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Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Deirdre Smith

When I fall onto my pillow anticipating sweet slumber, its soft, down coolness delights my form. Throughout the night I flip the warm side of the pillow, trading it for the cool side for the ultimate in refreshment and comfort. This pillow-flipping of mine is a ritual. What’s more, I often hug the pillow and hold onto it in a tight embrace, as if my life depends on it. I suspect I am not alone. There are others like me, you who seek refreshment and sanctuary, now, more than ever. Of course, there are more obvious, traditional ways to seek refreshment. Refreshment for my daughter no doubt comes in the form of ice cream. Yesterday she begged to stop at a local ice creamery on the way home. Since I had spent the morning cleaning out the refrigerator, a task made difficult by neglect, it wasn’t hard to convince me that I had earned a healthy serving of coffee ice cream with chocolate chips. Pure joy and sweet refreshment! Swimming in the pool has been a lifelong favorite of mine and means to finding refreshment. Although our local pool is supposed to be heated, we question it is so as we slowly immerse ourselves in ice-cold water, but once we are fully immersed and recovered from the shock, we experience splendid refreshment. For others, refreshment or restoration is found in a haircut, a massage, shopping, a favorite beverage, an invigorating walk on the beach, or reading a good book. Netflix is a new one for me; as I write this, binge watching a dramatic series provides escape from daily COVID statistics and voting projections. When I was young, I sat on the carpet with my ears next to a large floor-speaker belting out ballads with Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, Barry Manilow and the Carpenters. This probably wasn’t good for my hearing but these artists carried me away… As we close this arduous year of pandemic, politics, wildfires and more, we need refreshment and calm definitively. Further, we need refreshment for the soul. May we focus on Jesus habitually and seek to be refreshed in prayer repeatedly. God welcomes us to delight in Him and find refreshment and peace for our souls. He restores us.  As we embark on the Advent Season may we find in Jesus’ birth complete refreshment, and may we hold fast to Him, the babe born in a manger, and refuse to let go. He will never leave or forsake us. Let us cling to this promise as if our lives depend on it.

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 23:1-3

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  Written by Deirdre Smith

Lord, you are my peace and refreshment, far better than earthly pleasures and beyond compare. I hold fast to you. You are my Rock and my Salvation— my comfort and restorer in a turbulent world. Amen.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  Fernando Ortega: I Need Thee Every Hour (Submitted by Deirdre Smith)

IMAGE: Painted by Connie McCoy of our church

Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Juan Carlos Acosta

It may come as a surprise as a church/choral musician that I am not particularly fond of Christmas music.  Besides the fact that Advent/Christmas has always been our most busy season keeping us from family gatherings, holiday parties, or even shopping. Most choral musicians start working on Christmas music months ahead of time, and as a conductor I have often been preparing that music since August. We circle back to the same dozen or so carols, despite hundreds or even thousands of truly wonderful settings. I know that familiarity and nostalgia are hallmarks (pun intended) of the season, however I find that because those settings are so familiar, we might miss the profound message that they hold.  “O Come Emmanuel” is one of a very select group of familiar Advent carols that we use.  I love the traditional hymn and tune, and the original Latin chant is quite stunning. The setting by Sir David Wilcocks for organ, choir, and congregation somehow feels like home.  However, occasionally a new setting captures my imagination and helps me hear again and perhaps in a new way the words of these familiar songs.  Contemporary composer, conductor and author Elaine Hagenberg composed a hauntingly beautiful new setting of “O Come Emmanuel.” I have now programmed it three years in a row for three different groups and I keep coming back to it. (You can hear the different versions on other postings!)

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 47:5-7

God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.
For God is the king of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  Written by Scott Cairns, a contemporary American poet, professor, librettist, and spiritual  essayist.

Unknowable One, we stand before you, hardly daring to look up. We offer you our hearts, and pray that we may, this day and ever, worship you in ways that are true. Forgive us those days when we have worshipped false and faulty images we have shaped. Help our frail senses, that we may apprehend your Presence and your Love. In the everlasting Name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  The Gesualdo Six: Veni, Veni Emmanuel (Latin setting).  Submitted by Juan Carlos Acosta

IMAGE: Rochelle Blumenfeld: Hear My Praise

If using an advent wreath, light the first two purple candles and the third rose-colored candle. This candle symbolizes joy and is called the Shepherd’s Candle. To the shepherd’s great joy, the angels announced that Jesus came for humble, unimportant people like them, too. In liturgy, the color rose signifies joy.

Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Andrew Kukla, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from a devotional he wrote about the song “Breath of Heaven.”

Mary received a visit from the angel Gabriel saying that she would conceive a child and give birth to a child who would be holy and be named the Son of God.  Mary had to figure out how to stay in relationship to a husband who was not father of her child, and had to journey to Bethlehem while pregnant and give birth in the most grueling of circumstances.  Mary  questions how she could do it, but also was humbly willing to serve – who responded to an unexpected calling with the simple but profound response “Let it be with me according to your will.” Mary went through a challenging sacrifice – and not because she signed up for it.  It is popular today to talk about serving in ways that you are gifted, that bring you pleasure, and that line up nicely with your gifts and talents.  And yet, this is hard to find in the biblical stories.  Mary didn’t sign up.  Mary didn’t feel gifted, and Mary only found the pleasure later… after the sacrifices… So many of our stories of faith are about unexpected people being called to serve in uncomfortable ways that end up fulfilling them.

She didn’t walk the path alone.  Her initial reactions are changed when Elizabeth rejoices at Mary’s pregnancy.  The community makes her see it all from a different perspective.  And the shepherds will give her more news that she will ponder and treasure.  Many people will encounter her and her story and when she sees the profound impact her life will have on them that which was a burden she could not imagine carrying became her greatest blessing. What burden are you carrying for the sake of others?  What burdens are we avoiding because we lack the imagination to believe we are the right person for the job?  How might God be calling us to just this kind of “sacrifice” which is actually great good news to all people… and blessings to our lives that we didn’t know we needed? Advent waiting and preparation – incarnation explosion… how is the Christ child wishing to be born through you this season in unexpected ways?

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 51:15-17

Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  From the Mozarabic Rite, a liturgical rite once used generally in the Iberian Peninsula, in what is now Spain and Portugal.  Developed during Visigoth rule in the 500s AD.

O Lord, let your mercy be upon us, and let the brightness of your Spirit illumine our inward souls, that he may kindle our cold hearts and enlighten our dark minds; who abides with you in glory forever. Amen.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  Amy Grant: Breath of Heaven

IMAGE: Painted by Connie McCoy of our church

Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Kathleen Loftman

Last year, as I was going through a difficult time with my mother passing away unexpectedly, I heard a breathtaking new carol for the first time, written by American composer, Christopher Rouse,  who had also passed away during the same timeframe as my mother. The music spoke to my heart. Karolju is a suite of original Christmas carols for choir and orchestra. The work was first performed November 7, 1991 by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Here are the words of the composer, describing the music: “Two paths led to the composition of Karolju. The first was the great body of Christmas carols written over the centuries, a collection I value as highly for its spiritual meaning as for its glorious music. The second was Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, which made an unforgettable impression upon me when I first heard it in March of 1963.  As I wished to compose the music first, …I decided to compose my own texts in a variety of languages (Latin, Swedish, French, Spanish, Russian, Czech, German, and Italian)… It was rather my intent to match the sound of the language to the musical style of the carol to which it was applied. I resultantly selected words often more for the quality of their sound and the extent to which such sound typified the language of their origin than for their cognitive ‘meaning’ per se. I also elected to compose music, which was direct and simple in its tonal orientation, music which would not seem out of place in a medley of traditional Christmas carols. Karolju is … one which I hope will help instill in listeners the same special joy which I feel for the season it celebrates.” Traditions are handed down from one generation to another. Christopher Rouse established a new tradition when he composed Karolju to celebrate his daughter’s first Christmas in 1990. This music can now become a tradition for all of us.

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 5:11-12

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;  let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, so that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover them with favor as with a shield.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  Written by Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932-1996), a Dutch priest, professor, writer, and theologian.

Lord Jesus, Master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas. We who have so much to do and seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day, We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us. We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom. We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence. We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light. To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!’  Amen.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  Christopher Rouse:  Karolju (submitted by Kathleen Loftman)

IMAGE:

Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Vickie Stone

It was our annual tradition. My neighbor Sue and I toured the Point Loma homes all prettied up for the All Souls Episcopal Church Holiday Home Tour.  We loved seeing the homes, many with stunning views to the San Diego Harbor below with tiny sail boats and the downtown skyline in the distance. Several years ago on the tour, Sue noticed a nativity scene with a missing baby Jesus at one of the homes.  Sue volunteers at several local thrift stores and noticed when an exact matching baby Jesus was donated; the perfect, unique one that would complete that home’s creche! The following December Sue was under the weather and did not make the tour that year…then last December, Sue again had the baby Jesus ready.  We walked up to the gate at the home on the street that we visited 2 years prior and rang the buzzer.  A woman came out the front door and walked down the sidewalk to open the gate. Sue introduced us and explained why two strangers were standing at her gate.  The lady listened intrigued and fascinated.  She was clearly touched.  She opened the bag and unwrapped the delivered baby Jesus and gasped, putting her hand over her mouth.  Her eyes started to tear and then said her creche was her mother’s who put it out every year.  Her mother had died 17 years ago. During the woman’s childhood, it had never had the baby Jesus. Her mother had fashioned one from a round button and some cloth, so the manger would not be empty.  But this baby Jesus was indeed an exact match to her set.  She said her mother was certainly smiling down from heaven! She was touched and said it was the kindest thing she recalled someone ever doing for her.  She said she would continue to keep her mother’s hand-made Jesus but would now also add this real, matching one so she could tell everyone the special story of how it arrived to her nativity set.  Witnessing this generous act of kindness was perhaps my favorite gift last Christmas season.

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 25:4-5

Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  Written by Donald J. Shelby (1931-2012), an American pastor, writer, and speaker.

Lord, the calendar calls for Christmas. We have traveled this way before. During this Advent season we would see what we have never seen before, accept what we have refused to think, and hear what we need to understand. Be with us in our goings that we may meet you in your coming. Astonish us until we sing “Glory!” and then enable us to live it out with love and peace. In the name of your Incarnate Word, even Jesus Christ. Amen.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  Simon Khorolskiy:  I Wonder As I Wander

IMAGE: Virginia Wieringa; Advent Starry Night

Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Ruth Grendell

One of my mother’s many favorite psalms was Psalm 139. She reminded me many times that we are created as unique individuals.  There is none exactly like each one of us.  I remembered her words as we were caring for young women in a clinic in a rural village in India.  As the day progressed, we noted an elderly woman standing outside alone and watching the young women as they left the clinic. She looked at each one, but no one approached her. We learned that she wanted to see the American nurses who were helping the women in her village. I wanted to speak with her, but our different languages prohibited any communication.  She looked so frail, that I wanted to hold her in my arms, but I knew she would back away.  So just our smiles would have to suffice.  Later, I talked with the hospital personnel who were aware of this village problem, but they noted that ancient traditions that included the label as “unclean” are difficult to change. They hoped the continued presence of the Christian health care contacts would help.  As I reflected upon this experience, I remembered that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Leprosy had robbed her of her feet and hands—but not of her mind and spirit.  I wished I could learn more about her life.  I wondered how long it had been since anyone in her family had hugged her. Then, I realized that she had received her Christmas gift.  Her wish had been granted.  She had wanted to see that the young women in her village were receiving the care they needed.  I have mourned for her knowing that long term medication therapy can alleviate the bacterial disease.  However, I know nothing was available for her.   My Christmas gift was when I wondered what more I could learn from this experience. What more could I do to provide body, mind, spiritual care?  Then, I thought of an old familiar hymn, Open My Eyes That I May See that directed my thoughts and informed me what to do (listen below).

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 139:13-14

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb, I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  Written by Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009), a Christian cleric and writer.

Correct our eyesight, we pray you Lord, with the gift of faith that, as we see you in the baby of Bethlehem, so may we see and hear you in those who speak your word and so may we serve you by serving those in whose distress you are disguised. As at Christmas you came among us to love the unlovable, so teach us to love with the love by which we are loved by you. Amen.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  Clara H. Scott:  Open My Eyes, That I May See (submitted by Ruth Grendell)

IMAGE: El Greco: Christ Healing the Blind

Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Juan Carlos Acosta

Advent is a time in which, with Joseph and the pregnant Mary, we journey to Bethlehem in anticipation of the birth of Jesus. Pregnant is a word that we most often associate with human conception, but it of course has other meanings. There can be a pregnant pause, or we can be pregnant with grief.  I love thesauruses. I keep a slightly yellowed paperback thesaurus within arm’s reach of me at my desk, and I don’t grasp for it as often as I should. The synonyms of pregnant speak so much to the season of Advent. Significant, weighty, potential; fertile, inventive. This year our expectation and longing for change are heightened. At forty years of age I am not young (likely older than both Mary and Joseph) and yet I am aware that these anxieties and issues are not new in history. I think of the civil and social unrest of the sixties or the pandemic a century ago that shut down churches, schools, and whole cities.  The trappings of Christmas are charming, but I often feel that if we get wrapped up in those (pun intended) that we might miss the significant, weighty, potential, fertile and inventive that are represented in Jesus the Christ being born into this world as very fragile and precious human infant.  Despite all that we are facing I have hope. Hope because I believe that the ways of Jesus can truly change the world if we let them change our own hearts first.

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 67:1-3

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  Written by Luci Shaw, a contemporary American writer of poetry and essays.

Oh my Lord, keep me from frustration and impatience when I see little evidence of your living and growing in me. Reassure me that waiting time is not wasted time. That your purposes for us all are large and all-embracing enough to hold firm and prevail, no matter the obstacles or distractions. You have told us that “now is the accepted time…now is the day of salvation.” But perhaps your “now” is different from ours. You see our lives from the infinite perspective of eternity, of kairos. We want immediate action, change, growth in chronos, in “real time.” We want to see our problems being resolved. Now. Help us to realize, as those who love and believe in you, that we, too, are pregnant with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that day by day we are being enlarged. Augment our hope, widen our imagination, and nourish our anticipation that the astounding fact of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” will turn true in each of us in your good time. Amen.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  Sacra Profana:  O Come, Emmanuel  (submitted by  Juan Carlos Acosta)

IMAGE: Painted by Connie McCoy of our church

Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Jan Caldwell

We wait…for information about the virus that is sweeping the world, to see if we, or a loved one contracts the virus, for Zoom calls, for Amazon deliveries, for tomorrow…We remember…what our lives used to be like, going to restaurants, traveling, visiting friends in their homes, hugs…We pray this next year will be one of preparing….with vaccinations, continued care to keep ourselves and each other safe and well, how to return to our public and busy lives, how to tell our hearts to beat again…We rejoice always in the knowledge God is with us and He will never leave us.  In this season of uncertainty, we turn to Him for courage, discernment, peace, love.    “Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you”.  (Deuteronomy 31:6)

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 118:5-9

Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. With the Lord on my side I do not fear. What can mortals do to me? The Lord is on my side to help me;  I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.  It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in mortals. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  Written by Emilie Griffin, a contemporary American author who writes about religious experience, prayer, and spiritual life.

Dear Lord, there are signs of trouble and anxiety all around me. Give me confidence to trust in your incarnate presence in a fearful world. Help me know that I am a child of God. Amen.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  Animated Faith:  Fear, Fear Not Mary

IMAGE: Painted by Connie McCoy of our church

Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Barb Hoekstra, a contemporary Christian author. This is an excerpt from her devotion Advent: Lessons in Waiting.

In the case of waiting, experience does not generate expertise. We all have experience waiting. We endure short-term waiting in lines, at stoplights, or for commercials to be over. We endure long-term waiting for decisions to be made, diagnoses to be given, and events to occur. With all this experience, we think we should be good at it. Unfortunately, we aren’t usually very good at waiting. We wait in a variety of unhealthy ways: passively, helplessly, anxiously, and angrily. Waiting is so pervasive and encompassing it moves beyond being a mental act, causing bodily responses such as thumb twiddling, hand wringing, nail biting, and fist pounding. I can remember feeling physically sick as my husband and I waited for our son, Max, to come to our family from an orphanage in China. Thirteen months felt like an awful endlessness. During this very uncomfortable wait for Max, I was driven to consider waiting in better ways. I was led to an Advent reading by Henri Nouwen, titled Waiting for God (1993). Nouwen showed me that the Bible is full of “waiters”—Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon and Anna—and these people are representative of the remnant of Israel. Nouwen asks and answers the question, “How are they [people of the Bible] waiting, and how are we called to wait with them?” Nouwen’s conclusions are insightful and practical: 1) People who wait have received a promise that allows them to wait; 2) while waiting, we are to be fully present in the moment; 3) a waiting person is a patient person who believes something hidden will be evident to us; 4) waiting is open-ended, filled with hope for what God desires to bring us beyond our imagination; 5) we wait together; and, 6) we wait patiently in expectation. While we wait for the mundane or the Magnificent, let us wait like Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary, and Simeon and Anna: attentively and expectantly.

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 33:20-22

We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  From the Gelasian Sacramentary, a book of Christian liturgy, which is the oldest western liturgical book that has survived.  The book is linked to Pope Gelasius I. It was compiled near Paris around 750.

O Lord our God, make us watchful and heedful as we await the coming of your Son, Christ our Lord, that when he comes and knocks, he will find us not sleeping in sins but awake and rejoicing in his praises; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  Cherokee Hills Church: Beauty in the Waiting

IMAGE: Bethanie Sulleza: Waiting

If using an advent wreath, light the first purple candle and the second purple candle.  The second candle represents faith and is called “Bethlehem’s Candle.” Micah had foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, which is also the birthplace of King David.

Close your eyes, breathe, and clear your mind. Be still. Center your scattered senses on God’s presence.

REFLECTION: Written by Larkie Cook

This praying mantis on our gratitude rock (see picture below) reminded Jim and me of how grateful we are for our health, a loving family, and a loving God. Even during these trying times, we consider ourselves thankful to be living in such a beautiful location with perfect weather and with support from wonderful friends from our church and community.

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 138:1-3

I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; before the “gods” I will sing your praise. I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your unfailing love and your faithfulness, for you have so exalted your solemn decree that it surpasses your fame. When I called, you answered me; you greatly emboldened me.

Pause and meditate on the Scripture.

PRAYER:  Written by Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009), a Christian cleric and writer.

Liberate us, we pray you, Lord, from the getting and grasping to which we are prone. Teach us the royal way of the law of the gift, that in giving not only things but ourselves we may know even now the life abundant you promise to bring to perfection in eternal life with you. Increase in us gratitude for your gift of yourself, and let that gift of gratitude inspire us to the greatness of living our lives as love in in response to love.

Click on the link to see and hear the music video.

MUSIC VIDEO:  Celtic Women: Joy to the World

IMAGE: Photo submitted by Larkie Cook