Advent Preview

For people who plan ahead, because it's only 7 weeks until the First Sunday of Advent

For those who plan ahead and who are looking for short songs for worship or personal contemplation, this stack began with a series of Advent Pocket Songs and Reflections. Here is quick review of what last year’s Advent season had on this stack.

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First Sunday of Advent: I have long thought and practiced Advent as about the both/and. Advent is about both the light and the dark, our waiting and our impatience, hope and despair, peace and violence/hate, joy and sorrow, love and fear. Song: Hold My Hope https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections

Advent is about both the dark and the light. Song: Honor the Dark https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-437

During Advent, we need both the tidings of comfort and joy and the acknowledgment of the pain and the chaos. Song:  The Cure for the Pain https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-821

Hope is about possibilities: for change, for something new to be born, for making a difference in the world. Songs: 3 settings of Another World https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-4f9

Advent is a time for waiting and for rising in hope and in prayer, for reaching out and holding on. Song: We Rise https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-2b3

Advent is a time when we both seek peace and confront the violence in the world we live in. Song: Peace, come now https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-aa4

Advent is a time of waiting and expectation, and for many of us, waiting for change to come is hard. Song: Tear open the Heavens, Lord! https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-14e

Second Sunday of Advent: Advent peace confronts both our own impatience and our desire for justice and an end to violence and war in the world. Peace be with you today and always. Song: Be the Peace https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-e3f

Advent can be about just being present—to what is, here, now, and to what is holy.  Song: We Were Made For These Times https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-1de

Amid the noise and violence of the world, Advent comes with a reminder to seek peace and pursue it. Peace is found throughout creation, if we but look. Song: Deep Peace https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-cc9

Advent and the nativity story include a lot of times of waiting in the dark, of following a star, and of needing comfort. Song: Hold Me https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-ea1

Restoration becomes a theme in Advent; a reminder that the child who is born is coming to restore us to wholeness, to a healthier relationship with the divine. Song: Restore Us https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-37e

Mary’s song of praise, of seeking justice, is one of my favorite passages of the Advent season. Songs: Feisty Advent Song, Give to Us Your Hope, Magnificat chant https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-8c6

Advent is a looking forward with joy, a reminder that we need all too often in the busy-ness of this season and in this troubled world. We hold the both/and tension of joy and sorrow, as we wait. Song: Go On Your Way In Joy, My Friends https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-a92

Third Sunday of Advent: Sometimes the big joy of Advent and Christmas is hard to find amid our pain, grief, and anger at what is going on, so let us notice and savor small things that bring us joy for the moment.Song: Joy Shall Come In The Morning. https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-97f

Advent is a time of waiting, maybe even waiting to feel joy. Song: I Want to Feel Joy https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-8cd

Advent means to come, so we can hear any invocation or call that begins with “come” both as a prayer and an invitation to a companion for the journey. Song: Come Light of Lights https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-fb9

As we wait in the darkness for the light that comes, as we wait for the days to get longer again, we are reminded of the formless void and darkness of creation. Song: The Breath of God https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-415

The Winter Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere) is often a time when congregations offer a Longest Night/Blue Christmas service. Maybe this is a time when we can observe the holiday, even if we can't celebrate. Song: Be With Us in Dark, In Light, Between https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-d69

May you be drawn into the light and love that comes, as we move toward the fourth Sunday of Advent. Song: Sending You Light https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-633

The fourth Sunday of Advent celebrates love. Song: To Listen Is To Lean In Softly https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-e9d

Fourth Sunday of Advent: Advent is a journey toward love born at Christmas. Songs: Put One Foot In Front Of The Other And Lead With Love, Lead With Your Heart, Love Take a Walk with Me https://allourdays.substack.com/p/advent-pocket-songs-and-reflections-e91

Christmas: Wishing you and yours what you need for today, and that the presence of the holy inspire you to be wholly present to the love that comes. Songs: What We Need Is Here, God is Here Today https://allourdays.substack.com/p/christmas-songs-and-presence

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I will have some new and different songs for Advent during the season. So if you subscribe you’ll get those as well.

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I had a song mashup ready to share from my song leading/retreat facilitation extravaganza in New Hampshire this last week, but today my voice is imitating a foghorn, so I can’t record the mashup. Something for you to look forward to.

I did write a longer reflection about the retreat here. If you’re not already on my MailChimp list to receive those longer reflections, you can subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/ilgIE9.

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