Keeping Advent

Keeping Advent 21: Twist and Shout

December 21/Fourth Saturday of Advent Give thanks to the LORD on the harp; with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.Sing to him a new song; pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness. ~ Ps 33.2-3 A wise friend of mine once encouraged me, whenever I felt myself tightening up from the pressures or anxieties of life, simply to dance. …

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Keeping Advent

Keeping Advent 20: Ordinary People

December 20/Third Friday of Advent In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. ~ Luke 1.26 The culture in which we live and breathe idolizes the extreme and the extraordinary. …

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Keeping Advent

Keeping Advent 19: The Waiting Game

December 19/Third Thursday of Advent But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.” ~ Luke 1.13 In the course of raising four children, I have spent a lot of time waiting.  Not only waiting out the (+/-) nine months of each pregnancy, but waiting in carpool lines, waiting for toddlers to…

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Keeping Advent

Keeping Advent 17: Skeletons in the Closet

December 17/Third Tuesday of Advent The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  ~ Matt 1.1 We look back at the tidy pattern of our family’s generational history, neatly delineated on the genealogy dot-coms or on family trees that we’ve constructed, and it all looks so restrained, so civilized, so orderly.  But…

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Keeping Advent

Keeping Advent 16: The Center Holds

December 16/Third Monday of Advent  “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?” ~ Matt 21.22 Since about fourth grade, when I first encountered word problems, math has not been my strong suit. A geometry exercise I loved, however, was using the compass to draw a perfect circle.  As I pressed the slender leg…

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Keeping Advent

Keeping Advent 15: In the Thick of It

December 15/Third Sunday of Advent The LORD, your God, is in your midst; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. ~ Zephaniah 3.17 There have been times along the way when my connection to God simply dropped.  Many years ago,…

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Keeping Advent

Keeping Advent 14: Conversation Partners

December 14/Second Saturday of Advent As they were coming down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ~ Matt 17.9a-10 It nourishes the soul to set aside dedicated daily prayer time, but ideally, we won’t limit the occasions where we reflect on Christ.  Prayer is, at its core, an ongoing…

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Keeping Advent

Keeping Advent 13: The Answer is No

December 13/Second Friday of Advent Jesus said to the crowd: “To what shall I compare this generation?  It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,…

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Keeping Advent

Keeping Advent 12: Around the Corner

December 12/Second Thursday of AdventFeast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.” ~ Luke 1.38 Luke does not tell us exactly what Mary is doing when the angel Gabriel appears, but artists from the Italian Fra Angelico in the 15th-century to the…

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