Now, more than ever, we must attend to our spiritual health. The shorter days with the growing darkness, paired with the colder temperatures, and the winds that blow through our life in upsetting ways through our news feeds and our worries, all mean it’s a time for special care. As I’ve probably shared before, even the prayer lives of priests ebb and flow. All of us struggle from time to time with prayer and connectedness to God. Often, we don’t miss that connection right away, although it can certainly show up over time.
Last week I surprised myself. While sitting alone in the church during the Advent Meditation we are offering on Wednesday nights, I found myself moved to tears at the closeness of God. It was a return to a form of prayer I didn’t know I needed until we started X Church years ago, a need I was aware of to a degree as X Church’s return was delayed by the pandemic. Nonetheless, I was so grateful for a quiet moment with God in the midst of all those candles (the staff teases me over my love of those candles!). I am eagerly anticipating a return to the space and the worship and meditation with tonight’s offering.
These Advent meditations are not X Church, per se, but I have borrowed heavily from X Church, pairing music (thank you Kathleen!) and a style of liturgy with reflections on Art and some Ignatian meditative prayer. It is the sort of quiet and slow service that Advent invites us into, if we can make the room for it. I find that in the stillness and quiet I can put down my burdens and pick up that yoke from Jesus that is so light. In the darkness and silence, for whatever reason, I can find God, who is always with me, just waiting for me to connect.
Even with the pandemic, this season is an active one. I don’t know what your schedule holds. Maybe you have plenty of quiet and stillness. Maybe you’re filling it with other things this year, like more news, binging on Netflix, scouring websites for the perfect gifts; whatever pulls at us this December, just remember to make some space for God. We can prepare our hearts for the arrival of the Christ Child, who is coming into the world whether we’re ready or not. Providing a home in our hearts will make that arrival all the more meaningful though.
If you’re around on a Wednesday at 7:00 PM, join us live on Facebook or YouTube. If you can’t make that time work, you can replay the meditations at any time, although I think they work best after the sun goes down. Whatever you need in order to find God in these days, I pray you find it. God’s right there, waiting for you to connect.
Tom+
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.