Advent Ideas – Part I
I’m going to share with you some thoughts I am pondering, and some thoughts that are inspiring me this Advent. These thoughts are from my brother, Chris, published on one of his blogs in 2009. Please pray for the repose of his soul as you read. This is part one in a series of three posts Chris wrote on the topic of Advent. I’ll share the subsequent posts over the next few days.I’m posting this under the patronage of St. Joseph, who with great quiet, obedience, love and humility, undertook the final preparations for the Word Made Flesh that very first Advent. St. Joseph, pray for us.
The first Sunday of Advent for 2011 begins tomorrow. As you ponder your Advent preparations, perhaps consider taking a turn through the Sacramental grocery store…
(Tomorrow, we move to the kitchen countertop and begin our preparations in earnest)
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Advent ideas I (Sacramental grocery store)
November 23, 2009 by nobis77
Pt I of a series of unabashedly over-metaphorical posts .. stock up on a few ideas and cook up something eternally new.
… JMJ …
Something about this idiom seems silly I admit, but there’s too many good neglected possibilities out there to just keep trying the same thing the same ways. To become a part of your life you must invest something, some kind of creative self-donation. The easiest and most powerful way of doing this when there are a lot of options is to toss ideas together and look for sparks, but I’m mixing my metaphors.. maybe a tossed sacramental salad..hmm..
Anyway consider this page to be your local sacramental grocery store. Open up a favorite text editor, word processor, calendar or planner and browse down the “aisles” selecting items to drop into your “cart”. If something’s out of stock or spoiled contact the stockboy below.
Aisle 1: Staples
- Silence
- Openness
- Attentiveness
- Scripture
- Prayer
- Natural world
- Church teaching
- Year round traditions
Aisle 2: Seasonal (Advent + Christmas season traditions)
- Fasting (and feasting)
- Almsgiving
- Visitation
- Advent Candles
- Advent Calendar
- Nativity Scenes
- small
- medium
- large
- cumulative/dynamic
- Jesse Tree
- The Joyful mysteries of the Rosary
- The journey of the Holy Family
- The journey of the Wise men
- Galilee, Judea, and Bethlehem
- Family Gatherings
Aisle 3: $aucepans (means, methods and real goods to buy, build, and incarnate with) and Spices (new, unlikely, and rare things)
- Daily routine
- Desktops
- Table tops
- Rooms
- Walls
- Niches
- Corners
- Windows
- Porches
- Yards
- Feast tables
- Refrigerators
- Calendars
- Day planners
- Computers
- Maps
- Boxes
- Baskets
- Buckets
- Cardboard
- Kraft paper
- Wrapping paper
- Stationary
- Christmas cards
- Index cards
- Holy cards
- Candles
- Lights
- Music
- Ribbon
- Religious catalogs
- Magazine clippings
- Web clippings
- Paint
- Play doh
- Building blocks
- Photo albums
~ Non Nobis ~
