by Christine Sine
Last week at our community meeting we made Advent jars, and filled them with ideas from our downloadable Advent in a Jar leaflet in preparation for the season.
Advent already you may exclaim. It doesn’t begin until December 2nd this year. Or you may ask: what on earth is Advent?
So lets start with a quick introduction or a refresher course for those who are familiar with the season.
Now that you understand about Advent let me confuse you a bit. I start celebrating Advent on the evening of November 15th – the beginning of Celtic Advent which starts on a fixed date 40 days before Christmas each year, mirroring the 40 days of Lent before Easter.
So now that you know what Advent is all about what are you going to do about it? This is such an important preparation for for our celebration of Christ’s birth and it is important to take time to find a focus and establish practices that help us fully enter into the season.
I suggest four steps (which I will talk about in more detail next week
- Pray
- Plan
- Prepare
- Practice
In this post you might think that I have jumped ahead to the “reaper” step. However creating my Advent jar was a great meditative exercise to encourage me to think about what I want to see happen in my life during the Advent season, so it has invited me to pray, plan and prepare all in the one exercise. And I have cut out enough ideas to practice from Celtic Advent to Christmas Day and still have a few left over.
This is also a fun activity to do with kids and provides a context in which to talk to them about Advent and the coming of Christ.
Advent in a jar downloadable pdf
Making an Advent Jar.
If you are not feeling very creative the simplest way to make your own Advent jar is to find a pint sized jar, cut out the first page of our downloadable leaflet using the “2 pages per sheet” setting place it and place it in the jar, like we show in the image above. This is a perfect size for holding the Advent ideas contained in the leaflet.
For those who want to make the creation of your Advent jar a fun and creative preparation for the season, you will need the following supplies:
Advent jar materials
- 1 pint or quart sized jar (we used Tassos olive jars from Costcos for this)
- Spray paint (we used Krylon metallic gold and silver)
- An empty cardboard box
- 1 roll self-adhesive Vinyl
- 1 pair of scissors
- Cookie cutter molds
- Self Adhesive stickers
- Ribbons for decoration
Use the cookie cutter molds
Use the cookie cutter mold to cut out a fun shape or several shapes on your vinyl roll. If you are particularly creative you might like to draw a shape of your own for this step.</span>
Stick the vinyl to the jar
Stick the vinyl shape(s) to your jar. Make sure they are pressed down firmly or the paint will run behind the vinyl.
Set up a box to spray your jar
Set up your box outside in a well ventilated area for spraying your jar – this helps avoid getting mess all over the place.
Turn the jar upside down in the box and spray it evenly. You might like to do this in two parts, allowing the paint to dry on one side then turning it around to spray the other.
Allow two hours for the jar to dry completely before the next step.
Decorate your jar
Remove the vinyl.
Decorate your jar with stickers.
Tie a ribbon around the top of the jar.
Cut out the Advent in a jar ideas,
Place them in the jar and enjoy.
by Lilly Lewin
We knew when we bought our house at the end of 2015, that someday, someone would build on the lot next to us. It was just a matter of time. When you live in a “boom town,” things get built, and lots don’t stay vacant very long. But our hope was that we would keep our sunset vista view. The vista was why I bought the house in the first place, (my husband bought the house because of the garage). Sadly, the builder constructing the house next door, didn’t take into consideration how his design would change our view. Right now, in our town, money is the motivating factor, not care for the land or concern for the neighbors or the neighborhood. It’s about square-footage more than design. Thankfully, the house next door was delayed all summer and the view didn’t get lost until the last of October. But the loss of the vista has been extremely depressing. I’ve been very sad about not being able to look out the windows and see the view I’d come to expect and love. It’s change, and I really don’t like this kind of change!
In the whole scheme of life, it’s not that tragic. It’s really a first world problem. I still have a nice house. I still love the location and I can still walk outside to see some of the view, and the sunset in the evening. As I was moaning and complaining to Jesus the other day, I had to face that he is using the construction next door to force me to look at myself. I too am under construction. I am having to process a lot of emotions and expectations, and I’ve had to ask some questions about my heart and my life.
Do I take into consideration the views of other people? Or just my own?
Do I care about my neighbors or just myself?
How do I BLOCK their view?
How am I blocking the way of others?
Do I BLOCK the view of others by my wanting my own way, or by seeking my own needs first, or by believing that my way is better?
How do I let GREED get in the way of living life for Jesus?
And what about Construction?
Construction is loud.
It’s messy.
It’s rarely on time.
It’s filled with delays due to weather, design or finances.
Often one cannot find enough skilled workers or ones with the skills needed for the job at hand.
The process of building is long and hard and requires planning.
If I’m honest, I am not always excited about planning.
I just want to “get it done”
I want the finished product, not the mess of process.
I’m asking “Lord what are you up to in all of this?”
What are you building in my life? What are you desiring to build in me in this next season? “
Do I need a fresh coat of paint or an entire remodel?
Do I need extra help for this season? Experts? New Tools?
How’s the foundation?
What new things do I need Jesus to build in my life right now?
What do I need him to construct so I have an even better VIEW of his love for me and his Kingdom?
So, maybe you are in a new season of life too.
Maybe you are facing a block in your view.
Perhaps the noise and mess of the process of change is getting to you.
Maybe you and I both need to take time to sit with the changes and grieve the loss of our view.
You might pick up a nail, a hammer or a piece of wood and let them be a symbols of new construction in your life.
Watch for new construction or building around your town or neighborhood.
What is God building in your life right now? Ask God to show you!
If you have blocks in your house, or even Legos, build with the blocks. As you build, talk to Jesus about the building and constructing process.
Ask Jesus to show you what he is longing to build into your heart in this next season.
Today we celebrate All Saints Day! We encourage you to also check out these great posts written a few years ago – One Protestant’s Reflection on All Saints Day by Kathy Hempel and All Saint’s Day: An Opportunity to Remember Every Day Saints by Lynne Baab.
Below is a beautiful poem written by Ana Lisa De Jong –
THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS
He who sits outside time
wraps us in light.
We, a globe suspended in the sky,
are circled by the saints.
We circle the centre
of our solar systems place,
in an ancient universe
growing every day.
Yet we are still firmly
and tenderly held.
Secured by laws of gravity,
and grace.
We, who sit inside time
live tied yet to the ground
He, outside us where all is clear,
reigns in community.
We cannot know,
but sometimes have the strangest view
of a world beyond our grasp.
We sense a smile, we feel the robes
of ones gone long before.
It does not matter if we are yet to know,
enough we feel their presence.
The love of those who hold us close
in the communion of heaven.
By Jan Blencowe —
All Hallows marks an important turn on the wheel of the year. From now until the winter solstice the darkness grows.
Halloween in ancient Celtic times was known as Samhain, (pronounced sow-en, with sow rhyming with cow). It is a word that comes from two old Irish words meaning summer’s end. It is the final harvest festival of the year when pumpkins, gourds, turnips, parsnips and squash are gathered, and animals were brought back from summer pastures to the safety of barns and stables.
By Jan Blencoe
In pre-Christian times Samhain was celebrated in Ireland with great gatherings of clans and tribes. In Medieval times there were games, and feasting to celebrate the end of the growing and harvesting seasons. With the growing darkness there were stories of faerie folk, and goblins making mischief in the dark. Stories that echoed more ancient and more primitive fears.
Samhain’s association with death didn’t emerge until the church instituted the feast of All Saints on November 1, in the ninth century, and the the Feast of All Souls on November 2 in 998 AD. This is when Samhain became known as All Hallow’s Eve, the night before the feast of All Saints Day. From that point on there was a merging and mingling of celebrations around the final harvest festival, the preparations for winter, and the remembrance of the dead.
This is the time during the year when our fears of change, death, and darkness find a voice.
Why embrace a time for working with our deepest fears? Why not neutralize the fears of Halloween by designating it a children’s holiday, or skip right over it and and fast forward to All Saints and the comforting knowledge that a great cloud of witnesses has tread the path of death and entered into new life before you, and now upholds you in prayer.
By Jan Blencoe
To only focus on what comforts and soothes you is to miss the opportunity to deepen and expand your capacity to live and fully embrace all of life. It is in the dark that you begin to better understand the mysteries of life and death and to integrate with compassion those parts of yourself that seem undesirable and dark, parts that we call shadow.
Beyond the universal fears of change, death and darkness there is always the fear that you are unworthy of love. If that fear is left to itself, the uncertainty of what death might bring grows more menacing.
Carl Jung wrote “one does not become enlightened by imaginary figures of light but by making the darkness conscious”. As you pass through the gateway of Halloween into the darker half of the year it is important to allow the darkness to become conscious and instruct you.
The saints of All Saints that we remember, might be better thought of as Halloween heroes and heroines. Before being swept up into the eternal light when they were released from the body, these saints were ordinary people, not imaginary figures of light. They faced some of the deepest, darkest fears that can be known. Rejection, betrayal,, ridicule, poverty, persecution, hunger, oppression, torture, captivity, temptations and weakness, the dark night of the soul and martyrdom. It was in the darkness of fears, and the darkness of their own shadow and doubts that they were transformed.
Halloween revels in what is scary. What scares us is precisely what we need to face. The fears, doubts, betrayals, abandonments, wounds, and disappointments of life scare us. Yet, within these difficult feelings is the creative opportunity to reshape them and mold them into something new that strengthens and supports the growth and development of your soul.
Before the light of All Saints and the quiet rest of winter, during this tumultuous, dark time in the year when fruit, nut and leaf drop to the ground embracing decay and death to ensure new life, make some space to sit with what you fear. Learn what the fear has to teach you and learn how to use those lessons as part of the great cycle of life and growth that you are held within during your time on this earth. Let your descent into this place of darkness be a conscious one, so that what falls away makes space for transformation and new life to emerge. This is the gift the season of All Hallow’s Eve brings to you.
by Mary Harwell Sayler from poetry book, Faces in a Crowd
See, that’s why I don’t like to get close to you!
When least expected, your expression jades,
and your eyes reveal partially concealed blades
hinting a dagger glint. “So?” you say,
calling me out with unanswerable questions
about what I mean by this or that. If I don’t
defend myself, another point quickly comes
on which to gouge me like a pumpkin. If I
protest, a sudden scramble of barbed wire
covers you like your very best shawl. But that’s
not all! I feel as though you want to see me
squirm – or kept in line with what you find
true or good or right for you — and yet,
ironically, I want that too. So I concede:
a trick to treat myself with cooling
quiet – a way to conserve my energy
for when we meet again on All Saints Day.
By Sara Easterly —
God, help me remember the great honor it is to have these children in my life.
When I’m full of frustration because the kids don’t listen, or they talk back, or they fight with each other, or fight with me, help me to pause, to breathe, to forgive, to gently guide, and always, to love.
Help me to parent as you parent – not forcing your way, never leaving even when I behave badly, being steady enough to handle anything that might come, staying present in spite of being pulled in a bazillion different directions, not demanding gratefulness or piling on guilt even when 99.9998% of the job is completely thankless, loving no matter what.
I will never be you, but help me to try and try some more, all the same. Give me the energy and relentlessness to keep going, to get up each day with a prayer and a fresh start.
Thank you for seeing in me the mother I don’t always see in myself. Thank you for your faith in me – always – even when I’m absolutely certain I’m totally screwing it all up.
Thank you for surrounding me with a community of support. Help me to recognize and use the wide net of caring adults you’ve brought into our lives – family, teachers, pastors, coaches, neighbors, aunties, other parents, dear friends. They keep me sane and expand on what I can give when they share their unique perspectives, gifts, and love with my children. Help me discern when to pull others in, when to step out of their way, and also to know when it’s a job that’s meant exclusively for me.
Help keep my words from hurling and hurting. When they do, help me take ownership for my frustration and immaturity, remembering to apologize and to remind the kids that our relationship is stronger than any angry words I might spew.
I do not know the hair-count on my kids’ heads. Still, help me yearn to know my children as deeply as you know them. May I help them know themselves that deeply, too, so they don’t look to their peers to decide who they are or should be.
Help me remember not to take myself too seriously – to make lots of room for play and laughter and silliness and joy.
Thank you for entrusting these children to me. Help me remember that they don’t belong to me. They are their own unique individuals. You have a plan for them. May I do right by them, and by you, raising them into precisely the people you wish them to be.
Thank you for mothers everywhere. Please spread your love especially over mothers suffering from anxiety, depression, doubts, exhaustion, grief, loneliness, strained relationships, overload, or separation of any kind from their children. Bless us all so that we may bless each other and in turn, bless this hurting world.
Thank you that motherhood lasts forever. On days when this feels like a cruel trap, help me see the incredible blessing in this – that I have not only my lifetime, but also the rest of eternity, to honor and love these children according to your thoughtful design.
Amen.
by Christine Sine
I have a confession to make. Tom and I are addicted to Grand Designs, an intriguing British reality show in which each episode documents a unique home-build or renovation from start to finish. A few nights ago we watched two episodes that followed two men who built their homes in response to life changing illnesses.
Bram Vis’s house on Isle of Wright
The first episode was a financial advisor who spent more than a week in a coma following a brain hemorrhage. Following his recovery, Bram Vis and his wife Lisa build an enormous house on the Isle of Wight. Their original £850k budget spirals out of control and the final cost was close to £3 million.
The following episode was about Angelo Mastropietro, who after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis purchased an abandoned cave house in Worcestershire. The cave had probably been inhabited on and off for over a thousand year and to help him cope with his diagnosis, he planned to almost single handedly, create a contemporary but modest dwelling for on a £100,000 budget. His house is now available on airb&b Britain
What particularly struck me was the contrast between Bram and Angelo. Bram’s illness seemed to leave him with a grand sense of entitlement and the feeling that the world owed him anything that he wanted. The episode ends with him hunched over his financial books trying to figure out how he will continue to pay for his gigantic mortgage. He has little time to notice the restful beauty of the sea around his creation. I wonder if another stroke is inevitable and how his family will cope with the aftermath. (Latest information on the house is that it is on the market for £3.9 million.)
Angelo on the other hand obviously relishes the task before him, and though he ends up needing more help than he expected, finishes his one bedroom cave house for little more than his original budget. This episode ends with Angelo, his family and his friends sitting out on the newly created patio enjoying a glass of good wine and BBQ and enjoying the forest view. His project seems to have given him new life and possibly helped improve his health.
Are We Doing Violence to Our Souls?
As I reflected on these episode I was reminded of a Thomas Merton quote in Parker Palmer’s latest book On the Brink of Everything.
There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist… most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work… It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work. because it kills the root of the inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.
Palmer goes on to comment
Merton names one of our deepest needs: to protect and nurture the “root of inner wisdom” that makes work and life itself fruitful…. We can live that way only if we know when and where to seek sanctuary, reclaiming our souls for the purpose of loving the world. (On the Brink of Everything 140)
It seems to me that Bram is doing violence to his soul by over committing time and resource to his grand dream. Angelo on the other hand seems to have found a place of peace and sanctuary through his building.
How often do we too do violence to our souls through over work and overcommitment because we don’t know where to find sanctuary for our souls or how to nurture our inner wisdom?
As I thought about this I realized that there are a number of ways I have in the past done violence to my soul. I have overworked and over committed myself sometimes because I thought God wanted me to, at other times just because I couldn’t relax and work was the only part of my life that was in focus.
Eugene Peterson’s The Message comes to mind:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”(Matthew 11:28-30)
Recognizing that God does not intend us to overwork but invites instead into a rhythm of balance and relaxation is not only liberating but it is one of the best ways to free ourselves from the tendency to do violence to our souls.
Do We Know Where to Seek Sanctuary?
And where do we find sanctuary for our souls?
Morning doodle
You don’t have to build a house to find out.
Take a few minutes to prayerfully reflect on this today.
Take out your journal or a clean sheet of paper and some colored pens.
Close your eyes and create a free form doodle with your non dominant hand for 30 seconds repeating the question “Where do I find sanctuary for my soul?”
Open your eyes and prayerfully reflect on your doodle. What catches your attention?
Respond by coloring the shapes that emerge.
As I conducted this exercise this morning I realized that it is not the “grand designs: of my life – my writing and activism that provide me with sanctuary for my soul I find it in the small spaces of my life – the breathing exercises, reciting of poems, awe and wonder walks around Greenlake with Tom. Most of all I find sanctuary in fully entering into Sabbath each Sunday and to make sure that happens I need to plan my week so that I don’t feel tempted to write blog posts on Sundays or get ready for speaking engagements.
I love living a life with that revolves around God’s unforced rhythms of grace where my soul is nurtured by the quiet contemplative practices that center me and provide sanctuary. To do this however I must:
Plan ahead,
Commit to nurturing practices
Say no to overwork
Rest in the unforced rhythms of grace.
What is God saying to you in this moment? Where do you find sanctuary?
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