Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Good Letters

Home
Catholic
Mantras for Advent

Mantras for Advent

Last updated on: December 1, 2014 at 1:15 am by Peggy Rosenthal

Mantras for Advent 2014-11-24T16:52:07-07:00 Peggy Rosenthal

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.

Last year at this time I wrote about suggestions my spiritual director had given me for living within Advent’s special gift. For Advent this year, I want to share some of the other ways I’ve found over the years of to observe this graced season.

Mostly, I’ve loved mantras.

At the start of each Advent, I’ve chosen a quotation that carries for me Advent’s special texture of waiting in hope; I’ve written out the quote to put on the kitchen table. Before dinner each Advent evening, my husband and I say the words together.

For instance, as I sift now through my folder of Advent materials, I’m finding multiple hand-written copies of Isaiah 30:15; clearly we’ve used it many times:

By waiting and by calm you shall be saved,
In quiet and in trust your strength lies.

I’m also finding multiple copies of my favorite line from Psalm 46:

Be still and know that I am God.

Then there’s this well-known passage from Micah (6:8):

What does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Whichever of these brief passages was chosen for a particular year’s Advent, it wasn’t limited to dinnertime attention. I wrote above that I loved mantras. And that’s how I used these passages. I’d try to remember during each Advent day to pause and say the lines to myself, maybe even aloud (if I wasn’t out in public!).

Sifting further through my folder, I find a passage that evidently I gave special prominence to: I printed it out in large boldface, and taped it onto cardboard to stay propped against the kitchen table’s honey jar. It’s an excerpt from Fr. John Kavanaugh, so I must have copied it years ago from America magazine, where he used to have a regular column.

We rush through time to get things done. When we are not getting things done, we think we “waste” time. But the real waste of time is the way we rush through it…. In hurrying to prepare ourselves for things not yet upon us, we are unprepared for what is here.

That passage is obviously too long to be a mantra. But I wrote out an abbreviated form that could serve as a mantra: We rush through time to get things done.… But the real waste of time is the way we rush through it.

The iambs of the first sentence, and the four beats of the second, helped me learn this easily by heart.

Falling now out of my folder are two little slips of paper with quotations I treasure for Advent, but I hadn’t written down their source. There’s:

Remove the things that hinder us from receiving Christ with joy.

I’m guessing this is part of an Advent Opening Prayer at Mass. Wherever it’s from, I love the gentle way that it inserts penitence into our Advent experience. Because, at least for Catholics, Advent definitely has a penitential dimension: the Gospel readings for the first two Sundays of Advent are about Judgment Day and repentance.

The other slip of paper says:

Let everything within you watch and wait—
For the Lord your God draws near!

This, too, sounds to me like part of an Advent prayer. It would make sense to pair this prayer with the one just above, because together they express Advent’s two phases. In the first two weeks, repentant hope: Remove the things that hinder us from receiving Christ with joy. Then, for weeks three and four, as Christmas draws closer, this call to hushed attentiveness: Let everything within you watch and wait—For the Lord your God draws near!

Watching and waiting in joyful hope: this is Advent’s mode, its meaning. So each Advent I remember a Taizé Advent service I went to years ago, because one of the songs was the chant “Wait for the Lord”:

Wait for the Lord—
His day is near.
Wait for the Lord—
Keep watch, take heart.

The words alone don’t do the song justice. But take a listen. Doesn’t your pulse slow down, your hope swell?

Peggy Rosenthal is director of Poetry Retreats and writes widely on poetry as a spiritual resource. Her books include Praying through Poetry: Hope for Violent Times (Franciscan Media), and The Poets’ Jesus (Oxford). See Amazon for full list. She also teaches an online course, “Poetry as a Spiritual Practice,” through Image’s Glen Online program*.*

Previous Post

November 28, 2014

Elsa Blue and Frozen Power

Next Post

December 2, 2014 Madonna and Child

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A. G. Harmon Alissa Wilkinson Allison Backous Art Authors Brad Fruhauff Bradford Winters Bryan Bliss Caroline Langston Chad Thomas Johnston Chris Hoke Christiana N. Peterson Culture D.G. Myers D.L. Mayfield Daniel Bowman Jr. David Griffith Elizabeth Duffy Faith Film Greg Wolfe Guest Contributor Interview Jan Vallone Jeffrey Overstreet Jessica Eddings-Roeser Jessica Mesman Griffith Kelly Foster Lindsey Crittenden Morgan Meis music Natalie Vestin Nick Olson Peggy Rosenthal Personal Reflection Poetry Friday Reflection Relationships Review Richard Chess Richard Cole Sara Zarr Shannon Huffman Polson Sonya Bilocerkowycz Tania Runyan Tony Woodlief Topical Categories Uncategorized Vic Sizemore Writing

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 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 February 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who compared himself to a gentle lamb led to the slaughter?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jeremiah Job Isaiah Ezekiel