Advent Preparation-Expectation

INTRO
Every week there will be a new prayer to be practiced. These prayers are just suggestions and you don't have to practice the current prayer. Feel free to experiment with any of the previous prayers. Prayer is just an opportunity to spend time with our creator and learn to live and love more like His son, Jesus. There is no one way to pray. All of us are created with different personalities and different ways of relating, not only to one another, but to God as well. If you find a practice that works for you stick with it. God draws each of us in, with different means. Thomas Merton spoke of prayer the best when he said, "Prayer is turning towards God, if you can't pray, just turn towards God."

The French author Simone Weil in her notebook: “Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.” Without patience our expectation degenerates into wishful thinking. Patience comes from the word “patior” which means “to suffer”…What seems a hindrance becomes a way; what seems an obstacle becomes a door; what seems a misfit becomes a cornerstone
- Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude

Hebrews 6:9-12
Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation. God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Advent is the season that has a spirit of expectation. Begin this season by preparing the way for our Lord by making an Advent calendar of proposed contributions of service to others or positive changes in your own spiritual life. You can begin by prayerfully asking God for a vision, of what your life might look like, if you were living and loving like Jesus. Begin to make a plan for each week of what you will begin to practice. It could be a commitment to a spiritual discipline like prayer, fasting, or anything else. It could be a commitment to participating in God’s Kingdom by giving of your time or money to one of our missional activities with Acres of Love or Solidarity. As you calendar the week begin to calendar each day. As you begin to purposefully participate with God, you can wait with hope and expectation for God’s transformation in your life. Don’t plan to precisely; however, leave room for God’s input.