Advent daybook, 18: he will turn the hearts of fathers to children and children to fathers

My Advent daybook for these 24 days of waiting. Join me, won't you?

(see all Advent daybook posts from 2014 here)

.....

look

Eric Gweah, 25, grieves as he watches members of a Red Cross burial team remove the body of his father, a suspected Ebola victim, in Monrovia, Liberia.

Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times/Redux

source

A collection of Scriptural prayers for the Ebola crisis can be found here.

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read

Malachi 3:16-4:6: he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers

{all readings for the day: Psalm 125; Malachi 3:16-4:6; Mark 9:9-13}

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pray  

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen. (source)

Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Amen. 

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listen

Ah Holy Jesus

Sufjan Stevens

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do

take a walk in the lit night

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Advent daybook, 9: He will come and He will save you

My Advent daybook for these 24 days of waiting. Join me, won't you?

look

Annunciation
John Collier
source

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read 

Isaiah 35:1-10: He will come and save you 

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pray 

God of joy and exultation, you strengthen what is weak; you enrich the poor and give hope to those who live in fear. Look upon our needs this day. Make us grateful for the good news of salvation and keep us faithful in your service until the coming of our Lord jesus Christ, who lives for ever and ever. Amen. (source)

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listen

Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming

Forest Mountain Hymnal

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do

read a Christmas story with friends
[my new favorite Christmas story!]

A Child's Christmas in Wales
 by Dylan Thomas, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg

Advent calendar via Ambrosium

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Advent daybook, 6: Out of their gloom the eyes of the blind shall see

My Advent daybook for these 24 days of waiting. Join me, won't you?

look

Michael Buesking, Healing of the Blind Man
source

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read 

Isaiah 29:17-24: Out of their gloom 

the eyes of the blind shall see

   

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pray 

Come, Lord Jesus!

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listen

Amazing Grace

Songs for Christmas, Sufjan Stevens

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make

Saint Nicholas Day

give to a person or cause in need

Advent calendar via Ambrosium

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Advent daybook 4: A Feast of Well-Aged Wine

My Advent daybook for these 24 days of waiting. Join me, won't you?

watch

Babette's Feast (1987)

 is adapted from a short story by the famous Danish writer Karen Blixen (1885–1962)
For  a lovely review, read Babette's Feast: Mercy and Truth Have Met Together

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read 

Isaiah 25:6-10a: A feast of well-aged wine

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pray 

Awaken, O Lord Jesus, our hearts and minds to your presence in the world of your love's creating. Forbid that we should stumble through this day oblivious to the wonder in the ordinary. With your grace, startle us into faith's perception of your continuing creation in our lives. Amen. Let it be. (source)

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listen

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make

bread as gift: pumpkin pecan bread via

(mine in the oven; photo source)

Advent calendar via Ambrosium

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Meditating the Trinity with Rublev + Sufjan Stevens

"On the first Sunday after Pentecost, the church considers and celebrates the trinitarian nature of God. ... Pentecost highlights the coming of the Spirit, but we must remember that the Spirit has always been at work: creating and sustaining the cosmos, forming and preserving Israel, choosing kings and speaking through prophets, overshadowing Mary and anointing Jesus, and, yes, baptizing and empowering the church."  (Bobby Gross, Living the Christian Year)

God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.

Trinity
Andrei Rublev, 1410

A Prayer (via The Trinity Mission audio daily office)

God of all creation, full of love and abounding in mercy;

May the whole earth be filled with your glory.

That our words and deeds would befit your people;

God the Father, we call upon you.

That we would offer to you the reward of your suffering;

God the Son, we call upon you.

That our work today we would receive as your gift;

God the Holy Spirit, we call upon you.

Lord, send us out to proclaim your goodness;

God the Father, we call upon you.

Lord, teach us to love as you have loved us;

God the Son, we call upon you.

Lord, renew your Church for the work of your Kingdom;

God the Holy Spirit, we call upon you.

Bless us and keep us and be gracious to us;

God the Father, we call upon you.

Work through us among the poor, the opressed, those in bondage and those who are alone;

God the Son, we call upon you.

Be before us and behind us; to our left and to our right;

God the Holy Spirit, we call upon you.

God of all creation, full of love and abounding in mercy;

May the whole earth be filled with your glory.

Collect for Trinity Sunday:

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hymn of Response: Holy, Holy, Holy (arranged by Sufjan Stevens)

Day 23 (art meditations + suggested resources for Advent)

"Advent is about learning to wait. It is about not having to know exactly what is coming tomorrow, only that whatever it is, it is of the essence of sanctification for us. Every piece of it, some hard, some uplifiting, is sign of the work of God alive in us. We are becoming as we go. We learn in Advent to stay in the present, knowing that only the present well lived can possibly lead us to the fullness of life." (Chittister)





During Advent I'll forego my weekly Buy More Art posts in order to share almost-daily meditations of Scripture, hymns, and art reflecting the alternate narrative and subversive time of waiting in hope for the Christ who came, the Christ who will come again and the Christ now among us.

Won't you join me?

Fourth Sunday of Advent:

"In the first centuries the Church had a beautiful custom of praying seven great prayers calling afresh on Christ to come, calling him by the mysterious titles he has in Isaiah, calling to him; O Wisdom. O Root! O Key, O Light! come to us!"  (Malcolm Guite)

December 23 - O Emmanuel (God With Us)

Isaiah 7:14:

"The Lord himself will give you this sign: the Virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel."

Matthew 1:23: 

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”

The original antiphon in Latin and English (via Malcolm Guite)

O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,
exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God

[the verse from the familiar carol]

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears.

Listen to the original antiphon sung in Latin.

O Emmanuel re-written by Malcolm Guite

O Emmanuel

O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.

(Listen to the author's reading of this sonnet.)

listen to ‘O Emmanuel’ on Audioboo

Madonna and Child
Nancy Goes
CIVA exhibit, Seeing the Savior

O Emmanuel rewritten by Thom Turner at Everyday Liturgy

O Emmanuel

O God-who-is-with-us, our coming king, composer of justice,
the nations will gather and bow down to you
who will come to judge the living and the dead.
Come now and save us, our God in the flesh.

Song of response: O Come, O Come Emmanuel (three, because I couldn't pick just one)




Suggested Resources for Advent:

Christmas Hymns by Jason Harrod

Songs for Christmas by Sufjan Stevens

Salvation is Created by Bifrost Arts

Now it's your turn!  What art are you enjoying this season? 

 Tell us about it in the  comments below.  

If you've written your own post, share the link.

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"I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God's saving powers. Our temptation is to be distracted by them. When I have no eyes for the small signs of God's presence ... I will always remain tempted to despair." -- Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal - 1983 (via Diary of An Arts Pastor)

Day 4 (art meditations + suggested resources for Advent)

"Advent is about learning to wait. It is about not having to know exactly what is coming tomorrow, only that whatever it is, it is of the essence of sanctification for us. Every piece of it, some hard, some uplifiting, is sign of the work of God alive in us. We are becoming as we go. We learn in Advent to stay in the present, knowing that only the present well lived can possibly lead us to the fullness of life." (Chittister)

During Advent I'll forego my weekly Buy More Art posts in order to share almost-daily meditations of Scripture, hymns, and art reflecting the alternate narrative and subversive time of waiting in hope for the Christ who came, the Christ who will come again and the Christ now among us.

Won't you join me?

FIrst Wednesday of Advent:

Unknown Ethiopian Artist
via Sacred Art Meditations

A Reading from Isaiah 25

6  On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain
    the covering that is cast over all peoples,
    the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸     He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
¹⁰ For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain,

clip from Babette's Feast


A Gospel Reading from Matthew 15 

²⁹ Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. ³⁰ And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, ³¹ so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

³² Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said,“I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” ³³ And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?”³⁴ And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” ³⁵ And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, ³⁶ he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ³⁷ And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. ³⁸ Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

A hymn of response (lyrics here)

                                                          t

Recommended resources for Advent:

How to Make An Advent Wreath at Like Mother, Like Daughter

Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, 40 essays and poems from theological writers such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothy Day, Madeleine L'Engle, Martin Luther, Kathleen Norris, Henri Nouwen, Philip Yancey, Karl Barth and Síren Kierkegaard; published by Orbis Books

Now it's your turn!  What art are you enjoying this season? 

 Tell us about it in the  comments below.  

If you've written your own post, share the link.

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"I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God's saving powers. Our temptation is to be distracted by them. When I have no eyes for the small signs of God's presence ... I will always remain tempted to despair." -- Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal (1983)  (via Diary of An Arts Pastor)