Weekend Daybook: Advent & An Exciting Announcement!
A curated list of what I've been up to lately: places, people, books, podcasts, music, links & more for your weekend downtime.
“Advent’s the poetry. Advent’s the strange deeds that led up to the Great Deed. Advent is the power of the mystery that from the beginning stretches through the immortality of Elijah straight out into time, into Transfiguration, into Easter. Advent is all these things
Ultimately, Advent is the grand narrative. It’s the one that makes us Christian. It’s the one that ties it all together. This is what we wait for. This is what comes. Amen.”
For years (13 - can you even believe it?!?) I've used my blog as a place to write, share the work of others, and curate art, prayer, and music for devotional purposes throughout the year. As I continue to grow in my understanding of where and how to spend my time, I've decided to share some of the work on my blog through a platform called Patreon. (Patreon is a crowdfunding platform that provides ways for creators to build relationships and provide exclusive experiences to their subscribers.)
Building a community of patrons will allow me to seed writing and other projects in my dream folder and will allow those who follow my blog to have greater options in how much they'd like to engage with the projects I share. I'm hoping to be able to integrate my work as a Spiritual Director with my desire to encourage all of us to worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty. I'm launching the patron site with two subscription levels and am dreaming up more opportunities to provide simple spiritual, relational, and creative direction.
The site is live and I’m eagerly welcoming patrons! Click the link or type patreon.com/sacramentallife into your browser.
In previous years I’ve posted Daybook devotional posts each day in Advent, but not everyone who enjoys this blog wants a daily post. The patron site allows you to choose the level you’d like to participate in and offers me a bit of compensation for this work I so love doing. If you don’t want to be a patron but you’d like to help contribute to the work I do here, you can click the tip jar at the top of this page. It all encourages me and helps me offer simple spiritual, relational, and creative direction through various outlets online and in my life here in Connecticut.
There are two levels of patronage to select: Stories or Daybook.
The Stories community is for those who’d like to be the first readers to receive select, off-the-cuff stories I've been collecting but not yet written. These will serve as a personal complement to the guest posts you see here throughout the year, where friends generously share their personal experiences of mourning, celebration, work, home and rest.
The Daybook community at the Patreon page is for those who’d like to receive my personal stories as well as the devotional posts I curate for Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Eastertide, and Pentecost.
You can read about the two patronage options as well as see a sample Daybook post here. I’ll be sharing a bit more about this new offering in the coming week. Feel free to comment on this post or send me an email to let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see you at patreon.com/sacramentallife soon!
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resources I made to help you prepare for Advent
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helpful posts to help you answer Why Advent/Church Calendar?
Why the Church Year? - The church year creates a schedule for our souls. It makes space for us to be empty in order to be filled.” | via The Homely Hours
Prepare Yourself For Advent by Gem and Alan Fadling - “My math brain says, ‘If I do that, I won’t have time to do what I need to do,’ but my Kingdom mind says, ‘Being more attentive to God will enable me to be present in all the ways that the season of Advent invites me to be.’ | via C4SO
Advent: A Rookie Anglican Guide - A post full of resources for understanding and living Advent! | via Anglican Pastor
Roundup: “Say Yes!” Advent video, “Neighbor Songs,” poetry prescriptions, global art history, and more | via Art & Theology
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new (contemporary) albums perfect for Advent listening
Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson
Neighbor Songs by The Porter’s Gate
Advent by Liturgical Folk
Joy of Every Longing Heart by Sara Groves
And On Earth, Peace by Salt of Sound
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posts to help you prepare your soul for Advent
On a screen, darkly by Terry Teachout - “Memories are especially important at this time of year, to me and, I suspect, to most people who have put youth behind them. “‘I miss.’ That sums up Christmas for me.”
Attending to God in an Age of Distraction, James K.A. Smith and Alan Jacobs - “Especially since the habits of attention, contemplation, and introspection are so crucial to the Christian life, and in many ways one of the great gifts of Christianity to the West. What does a “liturgical audit” of our technological habits reveal?” | via Laity Lodge
Habits of Mind In An Age Of Distraction by Alan Jacobs - “By our immersion in that ecosystem we are radically impeded from achieving a "right understanding of ourselves" and of God's disposition toward us.” | via Comment
Stepping Back Before Speaking Out by Jan Johnson - “Over the years I’ve learned that becoming a person who stands up for people and issues wisely and effectively begins with stepping back.” | via CT
Living At Godspeed by Matt Canlis - “Rest? What kind of rest? Is it simply a slower speed, a sense of well-being, or maybe a rural way of life? No, the rest God promises is that of a child’s.” | via Rabbit Room {See the short film and devotional resources here: Godspeed }
Silence and the Presence of Everything - “Gordon Hempton says that silence is an endangered species. He’s an acoustic ecologist — a collector of sound all over the world.” | via OnBeing
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posts from the same week, different years (the archives)
2013 - Parenting Unrehearsed (8): Why we send our kids to a [broken] public school
2013 - For my sister Kaley on her birthday: God and Sisters Should Not Be Ignored
2011 - Mostly Grateful
2009 - On grieving again
8 years ago
Finding our way around Austin, November 2019
May your weekend include some rest and some fun with friends and family. Peace...
p.s. This post may contain affiliate links because I'm trying to be a good steward, and when you buy something through one of these links you don't pay more money, but in some magical twist of capitalism we get a little pocket change. Thanks!