Advent Pilgrimage

“The ancient practice of pilgrimage beckons us to find the places of connection between the terrain inside us and the topography around us, whether it’s the landscape of the natural world, or of a story, or of a season. Pilgrimage calls us to give ourselves to the terrain that we may find foreign or unsettling and to open ourselves to the sacred and surprising places that it holds. Altered by our engagement with these places, we are able to reenter the familiar territory of our lives and see it with different and deeper vision.”
 ~ Jan L. Richardson (Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas, “Door 10: The Pilgrim’s Coat”)

And so we gather the scattered pieces...

And so we take the ragged fragments,

the patches of darkness
that give shape to the light;
the scraps of desires
unslaked or realized;
the memories of spaces
of blessing, of pain.

And so we gather the scattered pieces

the hopes we carry
fractured or whole;
the struggles of birthing
exhausted, elated;
the places of welcome
that bring healing and life.

And so we lay them at the threshold, God;

bid you hold them, bless them, use them;
ask you tend them, mend them,
transform them
to keep us warm,
make us whole, and send us forth.

Prayer by Jan L. Richardson (Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas)
(Originally published in Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas by Jan L. Richrdson)

2013 Reads

This year's list is a little longer than usual. Maybe going back to school had something to do with that? Once again, thanks to Goodreads for helping me easily compile my list of books read in 2013. All good books that uniquely spoke into my life and formation this year. As always, for every book finished there are another two or three on my reading wish list waiting on the book shelf or Kindle.

- The Long Loneliness: Autobiography of Legendary Catholic Activist
Dorothy Day
- Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction
Margaret Guenther
- The Awakened Heart
Gerald May
- Supervision of Spiritual Directors: Engaging the Holy Ministry
Edited by Mary Rose Bumpus and Rebecca Bradburn Langer
- Letters to a Young Poet
Rainer Maria Rilke
- Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
Rainer Maria Rilke (Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)
- Holy Eros: Recovering the Passion of God
James D. Whitehead
- Everyday Mission: How Ordinary People Can Change the World
Leroy Barber
- Life of Pi 
Yann Martel
- The Essential Enneagram: The Definitive Personality and Self-Discovery Guide
David Daniels
- Tattoos of the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
Gregory Boyle
- The Prophet
Gibran Kahlil
- Unexpected Gifts: Discovering the Way of Community
Christopher L. Heuertz
- Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Fredrick Buechner
Fredrick Buechner
- Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas
Jan L. Richardson

The Singing Bowl

A new book of poetry on my wish list...

Singing Bowl

By Malcolm Guite

Begin the song exactly where you are,

Remain within the world of which you’re made.

Call nothing common in the earth or air,

Accept it all and let it be for good.

Start with the very breath you breathe in now,

This moment’s pulse, this rhythm in your blood

And listen to it, ringing soft and low.

Stay with the music, words will come in time.

Slow down your breathing. Keep it deep and slow.

Become an open singing-bowl, whose chime

Is richness rising out of emptiness,

And timelessness resounding into time.

And when the heart is full of quietness

Begin the song exactly where you are.

Taken from: The Singing Bowl: Collected Poems by Malcolm Guite

Advent & Being Present

“Waiting for the Lord does not bring us out of history; it involves us with it since we are hoping for the God who has come and is in our midst. Such hope is ambitious but it is worthwhile. It will help us see what is inconsistent in our behavior, what is deceptive and underhanded in out personal lives but also what is hopeful in our efforts to defend life and justice.”
~ Gustavo Guitiérrez, Sharing the Word through the Liturgical Year  

“…Advent is a threshold season, a liminal place in the calendar, an in between time of preparation and expectation. Thresholds offer a heady mix of possibility and peril. They are wildly unpredictable, they stir up questions, they cause us to live with uncertainty, they compel us to develop the ability to attend to the present even as we discern the future. Ultimately, they are places of initiation, taking us deeper into God and into the person God has created us to be…To follow God does not mean traveling with certainty about where God will lead us. Rather, following God propels us to be present in the place where we are, for this is the very place where God shows up.”
~ Jan L. Richardson (Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas, “Door Seven: A Way in the Wilderness”)

where advent begins

This Advent I am reading a book of daily reflections from Jan L. Richardson in the book, Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas. I cheated a little and read the reflection for the first day of Advent. Turns out it was exactly what I needed to hear as I posture and prepare myself for the season. Here are a few highlights…

“Perhaps the preparation and expectation to which Advent calls us are not to be found solely in the spaces we set aside during the season. Although it’s important to keep working at finding those contemplative openings in these days, perhaps Advent is what happens in the midst of all this. We enter the heart of the season, the invitation of these weeks, amid the life that is unfolding around us, with it’s wildness and wonder and upheaval and intensity.”

She goes on to say…
“Advent beacons us beyond the certainties that may not serve us – those sureties we have relied on that may have no substance to them after all. Advent is a season to look at what we have fashioned our lives around – beliefs, habits, convictions, prejudices – and to see whether these leave any room for the Christ who is so fond of slipping into our lives in guises we may not readily recognize.

As we cross the threshold into Advent, what are you carrying with you from the seasons past? Is there something you need to let go of so that you have room for Christ as he comes to us in this season? How might God use what is most present in your life – even the chaos and messiness and unpredictability – to fashion a space of welcome, not only for Christ but also for you?”

~ Jan L. Richardson (Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas, “Door One”)

On Compassion...Gregory Boyle

My latest read is Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Gregory Boyle. I am loving it! It definitely will make my list of favorite books of 2013. I recommend you get yourself a copy and read it. If you want to learn a little more about Father Greg, you can check out some of his latest reflection films on At the Work of the People, HERE.

Here is just a taste of the book from the chapter on "Compassion"...

“Here is what we seek: a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it.” (67)

"The strategy of Jesus is not centered in taking the right stand on issues, but rather in standing in the right place – with the outcast and those relegated to the margins.” (72)

“The Beatitudes is not a spirituality, after all. It’s a geography. It tells us where to stand.” (75)

“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a covenant between equals. Al Sharpton always says, ‘We’re all created equal, but we don’t al end up equal.’” (77)

“There is a brand-new, palpable sense of solidarity among equals, a beloved community. This is always the fruit of true compassion.” (80)

Prayer Books for the New Year

For the past four years I have posted weekly prayers on the blog Prayers & Creeds (http://prayersandcreeds.wordpress.com/). While I often come across the prayers on various websites and blogs, many come from various prayer books that I have collected in recent years. I thought I would post the titles and links, in case anyone is looking for a prayer book for the new year. Most are available in Kindle versions, as well. Please post any additional recommendations in comments to this post! Just click on the book title below.

Yours Is the Day, Lord, Yours Is the Night: A Morning and Evening Prayer Book

Edited by Jeanie and David Gushee 

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals 

By Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Enuma Okoro

Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings From the Northumbria Community

Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle 

By Ted Loder

Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann 

By Walter Brueggemann

Prayers for a Privileged People 

By Walter Brueggemann

The Book of a Thousand Prayers

Compiled by Angela Ashwin

Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits 
Compiled by Michael Harter

For those on Facebook here is a great page of prayers from Christine Sine..."LIKE" it! 

Light for the Journey

The Advent Desert

"The desert is not a place of isolation, but one of encounter."

~ Andre Neher, 1988

As my calendar year of Patient Trust draws to a close, it is appropriate to also begin the new liturgical year with a posture of patient waiting during Advent. The below Advent reflection speaks to the posture and attitude (and work) of the Advent desert we may experience. Personally, I’d mush rather experience a warm and fuzzy Advent season. But, it is in the hard desert places where our hearts are open to prepare the way of the Lord to enter more fully into our lives in deeper ways. This is the patient trust I hope to be attentive and open to this Advent season.

“…From John the Baptist we learn the desert is a place for cleansing, for conversion, for fasting, for silence, for self-discovery, and ultimately for healing. It is a place to let go of our multiple earthly attachments, making room for the Lord by allowing God to enter fully into the innermost of our lives, yes, of our broken lives in utter need of his compassion and healing. 

The desert is also the place for pursuing the ‘patient waiting’ attitude that God demands from each of us. This patient waiting attitude is similar in many ways to that of ‘patient endurance’ counseled by the Apostle Paul. It demands true patience, and it also means hard work. This patient waiting attitude is inspired by deep faith and trust in God, and is the work of constant prayer under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. During this time of patiently waiting for the Lord’s arrival, he asks from each of us complete trust and openness to his particular designs for our lives, complete and total cooperation with that which he wishes to accomplish in us. When Christmas, the Lord’s day, arrives, we shall then discover the truth of God’s prophetic words: ‘The wilderness and the parched land (of our hearts) will exult; the Arabah (desert) will rejoice and bloom.’”

Taken from: Monastery Journey to Christmas
By Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette

Advent: Dream Big and Imagine Wildly

“The hard work of Advent reflection and waiting is mingled with the gift of time and space to dream new dreams, to bathe in pools of hope, and to stretch the canvas of our imagination wide enough for God to paint God’s own visions for our lives. Advent is a season for our imagination to run wild as we contemplate a God who becomes human. We are given a wider glimpse of God when we allow Advent to be an invitation to dream beyond our comfort zones of what we think can happen in our lives and what God can do. In Advent we receive four weeks to dwell on what God’s vision might be for us and for those we touch. Four weeks to dwell on how the courage of expanding our imagination might feed into the growing kingdom of God. Four weeks to gather our wits about us for another year; preparing our bodies, minds and spirits to receive the Christ child and take him out into the world for others to see and praise, worship and obey; the Christ with whom we dream big and imagine wildly.”

Taken from the Preface of Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent
By Enuma Okoro

Advent: A Brief History

This Advent I am once again using a book of meditations and reflections titled, Monastery Journey to Christmas. by Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette. The book begins with a very helpful history of Advent in the Christian East and West from as early as 330 AD. The author says, “In appearance, the Advent liturgical traditions from the East and the West may seem to differ in certain aspects and practices, but deep down I find they complement and complete each other in the one and common celebration of the Nativity and Theophany of our Lord and Savior.”

To read this entire history of Advent, click here…
Advent: A Brief History

Advent 2012 Resources & Links

This year the first Sunday of Advent arrives the week after Thanksgiving….next Sunday, December 2. I am a little behind, but here is my annual blog post of resources and links in preparation for the Advent season.

For those of you who have followed my blog in Advents past, most of the links below will look familiar. I will pass on additional resources and links as I discover them. Just click on the link title...

CRI/Voice - The Season of Advent: Anticipation and Hope
This is a helpful introduction and summary of Advent.

Christine Sine’s annual Advent meditation video for 2012
“Alleluia, The Christ Child Comes

GodSpace Blog
This Advent Christine Sine will host a blog series, “Let Us Wait as Children Wait.“ It will include blog posts and reflections from a variety of contributors.

Ignatian Spirituality Advent Resources
This page includes a variety of resources, including an Advent Retreat booklet based on Ignatian contemplative and prayer practices.

Songs for Advent
A couple years ago I discovered this Advent worship digital download. It quickly became a favorite!

Book of Common Prayer Daily Scripture Readings for Advent 
(Year One)

Revised Common Lectionary Sunday Scripture Readings for Advent
(Year C)

Praying Advent
Creighton University’s Online Ministries offers a selection of materials to help people prayerfully enter into Advent, from short prayers to longer reflections and retreats.

Work of the People
This is a website of visual media and videos that I have explored throughout the year. It also includes some Advent videos.

Sojourners Top Ten Advent Resources

And Some Books...
The following are a few Advent books that I have used in the past or will be using this year.

Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent 
By Enuma Okoro
This was just published this year and focuses on waiting and longing of Elizabeth and Zechariah.

Monastery Journey to Christmas
By Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette
I purchased this book last year and it quickly became a favorite!

Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas
This is a great compilation of readings from both classic and contemporary writers.

Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional
Christine Sine & Mustard Seed Associates have put together a book of reflections, liturgies, and prayers posted on Godspace blog in years past.

Love and Live the Questions

Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart

And try to love the questions themselves

Like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue

Do not seek for the answers that cannot be given

For you would not be able to live them

And the point is to live everything

Live the questions now

And perhaps without knowing it

You will live along some day into the answers

~ Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Letters to a Young Poet

The Violence of Love

“We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood, the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work.”
~ Oscar A. Romero, The Violence of Love 
(Free eBook version...HERE)

Examination of Conscience – A Prayer Practice for Lent

This Lent I am going through an adapted version of the Spiritual Exercises, called “An Ignatian Prayer Adventure.” I just completed Week One and I recommend this eight-week retreat for prayer and reflection. It also serves as an excellent introduction to Ignatian spirituality. You can check it out by clicking: HERE.

Alongside this retreat, I am using a prayer book I recently purchased, Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits. I am discovering lots of new prayers and practices that compliment and speak into my formation at this time. The book includes a prayer practice appropriate for Lent called, “Examination of Conscience” based on the examen that Ignatius included in the Spiritual Exercises and urged his friends to do daily. I plan to utilize this practice during Lent and I thought I would pass it on for those who want to check it out. I have posted it on my other blog, “Quotations & Stuff.”

You can find it by clicking here:
Examination of Conscience

2011 Reads & Looking Ahead to 2012

Thanks to Goodreads for helping me easily compile my list of books read in 2011! All good books that uniquely spoke into my year and further shaped my formation.

- Gracias! A Latin American Journal, Henri Nouwen
- Praying our Goodbyes, Joyce Rupp
- Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes, William Bridges
- The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, Richard Rohr
- The Road To Assisi: The Essential Biography Of St. Francis, Paul Sabatier (Editor, Jon Sweeny)
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire
- Living Mission: The Voices and Vision of New Friars, Scott Bessenecker
- An Ignatian Spirituality Reader, George W. Traub
- The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
- Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional, Christine Sine
- Monastery Journey to Christmas, Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette

Next up in 2012…
This week I started compiling my reading list for 2012. I’m hoping to work in more fiction and autobiographies this year! Here’s my wish list for reads, so far…

- The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Jean-Pierre de Caussade
- Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Orbis Books)
- The Long Loneliness: Autobiography of Legendary Catholic Activist, Dorothy Day
- The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith, Thomas Merton
- Life of Pi, Yann Martel
- Hearts On Fire: Praying with Jesuits, Edited by Michael Harter, SJ
- The Scandal of Service: Jesus Washes Our Feet, Jean Vanier
- From Brokenness to Community, Jean Vanier
- Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, David J Bosch

Yesterday I came across the below quote on “spiritual reading” from Jean-Pierre de Caussade in Richard Foster’s introduction to the book, The Sacrament of the Present Moment. I appreciate this reminder for a few of the books I plan to read this year.

“Read quietly, slowly, word for word to enter into the subject more with the heart than the mind…From time to time make short pauses to allow these truths time to flow through the recesses of the soul and to give occasion for the operation of the Holy Spirit who, during these peaceful pauses and times of silent attention, engraves and imprints these heavenly truths in the heart…Should this peace and rest last for a longer time it will be all the better. When you find that your mind wanders resume your reading and continue thus, frequently, renewing these same pause.” 

2011: My Year of Stability

My friend Daphne recently posted an article on her blog about “Choosing to Name Your Year”…HERE.  “A year name can help align us with purpose and help us live our days more fully focused on what we are committed to.” While I am still considering what I will name my 2012, I am recognizing that I named my 2011 without even fully realizing it.

2011 was my year of stability.

This season of growing in stability actually began back in July 2010 when our WMF Staff Gathering focused on the theme of stability. The book, The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove was our primary guide. I highly recommend this book. It is up there as a top book that has formed and shaped my life. In the book Wilson-Hartgrove points us towards Benedictine spirituality and rhythm of life as our example. The Benedictine Rule requires commitment to stability, fidelity to monastic life, and obedience. Benedict put stability first. “If we’re going to climb Jacob’s ladder toward the humility of Jesus, Benedictine wisdom says the first thing need is a stable place to begin.” You can read some of my favorite quotes from the book…HERE.

Then last January I wrote “Attentiveness and Call to Place,” posted on This Ignatian Life blog….HERE.  In the article I wrote, “This new year I desire to do just that. I intend to make effort for more exercises like my Christmas top ten. I plan to pay attention to the things I love about the city, culture, and people of Buenos Aires. I trust that this posture will enable me to more deeply embrace and share in the fullness of life with those I am called to serve among.” And I did just that. I identified and shared eight of my favorite things about life in Buenos Aires throughout 2011 here on my blog. I am still hoping to round out a top ten before too long.

The image of trees and roots became my symbol of stability. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove speaks of establishing ‘roots of love’ that bind us “intimately to our landscape and the people who share life on it.” He goes on to say, “If the love of God and neighbor is our end goal, roots of love in stability are the means God has given for making progress in this life.” The depth and reach of our roots directly impacts the reach of our limbs and fruit we bear. Fortunately, Buenos Aires is full of trees. So, I spent a lot of time paying attention to trees. I did not lack reminders of my desire to grow deeper roots of stability this past year.

So, as I close out 2011 tonight, I begin with gratitude to God for my year of stability. Grateful for the meaningful ways my roots have deepened in community and place. Grateful for those who have encouraged me and accompanied me along the way in this desire for stability. Thank you!

Tomorrow I begin the new year seeking to name my 2012. While I intend to give it some more space to take shape, I believe it will have something to do with “living in the present moment.” Stay tuned!

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

This month I have been breaking in my new Kindle with the prayer book, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro. While these liturgies are best prayed and shared in community, I have also found them to be a valuable and enriching way to begin my mornings alone. Here is a sample that was included in this morning’s liturgy…

Lord, enable us today to see our neighbor in those whom the world rejects — the guilt-ridden, the foreigner, the unprotected, and the refugee. Open our eyes and make us present to these neighbors both in our various expressions of community and in the wider world. Amen.

Co-compiler, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, recently wrote an article in "Christianity Today" sharing how the practice and rhythms of liturgy have enriched and formed his life and the community he is a part of. You can check out the article here…

Joining the Eternal Song
How liturgical prayer is saving our community from burnout
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/may/joiningeternalsong.html

You can also check out the Common Prayer website here: 
http://commonprayer.net/

A Morning Prayer for Sabbath

The below prayer is a portion of a morning prayer liturgy for Sabbath (Living Into a Resurrection-Created World). It is taken from the book Light for the Journey: Morning and Evening Prayers for Living Into God’s World by Chrisine Sine. This week our community started going through the seven themes, prayer and liturgies of faith shared in this book. I will probably share highlights from these prayers in the weeks ahead.

Risen Christ, we live today in anticipation of your resurrection-created world,
We live in the hope of your forgiveness,
We live in expectation of your healing,
We live in the assurance of your salvation,
Risen Christ, we will live in anticipation of your resurrection-created world.
Risen Christ, we take on your life today,
A life of loving and caring,
A life of healing and wholeness,
A life of sharing and giving,
Risen Christ, we take on your life today.

We will go into the week with compassion and love,
Knowing we are touched by the God of life,
May our lives shine with the holiness of God,
May our hearts be transformed by the glory of Christ,
May our ways be filled with the joy of the Spirit.
The love of almighty God surround you,
The peace of the risen Christ indwell you,
The fellowship of the Spirit unite you,
The life of the Triune God be yours,
This day and evermore,
Amen.

To read a little more, click here.

To order the book, click here:
http://msainfo.org/promo/available-now-new-prayer-book-by-christine-sine-light-for-the-journey

Light for the Journey

I recently received my copy of Christine Sine’s new book, Light for the Journey: Morning and Evening Prayers for Living Into God’s World. If you follow my blog or the Prayers & Creeds blog, you know that Sine’s Godspace blog is a favorite of mine and I often share her beautiful prayers and liturgies. Our Word Made Flesh Argentina community often utilizes Sine’s liturgies during our weekly community formation and worship gatherings. We translated one of her Advent liturgies in Spanish to share with our Argentine friends. One of Sine’s liturgies focusing on hospitality has become a regular part of our community rhythm whenever we have visitors in Buenos Aires.

I am excited to now have this latest collection of morning and evening prayers in a book format. I look forward to sharing them with our community in the months ahead, as we seek to live more fully into God’s resurrection created world. I trust these morning and evening prayers, along with the suggested exercises, questions and prayer topics, will enrich our community formation and rhythm of life. Thank you, Christine, for sharing this gift with us all!

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

“In Light for the Journey: Morning and Evening Prayers for Living Into God’s World, you are invited to journey together with sisters and brothers from around the world into a rhythm of morning and evening prayer. This rhythm is intended to help us connect our daily prayers to the values of God’s resurrection world in a way that strengthens our foundational beliefs and equips us to become part of God’s mustard seed conspiracy, making a kingdom difference in God’s world.”

To check out the book and order it, click here.