Animate

Today’s #AdventWord is #Animate

The accompanying reflection, by Br. Mark Brown, read:

“The Spirit of God animates us, but it all happens in the flesh: every deed of kindness, every act of generosity, every word of encouragement happens in the flesh. Every embodiment of Christ’s grace or truth or love happens in the flesh – or it doesn’t happen.”

Abide

Today’s #AdventWord is #Abide

To abide is to remain with Jesus. To go where he goes, and to stop for whom he stops.

Jesus told his disciples to abide in him. In the first instance – the very next morning, he would be crucified – only the women and James’ barely-adult kid-brother John dared do so.

Where will Jesus call us to abide with him today?

Prune

Today’s #AdventWord is #Prune

In the northern hemisphere, tomorrow is the ‘shortest’ day of the year. Daylight itself is pruned right back, and we are invited to slow right down, and submit ourselves to being enfolded by love, in order that the fruit of love might flourish in our lives.

Simplicity

Today’s #AdventWord is #Simplicity

A digital advertising board has recently been placed beneath the Minster. As I walked past it today, it was advertising...nothing, which instead made it a mirror reflecting what we already have, and might or might not value or be content with...

Open

Today’s #AdventWord is #Open

Embrace

Today’s #AdventWord is #Embrace

Awaken

Today’s #AdventWord is #Awaken

The sun was already starting its descent in the sky when a songbird pierced the fretful sleep-walk of my anxious thoughts, and I awoke to the gift of the present moment. Better late than never.

Trust

Today’s #AdventWord is #Trust

Trust is a choice, to give ourselves to others, that is not dependent on their trustworthiness, or indeed ours, but on God’s character.

Because he entrusts his life to his heavenly Father, Jesus can submit himself to the trust of those who would handle him with care, such as the woman who anointed his feet with perfume; those who would unintentionally let him down, such as the disciples in whose storm-caught boat he slept; and even those who schemed against him, who ultimately subjected him to public execution.

Surprise

Today’s #AdventWord is #Surprise

The Royal Mail alternates its yearly Christmas stamp designs between nativity scenes and other seasonal images. (Religious-theme stamps are always available if that is important to you, but you have to specifically ask for them in the ‘other’ years. Personally, I love the alternating mix.) Today four cards arrived, all bearing a jolly snowman - and the stamps blessed me with joy before I ever opened the envelopes. God is not only to be found in a manger, but in all kinds of surprising places.

Mend

Today’s #AdventWord is #Mend

Earlier this year, the Minster was broken into. Among other damage, an elegant oak door was smashed off its hinges. It was repaired by a specialist wood restorer, who constructed a frame of vice-grips to hold the wood fast while the glue set. You need to know the material you are attempting to mend...

Today I heard the news that a dear friend has died, unexpectedly and far too soon. I am heart-broken. That is, my ability to make good choices is severely impaired (the heart is the seat of the will). But my mind (the seat of thoughts and emotions, by which we perceive and process the world) is also broken: I am overwhelmed, mentally and emotionally, by a world without her.

My heart and my mind need to be mended. This will be a slow, painstaking process, which has not even begun. My heart and my mind need to be held in place, by a frame.

The frame that is needed to hold my heart is a simple but robust rule of life. I shall continue to say morning prayer, whether or not my thoughts or emotions can engage with the words. The discipline itself will hold me in the place where mending can take place. I will need to be gentle with myself, but I need a frame.

The frame that is needed to hold my mind is quite different, and surprising. This frame is grief. Grief holds my broken thoughts and emotions in place allowing mending to take place. This is the deep knowledge of the skilled Restorer.

May my friend rest in peace, and rise in glory. And may it be so of her friends, too.

Rely

Today’s #AdventWord is #Rely

A glass star hangs from a tiny hook by the finest of threads.

Glow

Today’s #AdventWord is #Glow

Even the sky put on rose vestments for Gaudete (Rejoice!) Sunday.

Befriend

Today’s #AdventWord is #Befriend

Promise

Today’s #AdventWord is #Promise

This nest, against the dusk, caught my eye, and brought to mind Psalm 84.

Hope

Today’s #AdventWord is #Hope

Act

Today’s #AdventWord is #Act

What will you do with the resources God has given you in answer to prayer?

I will seek to offer hospitality, to the few as I would to the many – and to the many as I would to the few.

Be

Today’s #AdventWord is #Be

Here is Bede, Sunderland’s great monastic scholar and the Father of English History, as depicted in the window of the Bede Chapel, Sunderland Minster. He kneels on the beach in prayer, and is my companion at Morning Prayer, whether I am found in joy or sorrow, and whether I am fully present or distracted.

Today I have needed to wrestle with many distractions, in order to be present to, and at prayer for, those who are hurting.

I am struck that the word Be is found in the name Bede; and by the way in which both dark and light depict his face, his world, my world.

Commit

Today’s #AdventWord is #Commit

Sometimes commitment requires that you hang on in there, however unpromising things look...

Touch

Today’s #AdventWord is #Touch

Play

Today’s #AdventWord is #Play

Parkrunners set off at Sunderland Parkrun.

Light

Today’s #AdventWord is #Light

This photo was taken just before the start of the Age UK carol service, each year the first of our season, with over 300 people in attendance today.

Proclaim

Today’s #AdventWord is #Proclaim

I have had a hell of a day today, beginning with a delayed and stressful train journey. By the time I got home, I felt like I needed one of the stunning the-heavens-proclaim-the-glory-of-God sunsets we regularly get here on the east coast. Instead, I got the faithfulness of the first twinkling stars, appearing despite cloud cover, despite light pollution. A different proclamation, a quieter one – if we can differentiate the volume of silent proclamation – and perhaps the one I actually needed to hear today...

Listen

Today’s #AdventWord is #Listen

Renew

Today’s #AdventWord is #Renew

The meditation focused on the idea that Jesus is all in all: that he can be found in various ways, including symbolically, and that where we find Jesus that place – or person – is given back to us, renewed.

The photo is of the floor of our chapel. In the spaces between the stones, not only the form of a cross but the form of a man on a cross, his head tilted to one side. Jesus is found in the ‘negative’ or ‘in-between’ space; and a floor that might be considered in need of renewing – of polishing and re-pointing – is renewed by Christ alone.

Love

Today’s #AdventWord is #Love

Walking in the park, my attention was caught by one remaining yellow leaf on an otherwise bare tree. It spoke to me of love. Love that endures the storm, that holds fast. Love that will have to let go, when the time comes; but, please God, not quite yet. And when the yellow leaf falls, in dying, it will give its life back to the tree that gave it life. For when we fall in love, we die to self.

#AdventWord #Love

Shine

This year for Advent I will be taking part in the Anglican Communion’s Global Advent Calendar. Each day they will send participants a short meditation, on a key word, and invite us to pray and then over the course of the day to take and post a photo that expresses that word on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. I’ll be posting to Facebook, and copying the image here.

The first word is Shine.

#AdventWord #Shine