Take Home Reflections--2nd Week of Advent

TAKE HOME REFLECTIONS

WEEK OF DECEMBER 7-13 (2nd Week of Advent)

Theme for the year: Home

Last week’s Advent theme was hope. This week’s advent theme is peace.

Sunday December 7th
Take some time today to reflect on peace.
The cold is definitely here. Saturday night the low was expected to be around 0 degrees. This morning at church we dedicated some supplies for adults living in a shelter run by the Sisters of Humility.

Take a minute today to be grateful for the shelter that you enjoy. Take a minute to thank the house that is your dwelling. Thank the yard (if you have one) that is yours that you enjoy in all of the seasons of the year. Take a moment to honor that shelter by a special decoration (holiday) or a special nature table/corner/altar space, bringing the sacred into the home.

FAMILIES

If you have a chance this week, find the book December by Eve Bunting. It is a story about a homeless family. Read it to your children and talk about what the story brings up for you.

Monday, December 8th
Take some time today to reflect on peace.
Let us think, on a Monday, about wisdom. In Essential Spirituality, there is a passage about Tibetan Buddhism’s four great insights, known as the “four great mind-changers.” Wisdom (via experience) encourages us to learn and awaken. Learning and awakening has the potential to lead us to great peace. So reflect, today, on the four great mind-changers:

Life is inconceivably precious.
Life is short and death is certain.
Life
contains inevitable difficulties.
Our ethical choices mold our lives.

Begin by taking time to relax and quiet the mind. Then read through one idea and contemplate what it means to you. What makes your life precious? How do I feel about the idea that death is certain? What are the implications of that? Life is certainly full of difficulties…so what? So now what? What difficulties have I known? What happened? What difficulties are with me right now? How am I coping? What are the resources upon which I draw to help? What ethical choices have molded my life?

FAMILIES:

Tell you child about a wise teacher you’ve had. Ask your child about his or her teachers and what they’ve learned from them. Ask your child what he or she would like to learn about this week.

Tuesday, December 9th
Take some time today to reflect on peace.
Let us think, for a moment, about the theme of this second week of Advent: Peace. Thich Nhat Hanh has written a book entitled Peace is Every Step. In it, I believe, he speaks of the mindfulness with which he takes every step on a certain staircase in Plum Village, where he teaches and lives. He says that though he has been in Plum Village for decades, as he ascends and descends on these steps, he thinks of peace, he is aware of himself walking.
Can you spend today walking with intentionality? Can you try to take every step, while saying to yourself: I am aware that I am taking this step. I am aware that my body is moving. I am aware of my surroundings. I am at peace.

Families:
If the temperature is not terrible, take a walk with your child in a favorite park or in the neighborhood. Notice what the trees and the sky looks like. Talk about how your child is feeling and doing, in school, with friends, at home, etc.

Thursday, December 11th
Take some time today to reflect on peace.
In the Christian tradition, one of the passages read last Sunday morning from the lectionary readings is in the book of Isaiah. It begins: Comfort, o, comfort my people.
When have you known comfort? When have you comforted another? Where is a place you feel full of comfort?

Saturday, December 13
Let us take a moment to consider our theme for the year: Home. Our theme is home because our sanctuary will turn 50 and our church this year is 140 years old.
In the Jewish traditions, the Rabbis have said: Let your house be a meeting place for the wise…and drink in their words with thirst.

What kind of wisdom do you thirst for? Who among your friends and acquaintances holds deep wisdom? Have you expressed your gratitude for that person? How can you make your own home a gathering spot for the wise and the deep and the loving and the compassionate? How will you drink those words of hope and peace and wisdom?

Families:
Ask your children what questions they have about the holiday season? What do they know about Hanukah? What do they know about Christmas? What do they know about the solstice? What do they know about Kwanzaa? What can you share with them about these magical times? (For resources, contact Sarah Moulton, who has lots of books and electronic resources available on holy days and holidays. Sarah is reachable at sarahmoulton1@yahoo.com)

See you in church,
Roger