The Desert in Advent

The Desert in Advent

Beloved friends,


It is almost Advent again. I know how hopeful that is. And I know how hard it can be.


As we prepare to enter December, I am thinking again about how for so many, the holidays are an intense swirl of sorrow and stress. When people tell me about wanting to hide under the covers until the new year, I understand.


Even as I hold the truth of this, I want also—more than ever this year—to claim the wild and fierce hope that lives so deeply in Advent. This kind of hope is not dependent on “someday.” It does not wait for a particular configuration of circumstances to finally come together just right. It asks us to stay with what is most present to us: to enter this world in its heartrending brokenness and its astonishing beauty, that we might welcome the love that keeps finding its way into this world, and into us, again and again.


As we prepare to enter Advent, I want to offer a blessing to accompany you. It is, by design, so very small—just enough to fold into the palm of your hand. I am passing it along with such gratitude for the light you bear.


You will also find info below about the new online retreat I’ll be offering during Advent. Whether the holidays are a difficult time for you and you need a thoughtful space of sanctuary, or you love the season and are looking for a way to enter more deeply into its gifts, I would love for you to join us. If you have already registered, thank you; I am so looking forward to traveling through the season in your company.


In Advent and always, may Christ our Light meet you with many graces and with the love and the hope that live at the heart of it all.


Deep peace to you,

signature

Blessing for Keeping

 

And everything

will become bright

where it was broken


and it will gather itself

into your hands


quietly nesting

in a ceremony

of keeping


bearing its light

into the day

that comes.


—Jan Richardson

Illuminated Advent Retreat

ILLUMINATED 2023

December 3 27

New for this Advent!


This new online Advent retreat intertwines writing, art, music, and community, creating spaces of reflection and rest that you can enter into from anywhere you are, in the way that works best for you. With elegant simplicity, the Illuminated retreat fits easily into the rhythm of your days. Individual, group, and congregational rates are available.


Info & registration: Illuminated Advent Retreat

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