Preparing the Way: Loving

Last updated on: December 21, 2013 at 5:01 pm by Elizabeth Nordquist

Preparing the Way: Loving 2013-12-21T17:01:38-08:00 Elizabeth Nordquist

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Advent IV:

A new hymnal introduces an Advent hymn new to me:

Rejoice, rejoice take heart in the night. Though dark the winter and cheerless, the rising sun shall crown you with light; be strong and loving and fearless. LOVE BE OUR SONG AND LOVE OUR PRAYER AND LOVE OUR ENDLESS STORY; may God fill every day we share and bring us at last into glory. (Marty Haugen, 1983)

It is after all about Love, this Advent-Christmas thing. And I survey the way Love is being poured out and shared this season:

someone works diligently at getting all the tasks done before a child returns home from college, so that there is ample time to listen and to admire and to be of use.
someone puts in the time in rehearsal and practice to sing the anthems and carols for the services to come this week.
someone sits at the bedside of a stricken one with patience and presence.
someone grieves over the home going of a cherished one.
someone prays for the world—South Sudan, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, the Philippines—and more…
someone runs errands for the housebound neighbor, taking care of quotidian tasks that require mobility and energy.
someone crafts a new sermon full of Hope and Light to offer to those who come Christmas Eve without either Hope or Light.
and there are toys collected, meals packed, soups ladled, animals adopted, and contributions made to those equipped to feed the hungry, devastated and lonely.

It is for Love’s sake that we wend our way through Advent, and in the days we have left, we are called do do whatever we do lovingly. So in the Advent hours I have remaining, I look for ways to Love. I offer this blog as a Song of Love for the constant Presence of the One who who has come and is coming again. I lift up Prayers of Love for the lonely, the bereft, the anxious, the depressed, the hopeless, and those who walk beside them. I tell the the Story of Love that came down at Christmas in the ways I love the ones I will encounter–friends, neighbors, worshipers, and beloved family.

I pray to be strong, loving and fearless!

Previous Post

December 14, 2013

Preparing the Way: Silence

Next Post

December 28, 2013 Christmas For All

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category action Advent animals attentiveness Beauty blessing body Book Review Brigid Bruce Reyes-Chow celebration change Christmas church clergy misconduct community compassion creation David Hockney discernment Easter Eastertide election Epiphany faith faithfulness feminism forgiveness friendship God of all seasons Gods world Grace gratitude Healing hesychia Hildegard of Bingen Holy Spirit Holy Week hope hospitality humility inclusiveness invitation Jesus Christ journey joy justice kindness labyrinth Lent letting go Light listening Love Love & Salt making space marriage Mary Mechtild of Magdeburg memory Mothering mourning music ordination patience paying attention peacemaking Pentecost perseverance pilgrimage praising Prayer preaching presence reconciliation remembering repentance restoration sacred conversation sainthood Scripture reflection Seasons seeing clearly serving silence soul friend spiritual direction spiritual practice St. Francis storytelling suffering time Transfiguration Sunday transformation traveling trust truth-telling Uncategorized wisdom witness women Word work worship

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Why did Jesus wash His disciples' feet?

Select your answer to see how you score.

To show humble service They asked Him to To clean them for eating Tradition only