The fourth candle is lit. We’ve entered the final week of Advent. Christmas is next Sunday.
In 2021, I sent a post every day in December as an online Advent Calendar. This year, I hosted a gratitude month in November with daily posts instead of December daily offerings.
But you can revisit last year’s Advent calendar this year — or visit it for the first time if you weren’t at The Cottage last year!
The links for this week are below. Some of the days of the week (especially the Sundays) will be a little off because it was assembled for last year. But the mini-essays are still lovely - and I hope they will enrich your experience of Christmas.
December 19: My Soul Magnifies the Lord!
December 23: No More Quid Pro Quo
December 24: The Real Meaning of Christmas
DECEMBER SPECIAL
Don’t miss the DECEMBER SPECIAL at The Cottage. New paid subscriptions are 10% off the regular rate until Christmas. Click the button below for information.
To celebrate the holidays, all paid subscribers will be entered in a gift giveaway drawing. On December 30, I’ll be gifting three pairs of “Life is Better at the Cottage” wineglasses (value: $30); two audio versions of my book Grounded (value: $40), and one set of signed books (value: $175) to SIX lucky paid subscribers.
INSPIRATION
He will come like last leaf’s fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud’s folding.
He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.
He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.
He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.
— Rowan Williams, “Advent Calendar”