Tag Archives: Advent

Mend: Advent Word 6

Manufacturers of athletic shoes suggest that they be replaced every six months. College students who depend on government-subsidized Pell grants and student loans to support their families rush to the Apple store for an upgrade as soon as Tim Cook … Continue reading

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Heal: Advent Word 5

“Write what you know,” I have often told my English composition students. What I know about healing began when my husband was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the summer of 2010 and continued through two rounds of increasingly toxic chemotherapy … Continue reading

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Simplify: Advent Word 4

The things we want and need are plain and true: To live in peace in a safe, warm home; to eat soup and bread and drink wine; to sleep curled in the arms of one we love; to speak words … Continue reading

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Gather: Advent Word 3

Recounting his efforts to find the Holy Ghost in private prayer, John Donne confessed: I lock my door to myself, and I throw myself down in the presence of my God, I divest myself of all worldly thoughts, and I … Continue reading

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Awaken: Advent Word 1

This year, I have decided to participate in the daily discipline of #AdventWord, a project of the worldwide Anglican  Communion  designed to create a global Advent calendar where we can share images and meditations that reflect the spirit of this … Continue reading

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Waiting for God

Several days ago, I found a box taped up when we moved here seven years ago and never opened since. Amongst the knickknacks, costume jewelry, and small-appliance instructions I found there was this photo. Two friends hamming it up in over-the-top seasonal regalia sweaters … Continue reading

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Lessons and Carols

Advent 2011 Two long years ago, I wrote beneath my name inside the front cover of a newly acquired book the date when I started reading it, “Winter 2009.”  Sometime later I scribbled below the date a more revealing message: … Continue reading

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Our Hunger for God Is Too Small

Advent 2005 Just after matins one day in the early history of the church, a young postulant for holy orders sought out his spiritual mentor.  “When, Father, will God be ready to fill me?”  Father John took a length of … Continue reading

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Bring Me Back to You

Advent 2004 I have told the story of my first Advent experience so many times that it has gained mythic proportions—in my own mind at least.  The dates have been changed (but only slightly!), and other events from that first … Continue reading

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The Thing with Feathers

Advent 2003 Emily Dickinson tells us that “hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.”  Let’s forget all about the image in our minds of … Continue reading

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