SEASONS | RESOURCES
Season of Advent
The word ‘Lent’ comes from a Germanic word meaning ‘long’, descriptive of the season when dark nights grow shorter, days grow brighter and longer, and indications of new life become increasingly apparent.
“Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise. Lent reminds us that resurrection is always on the horizon.”
ABOUT THE SEASON
Followers of Jesus have annually set aside Lent as a season of preparation for Easter. Beginning in the 4th Century the Church engaged the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday as a time of both sober reflection and heightened awareness of God’s presence revealed in the person and story of Jesus.
Lent is a season we create space to encounter God. We do this by giving up or taking up: giving up what can distract us to create space for us to hear and respond to God; taking up practices that ground us, realign us, and increase our attention to God’s voice. Our prayer is together, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, we will be more intentional in creating space and encountering the love and grace of God.
Rhythms
RESOURCES FOR ADVENT
Lent invites us to slow down, reflect, and reconnect with God, ourselves, and our neighbors. These simple rhythms are here to help you root your faith in the places you inhabit daily.
Prayer for Advent
HOPE
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
We are easily distracted by the darkness that comes with unease and anxiety.
Source of light, shine in our lives and in your world with your renewing hope.
PEACE
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
We are easily distracted by the darkness of force and power and we often choose strife and turmoil.
Source of light, shine in our lives and in your world with your everlasting peace.
JOY
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
We are easily distracted by the darkness of doubt and despair.
Source of light, shine in our lives and in your world with your light and life giving joy.
LOVE
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
We are easily distracted by the darkness of isolation and fear.
Source of light, shine in our lives and in your world with your unending love.
CHRISTMAS
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
We are easily distracted by our old lives and with history and by what has been.
Christ is born among us and our hope is made new.
Source of light, shine in our lives and in your world with your transforming power
Prayers
Practice for Advent
Lent is historically marked by the practices of giving up and taking up: giving up what can distract us to create space to hear and respond to God; taking up practices that ground us, realign us, and increase our attention to God.
A valuable reminder about practices of giving up and taking up is from the author Annie Dillard:
"You do not have to do these things; not at all. God does not, I regret to report, give a hoot. You do not have to do these things - unless you want to know God. They work on you, not on him. You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require it nor demand it." Annie Dillard
The practices of giving up something or taking up something we participate in this season of Lent are for our benefit. They do not change God’s mind about us at all. Instead, these practices reorient our mind, our posture, our perspective of who God is. Inviting others to participate in the practices of Giving Up and Taking Up help us as we journey through the season.
Practices
Places for Advent
Journey through Lent by exploring places that invite contemplation, reflection, and renewed connection with God, neighbor, and self.
These articles highlight places, both ordinary and extraordinary, that encourage slowing down, paying attention, and engaging the sacred overlap between spirituality and geography.
Places
Subscribe to Sacred Place.
Rhythms to help you root your faith in place.
Sacred Place provides a beautiful bi-weekly publication to share the rhythms of a Prayer, Practice, and Place as simple ways to help cultivate love for our neighbors and neighborhoods.
RESOURCES FOR ADVENT
Recommended Books
This curated list invites you to slow down, ask meaningful questions, and deepen your connection with God, your neighbors, and the places you call home.
-
A Way Other Than Our Own: Devotions For Lent
Walter Brueggemann's thought-provoking reflections for the season of Lent invite us to consider the challenging, beautiful life that comes with walking the way of grace. Despite our culture of self-indulgence, we are called to walk an alternative path - one of humility, justice, and peace.
-
Bitter and Sweet: A Journey into Easter
Tsh Oxenreider, author of Shadow and Light: A Journey into Advent, uncovers what it means to participate in the liturgical traditions of Lent including artwork and music that illuminate the impact - both personal and global - of Jesus’s death and resurrection.
-
Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter
The Plough’s Bread and Wine provides readings ecumenical in scope, and represents both classic and contemporary Christian writers.
-
Lent for Everyone
Lent for Everyone: Matthew | Lent for Everyone: Mark | Lent for Everyone: Luke
N.T. Wright, author of the series Lent for Everyone provides a guide through the Lenten season. As a Biblical scholar Wright provides Scripture , brief reflection, and a prayer for each day of the season, connecting the text to life today.
