It's Embodiment Sunday!

On this Embodiment Sunday you are invited to participate in the Prayer of Examen in preparation for the Advent season. The Advent season offers an opportunity to turn from the daily grind and ground us in hope, peace, joy and love as we wait for Jesus to make his way into the world. Together, may we be reminded of the thrill of hope that is promised to us and may we become curious about how God is working in us to bring about a new thing in this Advent season.

What is Advent?

Advent is the season of the Coming of God. The word Advent, means “coming” or “arrival.” Before celebrating the joy of Jesus' birth at Christmas, we walk through a time of waiting with an awareness of the pain and uncertainty that surrounds us, repentance for our sins and understanding our need for God's intervention.

During this season, we embody a posture of waiting. This waiting is not passive, it is an active waiting that involves prayer, preparation, groaning, anticipation, joy, tears, reflection and hope- just as the people of God waited for the long-prophesied Messiah.

Advent feels like it’s right on time this year. In this particular moment many of us have a deep groaning for God’s peace and intervention in our lives, community and world. We continue to grieve and feel the weight of the reality that things are not as they should be. It’s also the peak of the calendar year when the activities are piled high and the mental to-do lists are looming.

Amid all the uncertainty and waiting, we turn to God, who has always been with us. God came to us, in the flesh, and moved into the neighborhood.

Emmanuel, God-with-us, knows our pain, hardship and grief.

In the season of Advent God invites us to center ourselves on the hope, peace, joy and love that comes in the paradoxically ordinary cries of a newborn baby boy who is birthed into the world so that he might love it.

Together, may actively wait this season, as we open ourselves to receiving the gift of the presence of peace as we prepare for the coming and welcoming of

Emmanuel: God-with-us.

Advent Examen

The Examen Prayer is an ancient spiritual practice featured in St. Ignatius Spiritual Exercises. This prayer is a guide to reflect upon our day and see God’s Spirit at work, to practice gratitude and to look ahead to the coming day with the intention to align ourselves with Jesus. For this context we will be utilizing the Examen prayer to reflect upon the previous Advent season and notice any promptings or invitations from God’s Spirit to embody in the Advent season beginning next Sunday.

Postures of the Prayer of Examen

Draw near to God. Find a comfortable position for your body to settle in.

Ask God for your reflections to be both honest and gracious.

Reflect, journal and discuss with loved ones:

How have you approached Advent season in the past?

What memories stand out to you? What priorities, postures, practices or rhythms have been particularly helpful or unhelpful to you? Note what surfaces, consider what guided you near or far from God’s presence?

Ask God to guide your preparation for the coming Advent season.

What is your hope when it comes to this season?

What priorities, postures, practices or rhythms might be nourishing for you in this season? Make a commitment to embodying nourishing practices in the season ahead.

Move forward from the Examen prayer with a spirit of gratitude and hope.

Nourishing Practices to Consider this Advent season

Utilizing an Advent wreath at home, lighting a candle each day and a new candle each Sunday

Take a weekly walk in the darkness to connect with the theme of waiting in dark for the light

Be intentional to notice the lights of Christmas or go outside and look at the stars.

Get curious how the lights remind you about Jesus as the light shining in darkness (John 1:5)

Adopt a stillness or silent practice

Create space for a contemplative prayer

Listen to music with slow rhythms or minor chores to connect with the Advent theme of longing and waiting

Practice hospitality by inviting loved ones over to savor a meal and enjoying one another’s presence

How can you share in the work of the Holy Spirit by bringing love, compassion, or kindness to others who are in a season of waiting?

Recommended Advent Resources

Living Well Through Advent: Practicing Peace with All Your Heart Soul, Strength and Mind, free copies are available on the back table of the gathering space

Hope, Peace, Joy & Love: Coloring and Conversations, free copies are available in the Children’s Ministry space

Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope

Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us Then, Here, and Now

Advent at The Kids Table: An Offering of Hope, Peace, Joy & Love!

Advent Lament

We cry out

in our weariness,

in our confusion,

in our pain,

in our darkness.

Can you hear us, God?