advent @ home

Advent knows something we often forget.

Advent knows that Christmas isn’t just this time of celebrating Jesus’ birth. Advent knows Christmas is something bigger and deeper than that – it's about beholding, experiencing, and celebrating a foundational truth about how we understand God, ourselves, and the world around us:

That in some mysterious way, God, through Jesus, is here, with us and for us, showing us what God is like, showing us what it means to be human, and leading us into a new kind of life and world.

And so knowing Christmas is about that, Advent invites us into this season of getting ready, of preparing to, once again, show up at the manger, and believing something new and good and beautiful is happening, join in on what God is doing, leaving behind what is and stepping into something new.

That’s what we’re getting ready for. That’s why we do Advent. We do Advent because the truth is: You can't get ready for something by being in it.

You can't get ready for a marathon by running it. You can't get ready for an argument by having it. That all takes some preparation. That all takes some getting ready.

What Advent knows is if you’re going to really do something well, you need to prepare.

Advent @ Home is meant to help you do exactly that. Use these daily devotionals to help you arrive at Christmas ready to welcome God's love and light into your life and world.

Unless otherwise indicated, the devotionals were written by Rev. Nick Coates

Banner photograph by Katherine Matiko

november 28, 2021

“Advent is about anticipating the birth of Christ. It’s about longing, desire, that which is yet to come. That which isn’t here yet. And so we wait, expectantly. Together. With an ache. Because all is not right. Something is missing. And we are looking  to fill that void. 

Advent confronts this corrosion of the heart with the insistence that God has not abandoned the world, hope is real and something is coming. We ask God to enter into the deepest places of cynicism, bitterness and hardness where we have stopped believing that tomorrow can be better than today. We ask for the impossible to happen. 

In Advent we open up. We soften up. We turn our hearts in the direction of that day. That day when the baby cries His first cry and we, surrounded by shepherds and angels and everybody in between, celebrate that sound in time that brings our Spirits what we’ve been longing for.” 

- Rob Bell

november 29, 2021

When we talk about hope we’re talking about resilient and defiant trust. It’s a trust that looks at the despair and hurt happening in us and around us and says, “It’s too early to give up because God is a God who turns towards us.” That’s what hope is. It’s the resilient and defiant trust that it’s always too early to give up. 

And because it’s that, it isn’t just wishful thinking or arrogant optimism, but something that shapes how we live and move and that compels us to try to make happen the very things we’re longing for. 

If you’ve ever been in a relationship that’s struggling and you don't know if you’re gonna make it but you work on it anyway? That’s hope.

If you’ve ever had a friend who's sick and you don't know if they’re gonna make it but you show up and cheer them on anyway? That’s hope.

If you’ve ever had a dream where you gave up everything to chase it even though you knew it may not happen? That’s hope.

If you’ve ever witnessed oppression and violence and you’ve worked and fought even though you didn't know justice would happen? That’s hope. 

This is why hope changes everything. 

november 30, 2021

Advent is when we remember why we need Christmas in the first place. It’s when we slow down, pull over, reflect on the revolutionary, liberating, and radical meaning of Christmas and get ready to let that message change everything.

One of the ways Advent helps us do that is by inviting us to practice something that most of us probably find really difficult: being present and aware of what’s going on in and around us. Take some time today to practice being present. Feel what's going on. Name it out loud. Express it somehow. We cannot have hope for something new if we never name what it is we want to leave behind.

december 1, 2021

“Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Spirit of God. Come, Divine Energy. Come with your peace, your power, your light. Come with forgiveness, courage, and love. 

Come now to our suffering world, this world suffering from a virus, from hatred, violence, fear, and greed.

Come to those exhausted and done. Come to those angry and bitter. Come to those launching missiles and to those who those missiles are landing on. Come to those experiencing loss and grief. 

Come to those without homes and fleeing from homes. Come to those who hunger and those who are cold. Come to our broken and shattered earth. Come to everyone and everything crying out for life. 

Help us to be people of hope, people who breathe your Spirit in and who join in that work of renewing the earth.”

- Fr. Leo Donovan

december 2, 2021

Mary was a poor teenage girl living in an occupied state. Given how things were going at that time, her future wasn’t looking any better than her present. She’d still be poor, still be a second class citizen because of her gender, and still be oppressed. That’s how it had always been and that’s how it would always be. It makes us have to wonder, with all of that in mind, when the angel showed up and asked her if she wanted to help change the universe, what made her say yes?

december 3, 2021

Hope is more than wishful thinking, it’s courageous and defiant action against despair. How can you be a source of hope today?

december 4, 2021

Lament is the sacred art of naming what it is that should not be. It is the companion to hope. It’s only by naming, however we need to name it, that this is what’s wrong, this is what’s broken, and this is what needs to change, that we can make room for imagination and what could be possible. What laments do you have? Take some time to name them today in order to make room for what could be..

december 5, 2021

During the second week of Advent, our tradition invites us to think about the peace Jesus embodies and teaches. But when we talk about peace, we're not just talking about any peace— we’re talking about a robust, deep, soulful HARMONY, this peace that exists in and between everything and everyone. We're talking about WHOLENESS, this sense of being at peace with ourselves and all our parts and all our stories. We're talking about TRUST, this peace that grounds and reassures even in the MIDST of conflict. That’s the peace we talk about at Christmas. We're talking about a peace that, all at once, both allows and sustains that kind of life and world.

december 6, 2021

As Banksy showed us, we cannot have peace without love and we cannot have love without peace.

december 7, 2021

A spiritual practice for the second week of Advent: Find a quiet place to be and try this for 5-10 breaths. With every breath you take in, think “I am breathing in peace,” and with every breath out, think “I am breathing out . . .” and name something that is robbing you of peace. Maybe it’s resentment. Maybe it’s the urge to always be doing. Maybe it’s sadness. The idea isn't for it to go away, but for a sense of peace to take up more room than it does. 

december 8, 2021

Jesus taught that we become fully and truly alive by becoming makers of peace: peace with God, peace with ourselves, peace with others, and peace with creation. How can you create peace today?

december 9, 2021

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” 

- Mother Teresa

december 10, 2021

In the Christmas story, we’re told that the shepherds and the magi found Jesus by following a star that was shining in the dark sky. It reminds me of sitting by a fire while camping and feeling that all is okay with the world even when all is not alright. It reminds me of sitting in a dark room with just a reading light on and feeling this deep sense of comfort. There’s something deeply sacred about it. Maybe you’ve experienced it too. What is it about a light shining in the dark that brings us a sense of calm and peace?

december 11, 2021

The Peace of the Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

- Wendell Berry

december 12, 2021

Every Advent we take time to reflect on joy. Joy is far more than momentary happiness, it’s something deeply sacred: it’s the feeling, sometimes fleeting and sometimes permanent, of being truly, fully, and wholly alive. So why joy at Christmas? Because it’s at Christmas that we celebrate how even though there is pain, suffering, evil, and injustice, we can still experience life as it was meant to be. 

december 13, 2021

What brings you joy? Make a list of three things and go and do each one.

december 14, 2021

Shepherds were seen as some of the worst of the worst people in first century Palestine. They were seen as thieves, sinners, and people you’d want to avoid at all costs. Nobody would want to be a shepherd because it was a life of despair, shame, and loneliness. And yet it’s to these guys that the angels show up with their message of Jesus’ birth. Sometimes when life goes sideways we can feel like Christmas isn’t for us but the truth is it’s precisely for everyone who experiences despair, shame, and loneliness. It’s for them because Christmas is about joy.  

december 15, 2021

"Joy is an act of resistance against despair and its forces.” 

- Willie Jennings

What act of joy can you commit today? 

december 16, 2021

Ever do this? Ever experience something joyful—something that lifts your spirits and makes you feel alive—and then go, “This is great but what about . . .” and then think of a gazillion reasons why it won’t last? Some people call this “dress rehearsing tragedy.” It’s when we get in the way of joy. We all do it but the trick is to learn in those moments when we want to second guess it all to stay in the moment and relish the joy. 

december 17, 2021

Joy can be tough to experience sometimes. One of the practices that will always lead to joy— yup, that’s as much of a guarantee we can give you—is gratitude. Gratitude always leads to joy (and spoiler alert: joy always leads to gratitude). As Brene Brown says, “There is no joy without gratitude.” Give it a shot: what are you grateful for today? 

december 18, 2021

Put on your favourite music and have a dance party in the kitchen. Bring on that joy!!

december 19, 2021

As we get closer to Christmas, we end up thinking about the thing at the very heart of Christmas and the thing that hope, peace, and joy flow out of: love. It’s out of love that God came into our lives and world as Jesus. It’s out of love that God came to show us how to be human. It’s out of love that God came to be with us. If we’re ever wondering what love looks like, all we need to do is look at Christmas.

december 20, 2021

Chew on this one today: “Love does not exist, love calls everything into existence.”

- Peter Rollins

december 21, 2021

Nobody likes to talk about King Herod. He is the bad guy of the Christmas story, after all. But we need to talk about him because Christmas isn't just about getting, it's also about losing. The truth is in order to say "yes" to all that Christmas is, it takes saying "no." It takes saying "no" to power, control, evil, injustice, selfishness, and greed. And so often, saying "no" means losing things that make us wealthy, comfortable, and secure. King Herod didn't want to lose and said "no" to Christmas. We should talk about that because the same question gets asked of us: "What will we say when Christmas comes?"

december 22, 2021

We all love to get gifts (what's not to love?!) but the real joy? That comes through the giving. Joy and generosity always go hand-in-hand. That's why one writer of the Bible talks about being a cheerful giver.

This year we've partnered with our friends at World Renew to help bring the joy to the places that need it the most. Head to worldrenew.ca/gift-catalogue/shop and make a difference through the gift of ducks, education, food, and tools.

december 23, 2021

Here's an idea: go buy some Christmas cards (or make your own!) and drop them off at a local nursing home to give to those who don't get any kind of mail during the holidays. Reflect on how it felt to be a source of love and joy to complete strangers.

december 25, 2021

Christmas Eve. Wherever you find yourself, take a moment, even a small one, to feel the holiness of this night and hear what it says to you: 

“Behold, 

You who have walked in darkness,

whose worlds and lives have become coloured by pain and sorrow,

you who are longing for something new, look up!

A great light is shining upon you!

For all of you who live in a land of deep shadows - 

light! Sunbursts of light!

Love is here.”