In the season of Advent, as we wait actively for the One who is coming into the word in new ways this year, the work of preparation is to let go all the old ways of seeing and hearing and speaking that block awareness of Sacred Presence. We let go the habits of being and doing taking up space, claiming our attention and our life energy.

Early Friends exhorted us to walk in the Light, calling us to our higher selves and to conscious connection with God and with all of creation. 1 Thes 5:5 assures us we are children of the Light, something we can forget when fear assails us. The call to walk in the Light is also a call to wake up to the kingdom/kin-dom of God already here, not only in our midst, but within us as well. The guided meditation below gives us practice filling with Light.

We explored the so-called armor of God in my last blog post. In this guided meditation we will practice putting it on and allowing Spirit to interpret what we might need this day.

Have you ever noticed how much in our lives recycles? How lessons we thought we’d learned long ago come back for us to deepen the learning, to let it move from our heads to our hearts and be lived in new ways? 

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” Jesus says (italics added). In focusing on loving our neighbor alone, we miss the part that will actually teach us to love.

Paul, and many witnesses over the years since, assure us that God uses everything in our lives to create good for us, whether it feels that way to us in the moment or not.

Our bodies are wiser than we give them credit for most of the time. I’ve heard several people say recently that they aren’t sure how to pray. Maybe letting our bodies pray instead of our minds will help something shift for us.

Lectio divina or sacred reading is a centuries old form of praying scripture. This passage has been speaking to me since Jan Wood used it in her guest meditation.

  When we have strong feelings like fear or anger or grief or when we are in some kind of pain, it is hard to be kind or patient or to respond to others caringly. As Richard Rohr often says, if we don’t heal and transform our pain and suffering, we will transmit it to others.