The Life for Leaders section is reposted from the Archives...
This post is quoted directly from Life for Leaders, written by Mark D. Roberts. To view this post on the website, please click here: Life for Leaders; Getting Ready for Advent.
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Little thoughts from my mind to yours about living a contemplative life in a far too busy world.
Showing posts with label Simplicity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simplicity. Show all posts
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Preparing for Advent
The Life for Leaders section is reposted from the Archives...
Sunday, February 20, 2022
Quotation of the Week: Vision
"Vision is the art of seeing the invisible."
~Jonathan Swift
Vision is a word of significance. It's used in business, in personal and church mission statements, and, of course, the physicality of sight. The satirist Jonathan Swift defines vision as insight -- "the art of seeing the invisible" -- in other words, the ability to see beyond the present and into the realm of future possibilities, beyond what our eyes can see and our minds can know.
I hate being asked to write a personal vision statement. The future is too amorphous, too beyond, to commit to paper, much less to share with others.
But I still like the heart of this quote.
Another thing I am trying this year, hopefully more successfully than my "go to bed by 11 PM" goal (she writes at 12:30 AM), is to try to not work (on Brave Writer or my grading business tasks) on the Sabbath. There will be times when I will need to, but I am going to try to get as much done on Saturday as I possibly can and try to leave Sundays for three activities: church, Dungeons & Dragons, and relaxing family time.
D&D Session 84 Update: our intrepid party of storm sorcerer, rogue/ranger, light cleric, eldritch knight fighter, and a battle master fighter, killed the adult green dragon named Son Iru the Sly who has been trying to kill us since we killed her wyrmling (baby dragon) in self-defense in Session Five, almost exactly two years previously in our time, but about three months in-game. Son Iru has sent many assassins after us, and we managed to fight them off without too much trouble. My light cleric presented the party with a Heroes' Feast the previous night, a sumptuous spread of savory meats, succulent and exotic fruits, fresh bread still warm from the oven, decadent desserts, and rich red wines. Our sorcerer's pet (adjustable-sized) cockatrice Hei-Hei was presented with sparkling rock quartz in a bowl to consume since he eats rocks only.
The Heroes' Feast provided our party with 24 hours of immunity against Poison and becoming Frightened, and gave us extra hit points. Considering that a green dragon's main weapons are poison and fright, the Heroes' Feast helped greatly. However, when our battle master fighter walloped her something fierce, the dragon killed him. Not merely unconscious -- he was dead. Fortunately, my light cleric had the required diamond and spell slot at hand, cast Revivify, and our fighter returned to the living. My cleric also cast Heal and added her Healing Hands, giving him 82 hit points so that he could continue the good fight. And it was a fight we won. Now what to do with a dead green dragon?
Have a wonderful Sunday and week ahead!
Soli Deo Gloria,
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Quotation of the Week
Have a lovely week, everyone!! I am buried in grading preliminary drafts of MLA research essays, so I will post more when I'm done with class. Until then, enjoy this quotation from my Commonplace Book!!
Soli Deo Gloria,
Monday, August 31, 2020
My 2020-2021 Essay Grading Service
2020-2021 School Year
So this is how my grading system works: Just send me the essay you would like to be graded as a Word attachment (no Google Docs, please!), and please include the assignment directions either in the text of the e-mail or also as an attachment. Also, please let me know if you would like comments only or comments with a letter grade. Please alert me also to anything else I may need to know (such as learning challenges, reluctant writing, etc.) so that I can respond to the essay in the most helpful way possible.
I will respond via e-mail within 24 hours to let you know that I received the essay and on which day you can expect to have it returned to you, usually within 3-5 school days. If you need an essay graded sooner, let me know, and I'll see if I can slip it into my schedule.
Also, with each assignment, please include the writer’s age, grade level, and whether you want a letter grade since I grade for many families and may not recall your family’s preferences.
I then download the essay, mark corrections, make comments, and offer suggestions in the right margin comments. At the end of the essay, I write an overall summary of what was done well in the essay and what needs further attention. My over-arching goal is to encourage growth in the art and craft of writing, including format/structure, organization, fluency, vocabulary, and mechanics.
Then when I return the graded essay, which I send in Word and also as a PDF (because some Apple computers/tablets don’t show the review comments in the right margin of Word documents), I will let you know the fee which is the number of words in the essay (excluding any notes for me) times $.03 (3 cents per word) with a $10 minimum fee per essay. If you wish to have your writer revise the essay and submit it to be re-graded, I charge half as much (1½ cents per word with a $5 minimum) for grading revised essays.
Then I ask you to remit via PayPal at PayPal.Me/SusanneBarrett when I return the essay. I will grade the essay first and then receive payment after returning the essay to you. Please remit payment within 48 hours of my returning the graded essay to you.
Regarding research essays, I am well-versed in the latest Modern Language Association (MLA) format style according to the MLA Handbook, 8th Edition (2016) which is the format most commonly used for research in the humanities. Because I am not at all familiar with other research formats such as APA, CMS/Turabian, etc., I only grade research essays formatted according to the MLA style, 8th edition.
Please let me know if you have any questions; I’m always happy to explain and/or discuss my essay grading services.
I also teach my Beginning Writing, Expository Essay, and MLA Research Essay high school classes via e-mail on a semester basis. Please e-mail me if you would like more information.
So e-mail me an essay whenever you're ready, and we'll go from there! I look forward to working with you and your young writer(s)!
Writing with you,
Susanne
SBarrett0085@gmail.com
www.SusanneBarrett.com
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Shrove Tuesday & Ash Wednesday
From the Archives with Additions...
As New Orleans and other cities across the nation and around the world celebrate Mardi Gras tonight, I spent Tuesday afternoon celebrating Mardi Gras with my parents at their senior care facility, and we had a lovely time with fun masks, headbands with wee masks wiggling at the ends of springy wires (I have nooo idea what those fun celebratory headgears things are called), all in purple, green, and gold. After enjoying our choice of beverage (wine, bourbon, or cranberry juice), we went downstairs to chair dance to a great DJ and have fun!! (I think we amused some of the seniors when Dad and I got up and danced (briefly) to Elvis!). (See some of our Mardi Gras photos on my Instagram link in the sidebar) Our family tradition of pancakes for supper, our usual celebration of Shrove Tuesday, was set aside this year.
But what is Shrove Tuesday?
Father Gregory of Blessed Trinity Anglican Church sent out the answer to this question via e-mail to the Blessed Trinity family:
Although far less widely known than Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras, the Tuesday immediately before Ash Wednesday is also known as Shrove Tuesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, which is sometimes referred to as "Shrovetide" in England. Observance of Shrove Tuesday can be traced back to at least AD 1000 and was originally observed as a day of confession and penitence in preparation for Ash Wednesday and Lent. Today, Shrove Tuesday is primarily observed among Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Methodists. The word shrove is past tense of shrive, a verb meaning “to go to confession and get absolved of sin.”
In the past few centuries, though, Shrove Tuesday has turned into more of a day of feasting in preparation for the fasting that is to occur during Lent. The feasting aspect of Shrove Tuesday originated due to the need to get rid of the foods/ingredients that are restricted during the Lenten fasting, such as sugar, leavened flour, eggs, etc. The need to use up these ingredients has resulted in Shrove Tuesday also becoming known as Pancake Tuesday, or, more simply, Pancake Day.
Although I've attended evangelical churches for the past twenty-five years, I've practiced Lent in one form or another since college. Even though they had both been raised Nazarene, my former roommates taught me quite a bit about Lent in college, and for my first Lent I gave up my prime addiction: soda. Diet Coke was my coffee; I was drinking my first can at seven in the morning and downed them throughout the day to keep myself alert during classes and the long drive home as a commuter student. The wonderful thing was that after Lent, soda upset my stomach, so I've pretty much been on a soda fast since college--drinking water and tea is far healthier! ;)
Lent is a time for spiritual housecleaning for me. I pray over what has a hold on my life in a possibly unhealthy way, and I ask God to loosen this thing's hold on me so that I can live a more balanced life, one devoted to loving and serving Him. In past years I've fasted from television, desserts, gluten, Facebook, fan fiction stories, reading novels, and other often non-traditional items. I don't reveal what I am fasting from during each Lent, but the idea is to not only practice self-denial and to free up time for spending with God that would be spent on less God-centered pursuits, but to offer up something I really enjoy to God as a sacrifice, allowing me to focus on Him and on how He desires to mold me into the image of His Son.
Lent prepares our hearts for the joy of Easter--the celebration of the Resurrection of our Living and Loving Lord. How can we truly celebrate without suffering just a little first? Through fasting and prayer, we draw closer to the heart of the One who loved us first and showed that love by suffering and dying for us.
Can we fast and pray at any time? Sure. But do we? Not enough--or at least, I know that I don't fast and pray enough. Lent reminds me to do so, to allow the Holy Spirit into the dark corners of my soul and do a spiritual "spring cleaning," showing me my sin so that I may confess it and be cleansed.
Renovaré, one of my favorite resources for practicing the disciplines of the historical church in a way that both glorifies God and grows my faith, has created a resource to guide us as we press into the season of Lent. The devotional booklet, Less Is More, prompts an intentional reflection on the aspects of our lives that stand in the way of walking in God’s spirit and encourages us to move forward in love. Each week, a classic spiritual discipline provides the entry point for self-examination, God reflection, and godly action:
Confession: Less Guilt/More Grace
Solitude: Less Noise/More Listening
Fasting: Less Consumption/More Compassion
Simplicity: Less Stuff/More Freedom
Frugality: Less Spending/More Peace
Intercession: Less Me/More Others
Reflective Reading of Holy Week Story: Less Fear/More Love
Renovaré hopes that the daily immersion in the life of God through these disciplines becomes a life-giving habit that extends well beyond this season of Lent.
I wish you all a Holy and Blessed Lent as we all draw closer to our Lord and King!
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Books Read in 2019
Well, this year has definitely been a year of books. I joined the Goodreads Challenge last January 1 with the goal of reading 80 books in 2019. I exceeded this goal, reading 94 books, much of those mystery novels in series forms as well as many Austenesque novels of varying sorts.
My favorite find of 2019 was the Maisie Dobbs mystery series by Jacqueline Winspear, starting in Maisie's childhood as the daughter of a costermonger; her mother died when she was thirteen, and her father, unsure of how to raise a teenage daughter himself, sent her into service at the London home of Lord and Lady Compton, philanthropists and well-known in the social scene. Lady Rowan soon discovered Maisie's thirst for knowledge and offered her time to study under the tutelage of Dr. Maurice Blanche until Maisie was accepted at Girton College. The first book takes us through Maisie's experiences in the Great War, her recovery, her return to college, and her position as Dr. Blanche's assistant.
The second book sees Maisie take over Maurice's investigative business, and currently, I'm starting the most recent 15th book which takes place during the opening years of the Second World War, published earlier this year. I had hoped to read the entire series in 2019, but this last book brought forth a character from a previous case, so I wanted to re-read that book before starting this most recent. It's a brilliant series where less is more, where characters run deep and are fallible yet so, so real that I feel I would know Maisie on sight should I see her walking down the street (yes, even in modern clothing). I can't recommend this mystery series highly enough; there is so much to ponder over beside the mysterious cases Maisie takes on in each novel.
Some of my other favorite mystery series from 2019 are the Daisy Dalrymple series by Carola Dunn (23 books in series), the Sebastian St. Cyr series by C.S. Harris (14 books in series), and lately, the Lady Darby series by Anna Lee Huber (7 books in series).
So, Goodreads seems to have a glitch in their Reading Challenge set-up in which some books I've read are listed twice (despite my only reading them once), and the connection between my Kindle and Goodreads added several books as "read" although I only accidentally opened them when scrolling through my libraries. I've now severed the connection and will add my finished books to Goodreads by hand in 2020. So please know that despite the apparent 103 books Goodreads claimed I read in 2019, it's truly only 94. I checked twice. ;)
So here are my books in reverse order, starting with the ones read in December and working our way back to January 2019:
If you would like more information on the books I read in 2019, most of which include reviews I wrote for most of the books, you may also check out my Goodreads page by clicking on my Goodreads widget in the sidebar of this blog or by going to my page on Goodreads: Susanne Barrett's Goodreads.
So have you read any amazing books in 2019? I'd love to hear about them! Please share the Goodreading bookish goodness!!
Happy New Year, everyone!! I wish you all a healthy, joyous, and blessed 2020!!
Warmly,
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Halfway through Lent
This week marks the halfway point through this Lenten season, the 40 days (not counting Sundays which are always celebrations of the Resurrection) in which we focus on the life of Christ, culminating in the events of Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
In our Anglican tradition, we hold a Messianic Seder during Holy Week, usually on the Tuesday after Palm Sunday. We observe a non-kosher Passover with lessons on how Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with the disciples, including the Messianic significance of many of Christ's words and actions as read in the Gospels.
This Lent I am reading Show Me the Way by Henri Nouwen, a collection of his readings designed for the 46 days of Lent (Sundays included), each of which begin with a Scripture verse, one or two short selections of Nouwen's writings that relate to that verse, and then concludes with a prayer written by Nouwen. I am filling up page after page in my commonplace book with quotations from this book; it's simply amazing!! It's also out-of-print, so I am using a library copy, but I will definitely invest in my own copy when I can; this one's definitely a keeper!
From the "On Lent" page of this blog...
Lent, which comes from the Germanic word for “springtime,” can be viewed as a spiritual spring cleaning: a time for taking a spiritual inventory then cleaning out those things which hinder our relationship with Jesus Christ and our love and service with Him. Lent is really a time of revival in liturgical churches as God's people prepare to celebrate the Resurrection with depth and significance. Our Lenten disciplines are to ultimately transform our entire person: body, soul, and spirit and help us become more like Christ, not in our own power, but in His. Eastern Christians call this process theosis which Saint Athanasius describes as “becoming by grace what God is by nature.”
For the first 300 years of the Church, the Resurrection was the only feast Christians celebrated. So spiritual preparation for this special Feast was and is very important, especially as the Resurrection Celebration was (and remains to this day in liturgical churches) a time to prepare Christians for baptism. During these first centuries of the Church, just a day or two of prayerful preparation for the Church as a whole was set aside; the full 40 days of Lent was not practiced until the early fourth century. The focus of Lent is spiritual renewal through the disciplines of fasting and prayer, study and giving.
Fasting – Fasting can be not only from certain foods but also from activities that may distract us from our relationship with Christ, including television, computers, video games, etc. The time spent on these activities should be turned into time with God: in prayer, in His Word, in reading spiritual books, in fellowship, prayer, and study with other believers. Lent represents a time of spiritual training that can aid us, with Christ's help, “to overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). In Lent, we are able to learn, examine, and get under control our material excesses that can lead us away from God. Remember, Lent is not a diet; Lent is about spiritual results, not material ones. While losing a few pounds may be a nice side benefit, all fasting should be done for the glory of God and spiritual growth.
Prayer – Lent is an excellent time to develop or strengthen a discipline of daily prayer. Focus not only on intercession but on the ACTS model of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. I like praying through the Book of Psalms during Lent, praying two in the morning and two at night (and using Psalm 119 as a whole day's worth). I also like praying through the Gospel of John during Lent – not just reading it but truly, truly praying it and about it.
Scripture Reading – When facing temptation in the desert (the basis for the 40 days of Lent), Jesus relied on Scripture to counter the wiles of the devil. As we well know, God's Word is also a formidable weapon for us as well – it's the “sword of the Spirit,” the only offensive weapon mentioned in Ephesians 6. If you aren't in the habit of daily Scripture reading and meditation, or if your children are not yet, Lent is an excellent time to develop the discipline and joy of reading God's Word daily. It is said that it takes 21 days to develop a good habit, and Lent provides us with almost twice that amount of time to develop godly habits of daily prayer, daily Scripture reading, memorizing His Word, and listening to God in His Word and in prayer. If you have already established this discipline, perhaps use Lent to deeply study a certain book of the Bible would be an excellent idea.
Giving – Lent is not just about “giving something up”; it's about putting something positive in its place. The best way to remove a vice is to cultivate a virtue. Lent has been a traditional time of helping the poor and doing acts of love and mercy. While as Christians, we have this calling to giving all year long, Lent is a good time to examine ways to get involved and to make resolutions to actually do them. Perhaps Lent is time to get involved with God's Extended Hand if you aren't already. Or do something as a family to raise funds for a missionary or a Christian charity helping in Haiti like Samaritan's Purse.
Lent is a season that reminds us to repent and ask God to re-center our lives around Him, with our priorities straight and our hearts forgiven and cleansed. Yes, we should do so each day of the year. But sin is an insidious thing, slipping in here, taking a little ground there, and, wrapped up in our busy lives, we often do not notice the darkness creeping further and further into our souls. Ash Wednesday and Lent provide us with a time set apart to present ourselves before God, asking His help and guidance in doing a “spiritual spring cleaning,” a fresh chance to say “Yes” to the Lover of our Souls who created us, who made us in His own image. Lent is the time for a restoration project that will reveal the beauty of God's design for us, demonstrating yet again for us, a forgetful and leaky people, the scale, proportion, and priorities intended for us by our Maker.
Wishing you all a Holy Lent,
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Review for Homeschooling Families: The Writer's Jungle: A Survivor's Guide to Writing With Kids
As I wind up my 21st and final year of home education, I have to write a recommendation of the one textbook that influenced our family the most. I don't know where our homeschool--or my life--would be without this book and its incredible author and her outstanding business, Brave Writer.
The kudos we owe Julie Bogart are beyond expression. She not only changed the way I viewed writing--and I have taught writing at a couple of universities as well as to students from 4th-12th grades through our homeschool group, Heritage Christian School of San Diego--but the way I see education, family life, literature, and even self-care (the last of which most homeschooling mothers fail abysmally).
If you purchase one writing book for your entire K-12 homeschool, buy this one. Read it from cover to cover. Then go back and do it with your kids, one chapter at a time. And if you find this book too daunting, Brave Writer offers an online course just for mothers of young writers: The Writers' Jungle Online.
The Writer's Jungle: A Survivor's Guide to Writing With Kids by Julie BogartMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I read the very first edition of this book, right after Julie first published it back in 2001 as her language arts business, Brave Writer, was just getting off the ground.
I have to confess to being extremely biased as I've worked for Brave Writer since 2002 and have known Julie since the mid-'90s. She's a dear friend as well as an amazing teacher and a great boss, too
Putting all that aside as much as possible, this book revolutionized the way I looked at writing. I started my academic career by teaching Freshman Comp and other writing classes at a local private liberal arts college, so when I quit to home educate our four kids, I started to teach them how to write in a very rigid, academic manner...until I read The Writer's Jungle. This approach totally turned my writing world upside-down and topsy-turvy--in the best ways possible.
It was exactly what my kids needed. And more than that, it was exactly what *I* needed.
You see, The Writer's Jungle is not a writing manual. It's not really even a writing guide...or a writing curriculum...or a reference book...or a handbook...or a set of writing exercises.
It's a guide to teach us parents how to guide our kids into expressing themselves via the written word. It's a way to build the parent-child relationship almost more than it is a guide about how to write. It--and all Brave Writer products and classes--seek to address the heart and mind of children, showing them how to express their thoughts on paper in a practical way that helps young writers--and especially reluctant writers--to learn how to transfer the ideas in their heads into words on the page/screen.
Julie is often asked the question, "So how do I teach my kids to write using The Writer's Jungle? There's an online class that families can take--parent and child(ren) together--at bravewriter.com called "The Writer's Jungle Online." Or, as Julie says to parents, "Read the first chapter. Do it. Then read the next chapter, and do it. And so on until you reach the end of the book."
I recommend reading the whole book first so that we understand the whole concept, then going back to the first chapter and proceeding as Julie says.
That's what I did for our own four kids...and then I applied the philosophy and some of the exercises from The Writer's Jungle to the co-op classes in writing that I was teaching at our private school program's Class Days, whether I was teaching junior high or high school students.
And celebrate every milestone: copywork, freewriting, dictation--all of it! Copywork became a mainstay of our homeschooling: every morning I joined the kids at the big table, and we all pulled out our journals and copied something meaningful to us in our best handwriting. As well as practicing neatness in our penmanship, the kids learned spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar...and the power of the written word. That words were worth keeping. That writing can be powerful.
I can't recommend this writing book highly enough. It changed my entire outlook on teaching writing, even to college students. Even if your kids are not educated at home, this book teaches so much more than just how to write. It was exactly what our family needed.
Writing with you,
Monday, March 5, 2018
Review of a Favorite Lenten Devotional
Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups by Richard J. FosterMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book has been perhaps the most influential book, aside from the Scriptures, that I have ever read. The selections opened my eyes to so many of the great thinkers and mystic believers of the Christian faith--most of whom I had never heard of before.
I read this book as my Lenten devotion first in 2003 when I was first exploring the idea of the catholic (small "c" catholic, as in universal) church, and again for Lent 2007.
In this large paperback, now completely dog-eared and with copious underlinings throughout the text (in two different colors from my two different readings) and even occasional notes in the margins, I met John of the Cross, Bernard of Clairvaux, Brother Lawrence, Saint Benedict, John Chrysostom, Thomas a' Kempis, Julian of Norwich, Thomas Merton, Teresa of Avila, Watchman Nee, and so many others. And I also became reacquainted with C.S. Lewis, John Bunyan, Saint Augustine, Kierkegaard, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and many more people of faith whose works I had read at Point Loma Nazarene University or since in my evangelical faith.
Each short reading (generally two to five pages) is followed by reflection questions and suggested exercises, taking these works of the Christian faith beyond the theological into the practical.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough for every Christian, whether Catholic, Eastern Orthodox (even though it rests almost exclusively in Western Christianity), or Protestant, and especially to evangelicals who may not be aware of the depth and breadth of Christian thought through the two millennia of the Church.
A brilliant book. If I could give it ten stars, I would. Truly.
View all my reviews
With Lenten blessings,
Sunday, December 3, 2017
First Sunday in Advent
Updated from the Archives...
A few years ago at Pine Valley Community Church, you could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather. Our interim pastor, Pastor Jim, started informing our church about Advent, and the topic of his sermons up until Christmas would be the significance of the four candles in the Advent wreath: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace, plus the central white candle, the Christ candle. This is a different set of meanings from the sobering Anglican tradition (Death, Judgment, Heaven [thus the lightening of the penitential purple candles to a rose-colored one], and Hell) as well as the evangelical tradition we observed at Lake Murray (Prophecy Candle, Bethlehem Candle, Shepherd Candle, Angel Candle).
As regular readers of this blog will know, celebrating the Christian Year is one of my passions, and Advent has been central to our family's devotional life since the kids were small. So I was thrilled beyond belief to have Advent being preached from the pulpit; I somehow managed to restrain myself from standing up and applauding mid-sermon. ;)
The term "Advent" means "coming" or "arrival" and refers to the first Incarnation of Christ as well as the expected second coming of Christ. Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest to the Feast of Saint Andrew (November 30), and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). If Christmas Eve is a Sunday, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown.
Advent also marks the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition.
We've been celebrating Advent since 2001 in our household. Keith made us the tabletop Advent wreath above, and through the years we have celebrated Advent with different materials. We read through the adventure books Jotham's Journey and Tabitha's Travels which tell an adventure story that ends on December 24th at the manger and the birth of the Christ Child. We've also used a little book called Christ in the Carols, a devotional with the lyrics to and the background of each carol with a closing meditation and prayer. We've used the Scripture readings from Focus on the Family or the Lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer. As the kids grow up, each year we do something slightly different.
Each family member has his/her turn to light the Advent candle(s) in the wreath and to read the Scripture from the Advent calendar wall hanging Keith's sister made for us the year we moved to Pine Valley with 25 hand-embroidered pockets for candy/gifts and a laminated Scripture verse attached to each one:
This year, with all four of our "kids" grown (but thankfully still living at home), gathering everyone each evening for a celebration of Advent seems far less than possible. So we decided to celebrate Advent as a family just on Sundays. But of course, Elizabeth had a work event last night, so we've postponed our first Advent celebration until tonight, Monday night.
I also found a wonderful FREE Advent devotional that can be read only on Sundays or can be spread out over the course of each week of Advent. It's from one of my favorite Christian resources, The High Calling, and here's the link: Advent Devotional.
The Book of Common Prayer 2011 has the Collect for the First Sunday in Advent which is to be prayed during the Advent season until Christmas Day:
FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT
THE COLLECT:
ALMIGHTY God, give us grace to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, now during this present life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility, so that at the last day when he will come again in glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to eternal life; Through him who lives and rules with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen. (References: Romans 13.12; 2 Timothy 4.1; Philippians 2.5-8; 1 Thessalonians 4.16-17)
Advent is richly symbolic. The light of the candles reminds us that Jesus is “the light of the world” and that we are also called to “walk in the light, as He is in the light.” The purple of the candles symbolizes the royalty of Christ, the Almighty who “made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” The rose candle reminds us that hope and peace are near, available only through God. The white candle, the Christ candle, recalls Christ’s holiness, purity – He who was without sin who died for the sins of all. The greenery, symbolizing abundant life, surrounds a circular wreath – never ending, eternal life. The red of the holly berries reminds us of His blood to be shed on the cross for us.
The origins of the Advent wreath are found in the folk practices of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples who, during the cold December darkness of Eastern Europe, gathered wreaths of evergreen and lighted fires as signs of hope in a coming spring and renewed light. Christians kept these popular traditions alive, and by the 16th century Catholics and Protestants throughout Germany used these symbols to celebrate their Advent hope in Christ, the everlasting Light. From Germany the use of the Advent wreath spread to other parts of the Christian world. Traditionally, the wreath is made of four candles in a circle of evergreens. Three candles are violet and the fourth is rose. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday of Advent.
Historically, the primary sanctuary color of Advent is purple, the color of penitence and fasting as well as the color of royalty to welcome the Advent of the King. The purple of Advent is also the color of suffering used during Lent and Holy Week which points to an important connection between Jesus’ birth and death: The Nativity, the Incarnation, cannot be separated from the Crucifixion. The purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world, of the "Word made flesh" and dwelling among us, is not only to reveal God and His grace to the world through Jesus’ life and teaching, but also through his suffering, death, and resurrection.
To reflect this emphasis, originally Advent was a time of penitence and fasting, much as the Season of Lent and so shared the purple color of Lent. In the four weeks of Advent, the third Sunday came to be a time of rejoicing that the fasting was almost over (in some traditions it is called "Gaudete Sunday," from the Latin word for "rejoice"). The shift from the purple of the Season to pink or rose for the third Sunday Advent candles reflected this lessening emphasis on penitence as attention turned more to celebration of the season.
The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history; it is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. This is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate. Scripture readings for Advent reflect this emphasis on the Second Advent, including themes of accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment of sin, and the hope of eternal life in this double-focus on past and future.
Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation as they affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power and glory. That acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising from a profound sense that we live "between the times" and are called to be faithful stewards of what is entrusted to us as God’s people. So, as the church celebrates God’s in-breaking into history in the Incarnation and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which "all creation is groaning awaiting its redemption," it also confesses its own responsibility as a people commissioned to "love the Lord your God with all your heart" and to "love your neighbor as yourself."
The primary focus of Advent is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, as we wait together to celebrate His birth, death, and glorious resurrection.
My favorite Advent devotional is Watching for the Light, and from it I have jotted down some wonderful quotations, including the one for this week:
"Advent is a time of waiting. Our whole life, however, is Advent--that is, a time of waiting for the Ultimate."
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This year I ordered the then-free (now $3.99) Advent with the Saints from AmericanCatholic.org. And of course, Ann Voskamp's Advent materials are amazing!
So enjoy your family or church celebrations of the Advent season. I'm so glad I started the Advent tradition when our kids were fairly small so that it has become an important part of their childhood memories and their walk in faith.
Wishing you a blessed and holy Advent,
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