It's Advent! For seven more days. A whole week of it left.
As a child, Advent was two things to me
- a countdown to Christmas, with a calendar to help. I don't ever remember having a chocolate one, but my brother and I were always excited to see what picture was net.
and
- that time of year when you were actually allowed to handle matches in church.
This year I'm really appreciating Advent as a season of preparation, a time to acknowledge the significance of what we're about to celebrate and to reflect on some of the themes. And I've found a few things online that have been helpful with that too so I thought I'd share.
Advent Unwrapped - a series of creative reflections from Seeds, curated by a different team each week. So far there's been a group-authored poem curated by Chris Norris in week 1, a story and two images from Jo & Neil Ruckman, and a thought and shared poem from Heather Ellis. I expect there's more to come...
Question Time for Advent by Penelope Swithinbank. An Advent Sermon from Penelope in which she suggests three questions to ponder, one per week for Advent. You can read it at her blog or listen to it if you'd prefer. I was late to this party so haven't managed a question per week, but I did find this talk profoundly challenging as well as a time of great closeness with God. I plan to reflect on the questions anyway, even though it won't be a week-by-week Advent thing.
A Pause In Advent - a small group of linked blogs who post every Sunday/Monday (or thereabouts) during advent with a short reflection on a theme of their choice. I'm enjoying taking a few moments each week to consider a theme but I'm also really loving reading the other posts. There's a list in the left-hand sidebar of the blog that's linked from the image here.
That's all for now - I'll come back and add to this post if I come across anything else.
As a child, Advent was two things to me
- a countdown to Christmas, with a calendar to help. I don't ever remember having a chocolate one, but my brother and I were always excited to see what picture was net.
and
- that time of year when you were actually allowed to handle matches in church.
This year I'm really appreciating Advent as a season of preparation, a time to acknowledge the significance of what we're about to celebrate and to reflect on some of the themes. And I've found a few things online that have been helpful with that too so I thought I'd share.
Advent Unwrapped - a series of creative reflections from Seeds, curated by a different team each week. So far there's been a group-authored poem curated by Chris Norris in week 1, a story and two images from Jo & Neil Ruckman, and a thought and shared poem from Heather Ellis. I expect there's more to come...
Question Time for Advent by Penelope Swithinbank. An Advent Sermon from Penelope in which she suggests three questions to ponder, one per week for Advent. You can read it at her blog or listen to it if you'd prefer. I was late to this party so haven't managed a question per week, but I did find this talk profoundly challenging as well as a time of great closeness with God. I plan to reflect on the questions anyway, even though it won't be a week-by-week Advent thing.
That's all for now - I'll come back and add to this post if I come across anything else.
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