Advent 1: Waiting

Sue Monk Kidd: Waiting

“Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.”

—Simone Weil.

I decided to read Sue Monk Kidd’s book, When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions, as a break from the intensity of the last book I studied, John Sanford’s Mystical Christianity: A Psychological Commentary on the Gospel of John; but here again I am fooled. I have found myself underlining most of Kidd’s book.

She reminds us of biblical waiters, Noah, Mary, Moses, Sarah, Jacob, Paul, the father and mother of the prodigal son—all who had to wait for God’s answers for them. She reminds us of G. K. Chesterton’s writing that praising and connecting to God is less a doxology, a short hymn of praise, than it is a paradoxology. The paradox is that we achieve the most and relate best to God by standing still!

When I visit with spiritual friends, I hope to offer Kidd’s prayer of waiting, remembering Jesus’ words to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane from Mark 14:32: “Sit here, while I pray.” We only need to sit while Jesus prays for us, particularly the Jesus within us that will pray for us while we wait. If we are having difficulty doing this, Jesus reminds us of the community that surrounds us. Jesus is telling us to follow his example and ask friends to come and pray with us while we wait; and if we are that friend, to make the offer. We are also promised “a great cloud of witnesses” which is always around us, praying and waiting with and for us. Jesus reminds us that we do not need to wait and pray alone.

jpanna . joannaseibert.com

Preparing for Advent Again

God With Us

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”

—John 1:14.

I have used so many meaningful books to prepare for Christmas during the Advent season each year. I keep returning to God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, first published in 2007 by Paraclete Press and edited by Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe. There are Scripture readings, essays by six well-known religious authors, and prayers, but what I most connect to are the paintings with each reading. Some days I only find time to look at the illustrations and say the prayer, but they both seem to stay with me. Eugene Peterson explains it in the introduction. “Over and over again they [artists] rescue us from a life in which the wonder has leaked out.”

Other days I read everything including special essays about the meaning of the feast day of that week. I especially enjoy the readings during the twelve days of Christmas when the pace has slowed down and there is more time to digest what this smorgasbord feast of word and art presents to us. The book is now in paperback without the pictures, but if you can find the hardback, treasure it.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Preparing for Advent

Arthur: Literature for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany

“Many of us, when charting the timeline of our lives, can point to a moment when a story or poem happened.”

—Sarah Arthur in Light Upon Light (Paraclete Press, 2014), p. 9.

Light Upon Light is a literary guide of daily and weekly readings and prayers by well-known authors for the liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur. She has also written similar companion guides for the long Pentecost season (At the Still Point) and for Lent and Easter (Between Midnight and Dawn). Arthur emphasizes that this is not only a guide to prayer during a time of year that our lives become much too busy, but this is a literary guide to prayer. We all can remember and recall times when poems and Scripture and fiction moved us in our daily lives. Arthur believes that good literature can make a difference also in our lives when we most need it on a daily basis. The readings begin with the first Sunday in Advent and end the week of Ash Wednesday.

Arthur hopes to open up our imagination as she exposes us to brief excerpts or short works of writers well known to us as well as some authors we may not know but should! Arthur warns us that at some of the moments that we will encounter as we read this anthology, there should be an alert: “Warning: Powerful Spiritual Moment Ahead!” Arthur suggests that we read each reading not as something for our English Literature class or for pleasure, but as liturgical pieces for worship and especially prayer.

Each week begins with an outline for the week of an opening prayer, Scripture readings, readings from literature, a place of personal prayer and reflection, and a closing prayer to use for that week. Arthur suggests we now apply to poetry and fiction the ancient principles of lectio divina or divine reading that we have used in reading Scripture. We read the passage, meditate on it, pay attention to a word or phrase that connects to us, and finally we simply rest in God’s presence. My experience has been to carry that word or phrase with me during that day or perhaps the whole week. Since this process is no longer being used for Scripture, she has christened it holy reading or lectio sacra.

I invite you to journey with me and with Sarah Arthur during the extraordinary seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany with an extraordinary spiritual practice of daily worship and prayer using well-known literature.

Joanna . joannaseibert.com