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Prayer

A Prayer for the People of Paris.

by Christine Sine
written by Christine Sine

Lord we grieve.001

by Christine Sine

Lord we grieve with the people of Paris.

We grieve,

for the lives lost in senseless violence.

Our tears are shed

for those who have been wounded.

Our hearts ache

for those who are consumed by hate.

Lord have mercy,

Christ have mercy,

Lord have mercy.

Lord give wisdom,

to those who must make decisions.

Lord give your strength,

to those who seek to protect.

Lord give guidance,

to those who must respond.

Lord have mercy,

Christ have mercy,

Lord have mercy.

 

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Advent Resources

Advent/Christmas Music from a Rich Array of Traditions – Updated for 2023

by Christine Sine
written by Christine Sine

I am already heartily sick of “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” and other popular Christmas tunes. Fortunately, there are lots of alternatives. I am not an expert on music but thought that I would list a few of my favourites for this season. Focusing my own music choices on Advent themes rather than the Christmas carols that the secular culture grabs onto really helps me to keep my spiritual focus in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I love Advent chants, especially Gregorian chants, and also contemplative music so obviously this is the focus of my suggestions here. 

This year, I found an Advent playlist on Spotify for you to enjoy. There is also this great list from Cedar Park church on their Advent playlist. An album to check out is Advent to Christmas by Page CXVI.

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 is 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 put together a playlist on Spotify this year with an array of Celtic Advent music that you might like to listen to.

I also enjoy this great collection of instrumental Celtic Christmas music:

 

A Few More Traditional Christmas Suggestions.

If you are looking for more traditional Christmas Music here are some that are hard to beat:

Two songs that remind us of the season of Advent rather than Christmas:

Looking for an International Christmas:

I love this Arabic Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity.

Music and More

In past years, I produced Advent meditation videos with background music by Jeff Johnson.

From Advent 2015: Leaning Towards the Light

Below is the video from Advent 2014 called Lord, You Wait for Us. 

This is part of a series on Christmas/Advent resources. 

Resources from Godspace for Advent and Christmas

Godspace has a variety of resources available for celebrating this season.

Check out the entire resource list here for more ideas for Advent and Christmas.

Godspace has a number of Advent resources available for both free download and purchase. Visit our store.

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Prayer

Let Us Treasure Each Step With Jesus – A Prayer for the Week.

by Christine Sine
written by Christine Sine

Let us walk with Jesus.001

With our focus on pilgrimage and journey over the last couple of months I have thought a lot about what pilgrimage means. It is not not something to be entered into lightly. Nor is it something to be walked alone – but often our companions slow us down, they get lost, they walk into dry places, they lose their faith. And Jesus asks us to continue walking with them and with him.

This morning I read through Psalm 84 – probably one of the best psalms for pilgrims to read on a regular basis. To set our hearts on pilgrimage is to walk with others, and ourselves along the sometimes challenging but always rewarding pathway that lead towards God’s eternal kingdom.

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Advent Resources

Getting Ready for Advent & Christmas – Worship Resources for 2023

by Christine Sine
written by Christine Sine

This is one of several posts on Advent/Christmas resources that I have updated this year, that I hope will help. Check out other resource lists on the Godspace resource page.

For some, the observances revolve around the lighting of the Advent candles and the Eucharistic celebration. For others, it is the preaching of the gospel story and the Christmas pageant that take centre stage. Whatever your faith orientation, here are some of my favourite resource sites that I think you will find useful. I have tried to draw from any traditions and cultures. 

Advent Resources Including Ones Specific to the Pandemic

 

Liturgical Resource Sites for Advent and Christmas

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Greek Patriarch celebrates Christmas liturgy photo by WAFA

Innovative Approaches to Worship

My favourites are:

Looking for Art Work?

Plan an Advent or Christmas Outreach

Christmas is the season when all of us think of giving to our favourite charities, the homeless and the poor, but there are other ways to that we can give at this season.

  • United Methodist Church has some good ideas for an Advent outreach in this article – everything from scavenger hunt with random acts of kindness to Christmas Eve cookie give away for people who must work.
  • Passionate homemaker also has some good ideas on how to reach out at this season. 

Resources from Godspace for Advent and Christmas

Godspace has a variety of resources available for celebrating this season.

Check out the entire resource list here for more ideas for Advent and Christmas.

Godspace has a number of Advent resources available for both free download and purchase. Visit our store.

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poetry

Trust Him

by Christine Sine
written by Christine Sine
Inner Harbour Whenuapai

Photo: Inner Harbour Whenuapai

by Ana Lisa de Jong 

Ask yourself.

What direction do you want to take?
Smooth as water,
which knows its way;
or fighting the current
for wasted gain?

Let go.

Don’t hold on tight.
God’s river runs wide, and carries us all.
His blessings kept safe,
and His purpose sure,
in His river of deep shalom.

Abide.

Don’t fight the tide.
Surrender to the waves that come.
Dive deep, to where the world grows dim.
It’s there you find your pathway clear,
gleaming as the sun.

Follow Him.

Believe He knows what is good.
He draws the ocean by the moon.
How much more has He determined,
your small affairs,
of great worth to Him.

Trust Him.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
I felt this poem gathering momentum in my mind all day; as at work, I handled the normal stresses of the day, and tried to tap into God to keep my inner peace. I am fortunate in my work as an administrator for a Defence Chaplaincy department, to have a chapel to retreat to, and it was on my way home I took a few minutes out. I recall thinking how, even though we know better, we find ourselves feeling we need to work to please Him; or even find ourselves thinking maybe we should keep going our own way, until we have redeemed ourselves enough in our eyes to come into His presence.

On that thought, I picked up the Baptist Hymn Book and read these words from the hymn ‘Happy Band of Pilgrims’, written by John Mason Neale (1862).

‘The trials that beset you,
the sorrows ye endure,
the manifold temptations
that Death alone can cure,–

What are they, but his jewels
of right celestial worth?
What are they but the ladder,
set up to heaven on earth?’

I felt God impress on me the truth that we are to come into His presence, just as we are. Our struggles are of great import to Him, our humanity precious in His sight. By being real with God and open to Him, we find the way into His presence (as John Neale wrote, these things are but a ladder set up to heaven on earth). It’s in God’s presence we come to know Him, and know ourselves known by Him. It’s by abiding in God’s presence that we understand ourselves as His beloved, and know a deep sense of belonging. And we find ourselves transforming slowly to reflect Him; as our desire becomes more and more to please and honour Him. And if we believe ourselves to have failed in pleasing Him, it’s a soft landing – as we are held fast by God, in His river of grace.

 

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Advent Resources

Advent Activities for Families and Kids: Updated for 2023

by Christine Sine
written by Christine Sine

I love getting ready for the Advent season and am already planning our activities and decorations for the season so thought you might like to do so too.

Resources for Covid Advent and Christmas

Multicultural Resources

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.

Create an Advent Wreath

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Advent Wreath

The most traditional project to prepare us for the new liturgical year is to create or acquire and advent wreath. An Advent wreath typically consists of greenery with four candles, three purple and one pink. Each candle has a specific meaning:

  1. Candle one (purple) represents hope. It is often called the prophets’ candle.
  2. Candle two (purple) represents peace. It is often called the angels’ candle.
  3. Candle three (pink) represents joy. It is often called the shepherds’ candle.
  4. 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:

  • 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 for those of us who collect succulents, this is a great way to put them to good use over the Advent and Christmas season.
  • Make a wreath to hang on your doors or windows.
  • Simple Advent wreath made from an old coat hanger – great fun for all of the family.
  • Low cost eco-friendly wreath – again fun to make.
  • Or, perhaps a junk wheel wreath with mason jar tea light.
  • And I love this one for making, among other things, an Advent wreath with children’s hand prints. One of my friends used her own and her husband’s handprints for the wreath and gave it to give to her grandkids 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 salt 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 busyness 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. This year, I will replenish the garden again, choose a word to focus on each week and move it to my office desk as a way to pause and meditate during the day. 

I continue to work on this concept and find new inspiration each year. I loved this one from 2015.

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In 2016, we were traveling so I did not make a garden. Then, in 2017, I started experimenting with a little more creativity.

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Here are some other advent gardens that I have put together over the years:

I also came across this very creative Advent calendar/garden idea that I might experiment with 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.
  • Check out this site with traditions from around the world 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.
  • That Artist Woman shares an Advent Calendar that is of Mary and baby Jesus with stars surrounding their picture.
  • Our store offers a FREE download of Advent in a Jar for your use this Advent

Explore Christmas traditions and recipes from around the world with your family

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. Ten Thousand Villages also has Fair Trade nativity sets from around the world.

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.

This is part of a series on Christmas/Advent resources. 

Resources from Godspace for Advent and Christmas

Godspace has a variety of resources available for celebrating this season.

Check out the entire resource list here for more ideas for Advent and Christmas.

Godspace has a number of Advent resources available for both free download and purchase. Visit our store.

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Advent 2015

Pilgrimage and St. Brendan

by Christine Sine
written by Christine Sine

Brendan

by Derek Olsen

One of my favorite tales of pilgrimage is the Voyage of St. Brendan the Navigator. A tenth-century story about the life and travels of an Irish monk from the end of the sixth century, I first encountered this text at an early age, and was immediately taken with the image of a ship full of monks landing atop a whale. As I got older, I read the story again, and recognized it as an adventure story dressed as a saints’ life. As I have continued to live with it, though, I have come to the realization that there is more to it than that: it is a teaching about the life of prayer dressed as an adventure story dressed as a saints’ life.

Voyages and pilgrimages are a feature of early Irish monasticism. Modeled as it was on the lives and practices of the Desert Fathers and Mothers of Egypt, solitude and the waste places of the earth were important settings for monastic self-cultivation. We are told that Irish monks would climb into their flimsy coracles and push themselves off into the sea, trusting in God that they would arrive in some deserted place to dwell as hermits. Indeed, the Norse sagas tell of viking settlers landing in unknown terrain populated only by seals and the odd wild Irish monk.

These monastic voyages are inherently different from other kinds of pilgrimage; typically a pilgrimage is a journey to a destination and back again. The Irish trips tended to be one-way voyages into the unknown. Like Brendan, they set off in search of “the Promised Land of the Saints” guided only by the grace of God.

I can totally relate.

I often feel, like them, that life is sweeping me along to an unknown destination; that the waves and turbulence of life are threatening to swamp the delicate boat in which I ride. Juggling a relentless flood of calls upon my time and attention, I often feel like I’m just a few paddles away from complete shipwreck! And yet, as I sweep along, I have the sense I’m headed somewhere but the means of conveyance and direction of travel are not ultimately under my control.

The truth is that the monks were looking for a figurative location, not a literal one. When they went floating off in search of the “Promised Land of the Saints,” they weren’t expecting to land in a place flowing with milk and honey; they knew they would find themselves cast on some rocky shore to wrestle out the rest of their days, locked in combat with God and their own soul, warring against the passions, laboriously seeding the virtues in their habits, casting ceaseless prayers for the world and its inhabitants into the wind, and keeping watch for the incarnation of the Christ within their own hearts. This was the very opposite of escapism; alone, they had no distractions calling them away from relentless self-scrutiny and conversation with God. They were heading to a place of hard work to continue the voyage within their own souls towards the Triune God.

WhaleLanding

As I’ve learned more about the spirituality of the early monastic movements and the roots of the Desert encounter with God, the more depth I’ve found within the Voyage of St. Brendan. What I keep seeing now is that the voyage itself is a means for cultivating the destination. The habits of the voyage shape its end.

While the places that St. Brendan visits captivate the imagination, you’ll notice as you read that place has a very strong correlation with liturgical time. Brendan’s seven-year journey is a cycle, returning every year to the same locations for Maundy Thursday, Holy Saturday, the whole fifty days from Easter through Pentecost, and the Christmas season. Their wanderings amidst the wonders of the sea are liturgically structured.

Furthermore, Brendan and his monks discover not only new places and strange wonders, but new ways to pray: the Isle of the Birds and the Isle of the Strong Men in particular teach them specific patterns of prayer deeply rooted in the Liturgy of the Hours and the spirituality of the psalms that is its natural fruit.

Brendan’s journey is fraught with uncertainty and peril; he has only a vague sense of where he’s going and no idea how to get there. He has no preconceived notions of what he is going to encounter along the way, and finds everything from earthly gardens to the shores of hell itself. But what grounds him in the midst of these strange and magnificent sights is the rhythm and routine of the structured life of prayer. Steadily, over years, Brendan and his companions are transformed not just by the journey but by the practices of their journey—the repetition of prayer and praise. At their penultimate stop, they lay their eyes on a classical monastic ideal: a man whose practice of constant prayer has granted him the grace to live the life of an angel. Then, having seen this model of human life at the height of transformation, they at last walk the green and pleasant land of paradise itself.

As the seasons shift and the year turns its way towards Advent, Brendan’s voyage speaks to me of the importance of patterns, cycles, and rhythms. I’m not (thankfully!) drifting through the ocean in a coracle, but I am aware of the play of seasons and hours as I rush along in my courses. While I do not live the life of a monk, the same practices that sustained Brendan and his crew—the cycles of psalms, the rhythm of seasons—help orient me to my ultimate goal as well. As I pass through the wonders and oddities that characterize my own life, I too find it structured and supported by embracing the stability of the Church Year and the regular rhythms of the hours of prayer. In Morning and Evening Prayer, in Noon Prayer and Compline, the constant repetition of the psalms is an anchor despite the tumult around me. As I hurry my girls to school or ballet, I sometimes find the songs of the Isle of Birds (“Praise the Lord all his angels, praise him all his host”(Ps 148:2) and “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed” (Ps 65:1)) drifting through my head.

As we make our way into Advent, I invite you to take stock of your own voyage. What do you use as your own markers, your own practices of stability? How do you keep time along the way to lead you deeper into your journey into God? What are the practices that feed your soul, get stuck in your head, and recall you to the Gospel life?

 

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