Welcome to the Cottage Advent Calendar
Every day from December 1 - 24, you’ll receive an email (to “open” like a window on an old-fashioned Advent calendar). Each post will be something - a little spiritual “treat” of words - on a seasonal theme from my writing.
It is a pleasure to share this collection of reflections with you. I pray each post will surprise you and shine light on your path.
Please share these daily posts with your friends.
TODAY is the second Sunday of Advent. This reflection first appeared in 2016 in the Washington Post.
Window 5
A blue Advent. That sounds about right.
And it is oddly appropriate.
In recent decades, some Christians have swapped out the penitential purple candles (and that pink one) for blue ones.
Advent should not be a mini-Lent; it is not a time to examine sins, engage in self-denial, and confession. It is not about penance. Rather, Advent is of a different spiritual hue: It is a time of waiting, of expectation, of hope in the darkness. The blue candles symbolize the color of the sky right before dawn, that time when the deepest dark is just infused with hints of light.
Blue holds the promise that the sun will rise, and that even after the bleakest, coldest, longest night, the light will break forth, as the new day arrives.
Blue may be the color of sadness, but blue is also the color of hope.
Many faiths and religious traditions have sacred days or times of waiting, of anticipation, of the expectation of enlightenment — that light breaks through the night. Diwali, Bodhi Day, Hanukkah, winter solstice, Advent. And those sorts of holy days are celebrated when darkness surrounds, when all seems lost. When we hurt and think we have been abandoned, when all promises seem broken. When we light candles against the night, trusting and believing that a greater light will arise. When a single flame becomes a conflagration of compassion and justice.
For Christians, Advent is not a time of opening up little windows with chocolates as we await the really big booty of presents under the tree on Christmas morning. That is not what we are waiting for. We are waiting for light, for God to renew and heal the world, a promise that we understand to have been mysteriously embodied in a baby born in a manger.
Advent recognizes a profound spiritual truth — that we need not fear the dark. Instead, wait there. Under that blue cope of heaven, alert for the signs of dawn. Watch. For you cannot rush the night. But you can light candles. Sing some songs. Recite poetry. Say prayers.
Trust that waiting is active — making ready for what comes next. When the sun rises, there is much work to do.
In the meanwhile, make mine a blue Advent this year.
From Washington Post, November 25, 2016
You will know
the moment of its
arriving
by your release
of the breath
you have held
so long;
a loosening
of the clenching
in your hands,
of the clutch
around your heart;
a thinning
of the darkness
that had drawn itself
around you.
This blessing
does not mean
to take the night away
but it knows
its hidden roads,
knows the resting spots
along the path,
knows what it means
to travel
in the company
of a friend.
So when
this blessing comes,
take its hand.
Get up.
Set out on the road
you cannot see.
This is the night
when you can trust
that any direction
you go,
you will be walking
toward the dawn.
— Jan Richardson
The Cottage ADVENT CALENDAR is free and open to all. If you feel called to financially contribute to this work, there are two special ways to support The Cottage this December.
If you give a year gift subscription ($50) during December, you will receive a signed copy of my book Grateful.
And, during this entire month, 25% of all paid subscriptions (gifts, first time subscriptions, and upgrades) will go to support Rising Hope, a local ministry in my Alexandria neighborhood (about two miles from my house!) that serves immigrants, low-income families, the food insecure, and those without shelter. They are an amazing community - one of genuine courage and compassion.
I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.
― Barbara Brown Taylor
An Advent Event
Shane Claiborne has picked Freeing Jesus as the December book of the Red Letter Christian Book Club! Read the book and join us in conversation via ZOOM on December 19 at 7pm. This is a free event. Click here for information and the sign-up link.
Thank you so much Diana for these daily reflections. It's a wonderful way I begin my day and I appreciate you so much for your sharing with us these deeply thought reflections through this Advent season.
I love these daily advent reflections, I start my days with them, waiting becomes a beautiful state of mind....