Skip to main content

Advent Listening

I know halfway through Advent is a little late to be recommending things to listen to in Advent.  But I had to listen to it before I could recommend it, didn't I?  Anyway, even if you haven't got organized for the first half of Advent, there's nothing to stop you giving these a try for the second half.

The first recommendation is a book, but you can also listen to the author reading a chapter each day.


I can't remember where I picked up Penelope Wilcock's The Hawk and the Dove trilogy, but it came into my life from somewhere, and I enjoyed it.  Then I discovered she has a blog, where she writes about simplicity, and living with less, and little anecdotes about her home and life.  And then I bought Into the Heart of Advent, subtitled Twenty-five conversations with Jesus.

This book laps you with peace and tranquillity - the calm of a winter's morning, sitting by an open fire, standing out under the stars - yet it never lapses into sentimentality or wishful thinking.  Jesus has opinions about Christmas cards: "'Stick with the robins,' he suggests. 'Those [nativity scenes] are awful.'" and electric tealights versus real candles: "It's always better not to set anybody on fire."  

But the conversations include much deeper topics, like judgement, vulnerability and homelessness.  At the end of one chapter, Penelope muses, "I can't figure out if he's just made this easier or twice as hard."

You probably won't want to buy the book at this point in December (unless for next year), but go and have a listen at Kindred of the Quiet Way.  I recommend Chapter 3: What it means to be with us, if you just need ten minutes to be still and breathe.


I've mentioned the Lectio 365 app a few times before on this blog.  Clearly I'm not the only one who finds it helpful, because they've expanded from morning prayer to evening prayer, and now a brand new app, Lectio for Families.  It follows a similar format to the regular Lectio app, but the language is simpler and it includes a weekly memory verse.  The boys have engaged with it really well, and it's been nice to stop and have a few moments of quiet, snuggled together on the sofa.

Lectio for Families launched at the beginning of Advent, but as far as I know, it is scheduled to continue.  So you can start at the New Year, for Lent, or just dip in whenever you like.


Edit to add: I belatedly realised that this post needed some music, too.  This is beautiful:


And I've just discovered Annie Lennox's Christmas Cornucopia album (only 11 years behind the times!).  I particularly like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen:


Of course, we still have our Advent candle at dinner each day, with a verse from the Christmas story.  And the chocolate Advent calendars from Grandma!  Those are non-negotiable traditions.

It strikes me that my Advent reading and listening has emphasised quiet and stillness, this year.  Jesus' comments about people being "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" still feel true today, don't they?  Peace seems hard to find, whether we are frantically arranging activities, cancelling them again, or stuck at home isolating.

May we all hear the voice of the true shepherd, and find rest in him this Advent.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Place at the Table: Spiritual Formation Book 12

"God has ordained in his great wisdom and goodness that eating, and especially eating in company, should be one of the most profound and pleasurable aspects of being human." Miranda Harris had been intending to write a book for years. She'd got as far as a folder full of notes when she died suddenly in a car accident in 2019. When her daughter, Jo Swinney, found the notes, she decided to bring her mum's dream to fruition. A Place at the Table was the result. I thought this was going to be a nice friendly book about having people over for dinner. In one sense it is, but it's pretty hard-hitting as well. Miranda and her husband Peter co-founded the environmental charity A Rocha, so the book doesn't shy away from considering the environmental aspects of what we eat and how we live. They also travelled widely and encountered hunger at close quarters; the tension between seeing such poverty and believing in a generous God comes out clearly in A Place at the Table.
Post a Comment
Read more

Flexitarianism

Hey folks!  I learnt a new word today!  I can now proudly proclaim myself to be a flexitarian .  Yes, I wish that meant I'm in training to be a trapeze artist.  Or that I'm a leading world expert on the chemical properties of stretchy materials.  All it actually means is that I don't eat meat that much. Well, big deal.  That lumps me in with a majority of the world's population, many of whom have no choice about the matter.  So why the need for a fancy new word?  Because, it seems, that we in the prosperous West have come to regard having bacon for breakfast, chicken sandwiches for lunch and a steak for dinner as entirely normal.  But also because we in the prosperous West are starting to realise that might not be an entirely good idea. You know about factory farming, of course.  The images of chickens crammed into tiny cages and pigs which never see the sunlight, which we push out of our minds when we reach for our plastic-wrapped package of sausages in t
Post a Comment
Read more

Bonnie Prince Charlie Walk: Lees to Derby

These final two Bonnie Prince Charlie walks were quite a contrast: the first across empty fields and along quiet roads; the second crossing from country into city as I walked into Derby. I started both walks at the Great Northern Greenway car park, just off Station Road in Mickleover.  Walk 1 In order to keep walking the Bonnie Prince Charlie way in the right direction, I first found my way back to Lees by an alternative route. The first section, along the cycle path, was well paved. After that it quickly got very muddy. At least it's a popular walk from Mickleover to Radbourne, so it was easy to find the path.  St Andrew's, Radbourne, is rather dominated by memorials. It looks as if the preacher would be hemmed in by tombs!      I liked this bench outside, with the text, "The thoughtful soul to solitude retires". Writing this, I only just realised it was a quote. Turns out it's from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam . The rest of the walk certainly provided solitude,
Post a Comment
Read more