Kindred in Christ,

I love the holidays. I’m always up for a good celebration. And, like many children the crème de la crème for me growing up was always Christmas! Yet, as I became a young adult, I found myself increasingly disillusioned with the whole ordeal. While I still appreciated the lights, songs, sweets, and time with family, I began to find the holiday to be marked by consumerism, stress, and hurriedness. And then I discovered Advent!

The season of Advent, which begins this Sunday and leads up until Christmas is all about slowing down, and opening ourselves up to the mystery of Christ’s arrival in our world. Advent means “coming” in Latin, and these weeks are meant to prepare our hearts, minds, and souls for the arrival of God-with-us, Jesus Christ, born of Mary a couple of millennia ago. You’re supposed to feel the darkness of the wait—the anticipated arrival of something you want so badly but cannot see yet—and by feeling the wait deeply, you’ll be even more satisfied by the celebration of the arrival on Christmas Day.

Advent helped me rekindle my love and appreciation for Christmas but on a much deeper level. It helped me to realize that I need both darkness and light, knowing and unknowing, mystery and revelation in my spiritual life. I hope you will join us for our Advent worship series on shadow and light. It begins this Sunday on Facebook Live.

In the meantime, I want to share with you one of my favorite Advent prayers by Janet Morley. May it bless you during this season of both darkness and light.

For the darkness of waiting

of not knowing what is to come

of staying ready and quiet and attentive,

we praise you, O God:

 

For the darkness and the light

are both alike to you.

 

For the darkness of choosing

when you give us the moment

to speak, and act, and change,

and we cannot know what we have set in motion

but we still have to take the risk,

we praise you, O God:

 

For the darkness and the light

are both alike to you.

 

For the darkness of hoping

in a world which longs for you,

for the wrestling and laboring of all creation

for wholeness and justice and freedom,

we praise you, O God:

 

For the darkness and the light

are both alike to you.

Rev. Paul Ortiz