Advent Study Series
A special offering for all
Advent, the season leading up to Christmas, is a time to prepare for the momentous event of Divine Love entering into the world through our hearts. What does it take to create the needed space of attention and care, of readiness for immense change and challenge? Knowing that the seed planted in this time of darkness is to ripen toward a future flowering, we consider how best to cultivate and nurture it.
Sacred Reading is one of the main ways those on the Christian path have always sought to prepare for the advent of their Beloved, and for our reading circles, I wanted to offer something special this year during the Advent season. Whatever your faith tradition may be, you are welcome to join us. I would love to explore what this season of hope and expectation can mean in a universal sense, even as we take up some special readings from the Christian Scriptures.
The readings will consist of the three stories from the Gospels in which Jesus raises a person from the dead, anticipating his own death and resurrection. This series of stories is particularly special to me, because I embarked on just such a study at a very dark time in my life, when I feared my marriage would not survive the year. As well as helping to prepare me for the great crisis that soon ensued, the thinking and writing I did at that time became the seed for my book, When Fragments Make a Whole. I am very interested to see how working with these stories might bear fruit for others.
The first Sunday of Advent is tomorrow, November 30. Each Sunday, I’ll send the text of the Gospel reading, along with suggestions for Sacred Reading practice. During the ensuing week, I will send a few more emails (the number may vary), giving additional thoughts to ponder or ideas about the practice. On Saturday, closing the week, there will be an online meeting space where we can go through the practice one more time together, and share thoughts and questions.
What will happen on the final Sunday, and in the time around Christmas, is to be determined — I plan to decide after seeing what emerges from our work together in the first three weeks. If there is interest, I’d like to offer a more intensive online workshop to round things off, which can take place sometime during the holiday, when I am more flexible than usual. This time and date will be determined by those who’d like to participate.
The online meetings are open to all, whether you’ve been keeping up with the readings or not, and whether you can attend all of them or just one. Plus, I hope that those who use the Substack app might be inclined to add comments, facilitating discussion among those who can’t make it to the meetings.
Here’s the plan:
Sunday, November 30: First Sunday of Advent. Gospel Story: The young man of Nain
Saturday, December 6: Online meeting, 21:00 CET (Zurich)
Sunday, December 7: Second Sunday of Advent. Gospel Story: The bleeding woman and Jairus’s daughter
Saturday, December 13: Online meeting, 19:00 CET (Zurich)
Sunday, December 14: Third Sunday of Advent. Gospel Story: The raising of Lazarus
Saturday, December 20: Online meeting, 16:00 CET (Zurich)
Sunday, December 21: Fourth Sunday of Advent. Reading TBA
Time and date TBA: Final online meeting, a 90-minute creative workshop
Please note the various meeting times. These are due to events in my own life, but maybe different times will also work better for one or another of the participants.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.
I’ve included a share link at the top of this message, and a subscriber link below. Please do pass this along to anyone who may be interested!
I look forward to our work together, and wish you a season of blessing and renewal.