This post is a part of our weekly email called “Presence+Practice”. You can have early access to this weekly content by subscribing to our newsletter.

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Presence:

When our daughter was little, we lit a candle each Sunday evening during Advent. We read a short prayer and then invited her to pray or talk to God. Often she would dance around the table and say things like, “God, you are sooo nice!” and “I love you!”

All these years later, this tradition continues to evolve. This past Sunday, our daughter – now in her thirties – asked if we could light a candle and read the scripture together.

We read Luke 21 on this first week of Advent and we were struck with its majesty and practicality:

There will be signs in the sun, moon, and the stars. (Luke 21:25)

Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighted down. (Luke 21:34)

We talked about how we might hold both the details of this season and also the wonder of it all.

The theme in the first week in Advent is hope. May we all learn to live with both the mystery and the reality of this sacred season in our lives.

Practice

Sometimes we think of the spiritual journey as an upward journey, where we start at the bottom of a mountain and climb to the top; but this kind of thinking can create havoc and stress in our lives. It leads us to believe that there is a way out of the human condition and that we can leave “all others” and our own pain behind.

In this spiritual practice, we embrace the beauty of all of our experiences and open up to new ways of seeing our journey.

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