The Friday Five
Growing up Southern Baptist, I didn't know what Advent was until I was an adult. It didn't take long for it to become a spiritual season and practice that I loved. I loved the rituals of wreath and calendar. I've loved the daily focused prayers and journalling I've done through Advent. It is the calm in the madness of the Christmas season. It has been where I found meaning in the over-commercialization and seasonal depression of the holiday season. This year -- meh.
I've done nothing for Christmas yet and nothing for Advent. The former doesn't really bother me. The latter does. I know it's part of the disconnect I've experienced this year, and I know that actively working through and participating in Advent would help me, but I just haven't been able to do anything about it. So many bloggers are writing about Advent, and when I read them, I recognize their subjects and themes like I do the objects around my house, but it's like watching a movie. I'm seeing, not experiencing. So today when I read The Friday Five over at the Rev Gals, I wanted to at least try. The description of Advent was also so beautiful that I wanted to include it here.
Advent on the other hand calls us into the darkness, a time of quiet preparation, a time of waiting, and re-discovering the wonder of the knowledge that God is with us. Advent's call is to simplicity and not abundance, a time when we wait for glorious light of God to come again...
Christ is with us at this time of advent, in the darkness, and Christ is coming with his light- not the light of the shopping centre, but the light of love and truth and beauty.
What do you long for this advent? What are your hopes and dreams for the future? What is your prayer today?
In the vein of simplicity I ask you to list five advent longings....
I long to truly recognize the presence of God, to feel the Divine in my life.
I long for a sense of what I'm waiting for.
I long for peace in the darkness.
I long to truly feel appreciative and not have to manufacture that feeling.
And more than anything else, I long to reconnect.
Advent, The Friday Five
posted by Cynthia at
10:22 PM
4 Comments:
Putting things into words is a big piece of connecting. Blessings to you today.
Isn't it funny that some of us who grew up with the rituals couldn't wait to be shed of them, and some of us who didn't fell in love with them when they discovered them.
Now that I am a very old, very lapsed Catholic, I see that there is comfort in some of the rituals...
Yet...I am ever the agnostic these days. So Christmas, Advent, any spiritual season...has an entirely different meaning for me.
In previous years I put out my advent wreath and faithfully lit it. This year with so much on my plate (husband losing job at end of month, surgery on Wed. etc) I have not done so. My husband is working 7 days this week and I have been sick. I hate when all this happens at Christmas time. I do know this: last night we had a beautiful and light snow flow and I sat at the window in the quiet. I felt God's peace and prayed for all I know who needed prayers. I never grew up with advent either and I want to vow to honor it next year. My greatest advent longing is to have peace and be free from worries. Not sure we can ever truly have that, I do at times. I pray that all your avent longings will come to be for you.
Christmas hugs,
Oh, I really loved advent as a child. It was always such a simple and fun celebration
I am glad that you've found advent!
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