1 DEC
December 1
The Invitation: Advent Begins!
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him.”
Mark 1:3
Reflection
The four weeks leading up to Christmas are often well-filled, if not over-filled, with preparations for the celebration of the Christmas feast: card-writing, carol-singing, present-choosing, larder-filling, house- decorating, party-going etcetera.
Yet the season of Advent itself is about becoming empty, making room, giving up space – for the birth of a child who arrives almost unnoticed into our world to fill us with the immensity of the peace, mercy, joy and hope that are of God.
The challenge for us is whether amidst the din going on around us in our lives and in our world – not just of shopping and festivity but also of warfare and weeping – we can surrender the closely defended territory of our own interests and concerns in order to make room for the one who is other than us, who comes to disturb our comfortable certainties and to disrupt our false securities.
An icon of Mary bearing Jesus has around it the words ‘Spacious for God’.
Advent invites us all to share Mary’s spaciousness.’
Brother Samuel SSF
Reflective Action
ADVENT WREATH
Set up an Advent wreath or light a candle each day as a reminder of Christ’s light growing in your heart.
Franciscan Quote
“In this lies the overflowing reason for joy: the God who is infinitely great has become small; the eternal Word has become a fragile infant; the Lord of majesty has become a lowly servant.”
St. Bonaventure (Tree of Life, 1.3)
Prayer
Creator God,
help me create space
for you in the midst
of my busyness.
May this Advent season
draw me closer to you.
CULTURAL insight
In Sweden we use a wreath with four candles. Most often white, but sometimes you see them red. The wreath is most traditionally decorated with green moss or grey lichen.
I remember my first Advent in school; I am seven years old. As I have walked to school in the dark, but brightened up by the snow, it is good to be indoors again. Ten past nine the day begins.
I light my own candle, standing it in a candle holder I made of clay. With 25 candles lit we listen to our teacher as she reads from the book, that we each morning hear a bit from.
Some of the days we also sing an Advent Carol accompanied by my teacher on a pedal organ.
Brother Micael Chrisoffer SSF
Awaiting the First Spark
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”
Mark 1:3
developmental markers
week 1
In the womb
No pregnancy yet – this is the body’s preparation phase.
Hormonal shifts prepare the uterus to nourish life.
in the mother
Spiritually: space is being made for new creation.
reflection
Advent begins, not with fanfare, but with readiness.
Like Mary in the moment before her “yes,” we stand on the Advent threshold – nothing visibly changed, and yet everything already beginning.
This is the sacred space of waiting: the in-between. The darkness before dawn. The silence before the heartbeat.
Physically, nothing may seem to have taken hold yet, but already the body is making room.
Spiritually, too, something stirs – something unseen, but deeply real.
Our Advent journey starts here: in hope, not certainty; in preparation, not proof.
We begin to find our rhythm, to attune ourselves to a quieter pace, trusting that the God who knit us together in the womb is already moving within
and among us.
This is a time of holy potential.
Even when we cannot feel it, see it, or name it, God is preparing new life in us, in our communities, and in the world.
Like Mary, we are invited to wait with openness and courage.
wonderings:
-
- I wonder what it feels like to wait for something deeply hoped for
I wonder how God might be preparing something in me – even if I cannot yet see it
I wonder what it means to say “yes” before anything is certain
Journaling Prompts
If you keep an Advent Journal, here are some ideas you could write about;
Think of someone you find difficult to love – perhaps someone close to you, or someone you’ve encountered recently.
Without judgement, write about what it is that you find challenging.
Now gently ask: What might this person be revealing to me about myself?
Is there a mirror here, a hidden insecurity, a fear, a longing? Think about drawing the outline of a mirror in your journal and then write a short prayer for this person.
Then write one for yourself.
How might grace, God’s gift of love beyond deserving, invite you both into deeper healing?
Sweden
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