his return at the end of time when the fullness of God’s redemption will be revealed and all creation will be made new. This is part of the reason that we decided to align our devotional Lean Towards the Light this Advent & Christmas and the accompanying Advent retreat for Lean Toward the Light This Advent and Christmas–now available as a downloadable resource–to Celtic Advent and not traditional Advent. We have several Advent resources in the shop. New for 2021, we have a Journal to accompany Lean Towards the Light This Advent & Christmas, and several bundles available for shipping or downloading. Pair the journal and devotional together and save; we also include our Advent prayer cards in several bundles.
Christmas is a 12 day celebration of this joyful event. It begins on Christmas Day and culminates in the celebration of the Eve of Epiphany which commemorates the coming of the Magi.
Set Your Heart In the Right Direction.
“As we begin this journey of Advent start by setting your heart in the right direction” (David Cole Celtic Advent). As I read this starting reflection in David Cole’s excellent Celtic Advent devotional book, I realized how much I need to set myself heart in the right direction. Focusing on Advent and the coming of Christ as the intention of my heart and soul isn’t always easy but I know it is extremely important.
I am using our Celtic prayer cards to guide me through the season, as well as David Cole’s book and really encourage you to set your own heart in the right direction by joining me in this celebration of Celtic Advent.
Resources for Celtic Advent
Check out the complete resource list here
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Celtic Advent – David Cole
- Celtic Advent: Forty Days of Devotions to Christmas – David Cole. This is my devotional read for Advent this year
- A Fragrant Offering: A Daily Prayer Cycle in the Celtic Tradition – John Birch. I used this last year and though it is not specifically for Celtic Advent I found it to be an excellent resource to use for the season.
- John has also produced a number of Celtic Advent liturgies that are a must-read for this season.
- Celts to the Creche – Brenda Griffin Warren is another Godspace regular. I love this collection of daily devotions that can be accessed daily on her site.
- The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred. Christine Valters Paintner. This is not an Advent book but it is a wonderful book to use for contemplative reflection with a Celtic focus. I have been using it over the last few months and have found much inspiration from it.
- Journey To The Manger with Patrick and Friends Jean McLachlan Hess.
Music for Celtic Advent
Godspace Celtic Prayer Cards
Our Celtic Prayer cards come in a set of 10 cards with prayers inspired by Celtic Saints on the front and a short reflection on the back. This is my favourite set of our cards and as many of the photos were taken on our trip to Iona last year, have special significance for me.
They are available in 3 forms:
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