Invitation to Observe a Holy Advent

Dear Minooka UMC Found Family,

Everything feels different now, doesn’t it? Thanksgiving is in the rearview mirror, temperatures have plummeted, and snow blankets nearly all we see. Here in December, even this early in the month, everything just feels different somehow. I think it is part of the magic and the chaos of this month, this season, that the whole world somehow simultaneously feels both sped way up and slowed way down. Feels somehow both more harried and more peaceful. Both crazy busy and a time to finally catch a breath.

There is a liturgical tradition at the beginning of the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday (stay with me here!) to include a moment called, An Invitation to Observe a Holy Lent. I think Advent deserves—needs—a similar invitation. So, I wrote one and shared it at the beginning of our worship experience this past Sunday. I didn’t couch it with those specifically terms, but in my mind and my heart, that’s what it was: An Invitation to Observe a Holy Advent.

You can listen to that invitation to Advent by clicking here. (Or just watch it below.) That portion of the video is less than two minutes long, so I hope you’ll give it a chance. Even if you heard it on Sunday, I invite you to hear it again. What of that invitation speaks to you? What enables you to slow down this season? What part of you likes the hustle and resists slowing down? How will you truly enter Advent this month?