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Florida Advent Wreath

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Advent is a time of quiet contemplation and reflection but also a time of restless expectation and journey. My favorite practices, like Advent calendars and Advent wreaths, are ones that give me day-by-day opportunities for reflection but also activate my senses. They emphasize the juicy paradoxes of Advent–like light and darkness, “already there and not yet, flesh and spirit, stillness and movement, faith and fear, sorrow and joy, despair and hope. Advent asks us to rest and go inward but it also propels us forward to a future of “God with us” in a new way.

Advent in Jerusalem was on my calendar for 2020. Advent in Florida is where I am. Except for two years when we lived in Florida a few decades ago, most of my Advents have been in colder places with bare trees and leaves on the ground. I’m learning to appreciate the dense jungle greenery of this almost-tropical state, even in November. The saber pines, cedars, water and live oaks, palmetto scrub, and palm trees are home to the raccoons, possums, woodpeckers, and squirrels we see almost every day (or night) in our yard.

Using local plants and greens seemed like the logical choice for this year’s Advent wreath. Since I have divided loyalties between blue and purple for the candles, I’ve have two wreaths. I put the candles in the holders, placed them on a table, and with haphazard delight walked in my yard and neighborhood to gather local flora. The wreath with the blue candles has cedar clippings and Brazilian pepper plant (invasive, I think, but pretty). The wreath with the purple and pink candles has saber pine, cedar, pinecones, water oak, and a puff of Spanish moss. (I wanted to use more Spanish moss, but I over boiled it in an attempt to get rid of the pesky red bugs that sometimes live in it.).

The candles of the Advent wreath mark the four Sundays and four weeks before Christmas. The traditional color for Advent, purple, represents reflection, repentance, and royalty. Some churches and people prefer blue as a symbol of hope, joy, expectation, and Mary. The colors purple and blue claim their own paradox. Advent, as preparation for welcoming and receiving Jesus, includes both hope & expectation AND self-examination & repentance. So hang a little purple; hang a little blue, if not literally then at least in your heart and in your mind’s eye. Pre-Christmas time can be overwhelming and depressing. On those days, focus your eyes on the blue. When you are overloading your car with presents and decorations and carping at everyone around you, focus on the purple.

The colors are a visual reminder of Advent messages in Scripture.
Blue: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13 NRSV)
Purple:  “In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near…“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” (Matthew 3:1-2, 7b-8 NRSV)

Some people like to use a pink candle for the third Sunday of Advent to mark the halfway point to Christmas.

Light the first candle on the first Sunday of Advent, November 29. Say a prayer, recite a passage of Scripture or sing a song.  With small children, a short and repeatable scripture verse might keep their attention and help them to learn some words of Advent. Use the same prayer or line of scripture all during the first week. On the second Sunday of Advent light the second candle as well as the first. As the weeks pass and more candles are lighted, the darkness of Advent is infused with the anticipated brighter light of Christmas.There are dozens of Advent Wreath lighting devotionals available online. The website Building Faith has many ways to celebrate the weekly ritual.

If you missed my Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany book, you can still order it in Paperback or on Kindle. Click on the photo below. It offers other examples of Advent Wreaths and many ways to celebrate the whole Nativity Season at home. Many of the activities incorporate praying in color.

 

Advent Calendars–Doodling Ideas

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Just in case you are drawing- or doodle-phobic, here are some examples of ways to fill in your Advent calendar template. Below is the template/poster I designed for Forward Movement and #AdventWord. To read more about that partnership look at my November 9th Post. The calendar shows a new word for each day of Advent. The first word is the word Tender on November 29.

On the calendar below are six possible ways I might illuminate the word Tender. This is not great art; some of it is even messy. One version has no color, just a black pen. One version is just a mini-brainstorm on the word. The point of writing the word and drawing around it is to keep it front and center in my mind, eyes, and heart for the whole day. What does this word mean to me? What might I need to hear from it? How does Scripture enlighten me? What might God be saying to me through this word today? Maybe I could “try a little tenderness” more often as Otis Redding wrote in his 1966 song of the same title. Tenderness is not my go-to relational skill. It needs to be honed. Honesty and directness tend to supersede tenderness and kindness. Maybe this is a reminder. Tender also makes me thinks of steaks and greens and shoots and shepherds and babies. What else do I need to hear?

This template is still available along with a devotional/reflections book from Forward Movement. There is still time to order it before the first Sunday of Advent. Here are the links.
Booklet

Calendar

My free Advent calendars templates are available on my Handouts Page and on my November 6th Post.

Two Online Events: Lectio Divina and Advent Workshops

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1) Lectio Divina and Praying in Color with Ruah Space
November 15, Sunday, 7pm Central Time 

Join Phil & Erin Vestal of Ruah Space and Sybil MacBeth, the author of Praying in Color, for a special live event. As a community, we will explore the practice of praying in color in tandem with lectio divina. Lectio divina means “sacred reading.”  It is an ancient way to read and pray scripture as living word, always fresh and new.

Bring paper, a black pen, colored pencils, markers, crayons, paint, or whatever you would like to use to pray in color with us!

To sign up Click Here

2) An Advent Workshop—November 29, Sunday 7-8:30 PM ET

Praying in Color Advent Workshop–Zoom
Sponsored by the Jordan Ministry Team, a collaborative ministry of the Salvatorian Family.  For Details and Registration:   Click HERE

Advent is the season of preparation for God’s coming into the world as flesh and blood at Christmas.  Advent—which begins on Sunday, November 29—is also the season of preparation for our daily pilgrimage with Jesus throughout the whole liturgical year. With left-brain and right-brain exercises, we will explore the rich and lush language of Advent. We will learn some meditative and playful prayer practices for use during Advent or anytime. Bring some plain paper, a pen, colored pencils or markers, and a spirit of holy Adventure.

#AdventWord and Another Advent Calendar Template

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“For the seventh year in a row, #AdventWord will gather prayers via a global, online advent calendar. Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) in partnership with Forward Movement is offering 27 daily meditations and images during this holy season beginning Sunday, November 29. During a year of disparate worship and communities of prayer, AdventWord offers a way to reflect and pause for the Advent season and await the birth of Christ.”

“Gathering a worldwide community, #AdventWord provides a daily meditation, visual image, and invites your personal reflections via social media to share your own Advent journey. Thousands have participated each year, responding to the words with photos, written responses, crafts, drawings, poems, found art, and Holy Spirit-filled posts.”
For more info: #AdventWord

#AdventWord and publisher Forward Movement partnered to create a booklet of meditations called Waiting and Watching. I was invited by them to draw a calendar template to go with the booklet and the words. The AdventWords are on the border of the calendar and there are spaces for each day of Advent. Except for three days where I have already entered the word and a doodle (to give examples), the spaces do not have a designated date or word. You can decide where to write each word on the calendar and make a visual response with doodles, drawings, color, or more words.

The calendars are 17″X22″ and come in packs of 5 for $12. Each person in your family, small group, or congregation can participate with their own calendar. The booklets are $7 each. To order the calendar and/or booklet, go to the Forward Movement website:
Booklet
Calendar
Here is an example of the 2020 AdventWord calendar with other words and color added.

 

For the past three years I have combined my Advent calendar templates with #AdventWord. Besides having a word to think and pray about, I am a member of a worldwide congregation and community of people making the daily prayer journey to Christmas. I love this full-bodied practice. My mind, heart, eyes, hands, and imagination all get to participate. This is my #AdventWord calendar from 2017.

Advent Calendar Templates 2020

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Advent is my favorite season of the Church year. For me, it is like a many-sided, many-faceted star. I tried to write a coherent paragraph or two about its many facets, but the words collided and fell in a boring, incoherent heap. So I decided to just brainstorm all of the things that come to mind when I think about Advent. So many juicy words and only twenty-six days to ponder them….

Using an Advent calendar is my favorite way to ponder and pay attention during the four weeks of Advent. Unlike the store-bought versions, my calendars have no doors, just blank spaces for the days of Advent. Each day I fill one space with a prayer or meditation– in words, doodles, and color. The daily practice of drawing on the calendar gives me a creative and simple way to immerse myself in the Advent experience and to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus on December 25. The accumulation of daily doodlings forms a colorful tapestry and a record of my spiritual journey for the weeks leading up to Christmas. This practice feels prayerful and playful. No artistic skill is necessary! (Examples from previous years are at the bottom of the post.)

2020 Advent Calendar Templates

To download, click on the links below the Calendars. When the image appears as a  google doc, click on the download button at the top (the square with the downward facing arrow). Download first; then print. Feel free to share the calendar templates with others, for individual or group use. I think I have resolved the “gray” background issue that some of the templates in the past had. Please Share this post on your social media platforms. Thanks. These templates are also on my Handouts Page.

Note: Some school system emails do not allow downloads from unknown webpages. If you are from a school or church and having trouble, try using your personal/home email to download the templates. You can also contact me from the Contact Page.  

DOVE  w/Dates      .jpg       .pdf
DOVE  no Dates     .jpg       .pdf

STARS                  .jpg     .pdf
GRID/BOX              .jpg       .pdf

 Ways to Use the Calendar Templates

1) Write the name of someone for whom you are praying in the space. Doodle around the name, add color. Think of each stroke of color or each doodled mark (line, dot, arc, spiral…) as a wordless prayer. If words come to you as you draw and color, pray them. Squeeze them onto the calendar in the shape or along the margins if they feel important. When you have finished with your daily entry, say “Amen” or recite a short passage of Scripture appropriate to Advent like “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” (Psalm 27:1) This tiny colorful mosaic creates a frame around the person’s name. Returning to the calendar each day is a visual reminder to pray for each person again.

2) Choose a word from your daily reading. Combine your calendar with one of the many wonderful Advent books of meditations and reflections. Read the entry for the day and choose a word that jumps out at you. Write it in the shape and start to doodle and color around it. Marinate in the word. What is the word saying to you? What does God have to say to you about the word? Keep a computer or notebook next to your calendar so you can write any insights or “ahas.”

3) Write and ponder an Advent word: prepare, wait, pregnant, hope, watch, darkness, wilderness, longing, light… as you doodle and color. #AdventWord, a ministry of Virginia Theological Seminary, offers a new word each day and the chance to see how others throughout the world have reflected on the word.

4) Write something you hope for each day. Advent is a season of hope. Offer that idea to God as you draw, write, and color.

5) Celebrate the Women and Men of the Bible. Choose a different person for each day and learn what they did and why they are important to our story and God’s story. As you draw, be quiet and listen to what these people might reveal to you about Jesus and God .

6) Write one of the many names for Jesus in the daily box. Here are a few of the many ways we refer to Jesus: savior, messiah, friend, Prince of Peace, Emmanuel…. Use the Bible, Handel’s Messiah, Christmas carols, and hymns to uncover those names. Pray and ponder how that name for Jesus stirs, affects, annoys, delights, or inspires you.

7) Choose a word from the daily lectionary readings for the season. Here is a link to the Vanderbilt University site for the daily readings.

8) Just color and doodle in the space. For smaller children, print the calendar on 11″x17″ paper to create larger spaces. (I do this for myself, too.) Light a battery-powered votive candle and give them a quiet, secret place to work.

Advent Calendars From Previous Years


    “Veni” Grid Calendar by Cindy O.

Notes:

I like to enlarge the 8.5″x11″ format to 11″x17″ card stock. It gives me more room to doodle and color and consequently more time and space with the person or word.

Thanks to Cindy O. for the 2020 Box/Grid Calendar template.

Stones

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The beaches of Puget Sound, off the coast of Seattle, offer beautiful and intriguing gifts when the tide comes in and makes its twice daily delivery. Piles of strange seaweed and sea monsters of giant kelp look like something from a sci-fi series. Dungeness crab shells and half-eaten small sharks float up. Huge pieces of wood and trunks of trees lodge into the sand. And stones, thousands of them, form a blanket of shimmering, giant gems across the beach.

Generous friends have lent us their home for over a month on Whidbey Island, right at the door to the Pacific Ocean. The sound of the surf through our open bedroom windows, awe-dropping sunsets of vivid reds, oranges, purples, and blacks, and crystal-clear views of stars, planets, and the Milky Way keep me wide-eyed and thankful. But at the top of my August and September gratitude list are the unpretentious beach stones. When they are still wet, vivid shades of green, charcoal, red, orange, white, and tan shine on the beach. I wish I had better words to describe their colors: apricot, sandalwood, sage green, mauve, frost, and puce are as good as I can find. Maybe the stones deserve their own color-spectrum vocabulary like lavanite or igneous black or volcanico purple. I ooh and aah at their textures and shapes. And the rustling, crackling, clattering sound of the tide cascading over the piles of stones is hypnotic and musical. I can’t ever remember being so captivated by something as ordinary and simple as a stone.

When we arrived at our friends’ house, they had left a bag of twenty acrylic markers and a pile of stones in a basket in the living room. Earlier quests decorated the stones with their names and the dates of their visit and left them in a basket. Acrylic markers were new to me; but since the day we arrived, I have spent hours on the beach doodling with them on stones. And some of the doodles morphed into prayers. And the stone prayers looked terrific on a big driftwood log. And the log became a prayer altar. I love that the names of the people I am praying are exposed to the salt and the sun and the stars and the sky and the whole magnificent expanse and constellation of God’s universe. Every day when I arrive on the beach and see the prayer stones, I pray again for the people on this visual prayer list.

 

July 4th Prayer for Us and the U.S.

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 The 4th of July is not just a yearly extravaganza for fireworks and picnics—although it is that.  Every 4th of July offers new situations and challenges, new reasons for gratitude and celebration, and new opportunities for our nation’s self-examination and correction.

Here is a blessing prayer for us and our country. Sources for the quotes are below the drawing.

A Happy and Safe 4th of July to you and yours.

1. Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus.
2. America, Our Heritage, Helen Steele–a song I learned in elementary school and still remember.
3. Psalm 91: 5-6 KJV.
4. There’s A Wideness in God’s Mercy, Frederick William Faber.
5. Emma Lazarus.
6. Nelson Mandela.
7. Galatians 5: 13 NRSV/NIV.

Praying in Color Retreat July 10

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Paraclete Press is sponsoring a series of one-day summer retreats online. I am excited that Praying in Color will be one of them. If you have not been to one of my workshops or retreats, I hope you will consider attending. Please invite your friends and Share this post with others.

Below is the description. The cost of the retreat is $65. To REGISTER Click Here. 

Praying in Color: Old and New Ways to Pray

in an Ever-New World

Friday, July 10

with Sybil MacBeth

Prayer is the opposite of multi-tasking. It is the gathering of the mind, body, emotions, thoughts, and spirit into the same geography and inviting God to be present there. In this retreat we will gather (safely) as a community to explore praying in color—the visual, active, and meditative prayer practice introduced in the 2007 book Praying in Color: Drawing A New Path to God and its 2020 expanded/updated version. If you are word-weary, restless, antsy, or anxious in prayer or just looking for a new way to connect to God, come explore the versatile practice called praying in color. Bring paper, a black pen, and colored markers or pencils. Doodlers welcome; absolutely no artistic skill necessary! Check out Sybil’s website and blog: prayingincolor.com.

Schedule:

9am First Session—Intercessory and Blessing Prayers  with Q&A
10:15am Health break
10:25am Join Us for a Tai-chi Virtual Warm Up
10:45am Second Session—Griping, Grieving, Grounding, and Gratitude Prayers with Q&A
12pm Lunch Break with Visual Presentations from Paraclete Press
1:30pm Third Session—Praying With and In Scripture with Q&A


Sybil MacBeth is the author of Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God and other books in the series. She combines her years of experience in the mathematics classroom with her lifelong efforts in prayer to lead workshops and retreats across the country. As an inveterate multi-tasker, she loves to sing, dance, doodle, read, cook, spend time with her sons and grandchildren, and lead workshops. She lives with her husband Andy in Florida while they await the “all clear” for spending a year in Jerusalem.

This retreat is non-refundable unless cancelled by the host.

If you are unable to attend the live retreat at the hours given, we welcome you to register anyways, and if you contact us, we will send you, at no extra charge, the retreat link that you can watch over the following three days.

For questions, please contact Sr. Estelle at [email protected]  To register: Click Here.

View the other Paraclete Retreat Offerings for the summer.

Blessing Prayer Template

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Below is a template for creating a blessing prayer. See my post about blessing prayers from June 5. The “arms” on the template can hold the words of the blessing. If you run out of arms, you can use some of the other spaces for more words. Color and say the prayers to yourself or out loud. Or just sit in the quiet with the blessings as a backdrop for a silent time with God. Add more doodles, lines, arcs, marks…to the existing ones. Next to the blank template is an example of a partially filled-in blessing prayer.

Download the blank template by clicking on the word .jpg or .pdf. below the picture.

Blessing Template .jpg

Blessing Template .pdf

 

Please let me know if the blank template is too gray.  I have been trying to fix that! Thanks.

Blessing Prayers

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Blessing Prayers are one of my favorite ways to pray. In a blessing prayer we address directly the person we are praying for. A very old example of a blessing prayer is in the Book of Numbers 6:24-26:

May the Lord bless you and keep you;
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

Blessing prayers have a different feel to me than intercessory prayers, those prayers in which we ask God to do something for others. We make intercession for others for a multitude of reasons: for physical healing from illness, safe travel, healthy pregnancies, a new job, or happy and stable marriages. Intercessory prayers ask God to intervene and help. “Please, God, free Maria from her addiction.” “Almighty One, protect our children at college.” Compassionate Healer, release John from the grips of this virus.” “Loving Jesus, fill my child with joy.”

I like the blessing prayer form because it is less specific and more expansive than intercession. Finding the “right” words for my extemporaneous intercessions is difficult for me. Using a blessing prayer format gives me a framework for corralling my words. It stimulates my poetic imagination about my hopes for my friends and the world. Here are a few of ways I pray blessing prayers:

May the God of Love surround you.
May the God of Joy delight you.
May the God of Mystery surprise you.
May the God of Hope sustain you.
May the God of Wisdom direct you
May the God of Freedom release you…

OR

God to enfold you.
God to enliven you.
God to comfort you.
God to accompany you.
God to refresh you.
God to unbind you….

OR sometimes maybe we need to call forth blessings on ourselves as a reminder of who we are and whose we are.

Creator of All, unite us.
Stream of Justice, trouble us.
Path of Righteousness, turn us.
Singer of Love, teach us.
Binder of Wounds, heal us.
Freer of Captives, release us.
Light of Light, awaken us.
Bread of Life, feed us….

Maybe the difference between blessing and intercession is just semantics, but blessing prayers seem like prayers of affirmation rather than just prayers of asking. They focus on the person but also on the infinite nature of God. When I offer a blessing prayer, I imagine I am unfurling an enormous canopy of God’s goodness and power onto someone. I feel like I am anointing a person with holy words and acting as an agent of God’s love. I want the people I pray for to look up and feel covered with the vast, bright gossamer of God.

I love combining blessing prayers with praying in color, ie. doodling prayer. I often use them for cards of condolence, birthday and anniversary wishes, and healing.

A simple way to draw a blessing prayer is to use the “two-stroke” prayer format. You can see the complete instructions in my September 12, 2016 post called Two-Stroke Doodled Prayers. Here’s a quick synopsis.

  • Draw a shape in the center of the page.
  • Write the person’s name in the middle of the shape.
  • Draw lines or arms from the shape, as many as you need for the blessings you want to include.
  • Write your blessings along the arms.
  • Choose two shapes to use–lines and circles or arcs and V’s or…see the instructions and start to draw and add color.
  • Pray the blessings as you doodle and color.
  • You can always sneak in more arms for additional blessings that come to you.
  • The example below uses arcs and lines.

Many traditional Irish prayers follow a blessing format. John Michael Talbot’s God of Life 1980’s album has several songs that fit this pattern. His songs God and Betwixt Me are two especially beautiful examples of blessing prayers. I have kept these songs in my repertoire of memorized prayers and sing them whenever I feel the need for blessing.