Advent Prayer Experiences 2016 – Page 10

Daily Advent Prayer Experiences for 2016 by DailyGraces.net

November 28, 2016 – Prepared Flexibility

Published on November 27, 2016October 7, 2016 by KateLeave a comment

So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. – Matthew 24:44

This is the last line from yesterday’s Gospel reading. Jesus is calling us to prepare ourselves for His coming. Jesus is coming again, and we are not privy to the date, time or location. We must always be in a state of readiness.

As a military family, this phrase “state of readiness” has a unique meaning. Though now Ben is going to be on the training side of the house, the past 4 years we lived in a constant state of readiness. We were ready for him to deploy, ready for him to be gone for an unknown number of days, ready to convert our household from two parents to one and back to two again. After going through that experience, it is my opinion that being in a state of readiness actually means being willing to not only accept but actively work with transition and change. Part of being prepared is the ability to be flexible.

If you are a scheduling type of person, see how scheduling 3 minutes of prayer goes today. You can schedule it for any time of the day, and you can say any prayer you want. You can say the Sign of the Cross and contemplate it’s meaning, you can slowly pray an Our Father or Hail Mary, or speak to God from your heart. You can even set a timer if you want.

If you are not a hard and fast scheduling person, consider setting 3 alarms on your phone to go off throughout the day. If an alarm goes off and you are unable to stop what you are doing for prayer, disregard it and wait for the next one. See what times of day lend themselves to more focused prayer than others. Shoot for 3 minutes of uninterrupted prayer as described in the previous paragraph. You must have 3 minutes somewhere, right?

Part of being prepared is laying the foundation for the change to come. Knowing the times that are best for your prayer time is one way to add a few more sturdy blocks to your foundation.

****How did your Sign of the Cross go yesterday? Was it easy or hard to remember to pause and do it? Please feel free to share your experience, thoughts and offer support to one another in the comments, on Twitter with the #DailyGraces or on the Facebook page.

November 27, 2016 – Preparation

Published on November 26, 2016October 19, 2016 by Kate1 Comment

And so we begin! Happy New Year! Advent is the start of the Church’s year. I think it is fitting that our first liturgical season isn’t the celebration of Christ’s birth, which some might argue is the beginning of the Church. Others can make the case that Pentecost would make a good “New Years.” Pentecost is also called the birthday of the Church.

But it is Advent, a season of preparation, that ushers us into a new cycle of readings and a new year. A season of darkness, awaiting the coming of the light. We ask ourselves, “How prepared are we to receive Jesus’ coming?” Are we like the 5 wise virgins who made sure they had extra oil for their lamps, or are we more akin to the 5 foolish virgins who ran out of oil and had to go get more, missing the bridegroom’s coming entirely?

Each time we pray, we start by preparing ourselves for prayer. When we say the Sign of the Cross we are doing a number of things. First, we are focusing ourselves to pray. We are creating a moment of time, sanctifying the space we occupy for prayer. Second, we are professing belief in God as Trinity. God is one, yet God is three. This is a mystery that is fundamental to our faith. Third, while you are preparing yourself for prayer, you are actually praying already! Fourth, you are literally covering your body in the most important symbol of our faith, the cross, through which we are saved. Fifth, we are reminding ourselves of our baptism and baptismal promises (click here for a refresher).

For today, really focus on the Sign of the Cross. Even if this is the only thing you pray, a single Sign of the Cross is worth a great deal and worth doing every day.

Every time that we make the sign of the cross, we draw closer to the great mystery of the Trinity. – Pope Francis’ Twitter feed, Sept. 12, 2015

Advent Prayer Experiences – 2016

Published on October 6, 2016October 6, 2016 by Kate3 Comments

We begin another Church year very soon! Who would believe another year has flown by and it is time once again to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

As we are settling into our new “home” aka vacation rental for the next 5 months before we move again to our next “new home” I have decided to try out some new cleaning routines. Nearly 3 years ago I commented to a friend of mine “You’re house always seems so decluttered and clean! I don’t know how you manage to keep everything in order, it always seems so overwhelming for me and I just give up.” She told me about the FlyLady’s system of cleaning and lent me the book. Basically, a woman (the FlyLady) started working in her own home to establish routines that would help her declutter, clean and generally regain control over her chaotic household. Today, she has multiple books plus an app. Needless to say, I flipped through the book and thought it was too much work because I am an all or nothing kind of person and it was too many changes at one time. I thanked my friend, said it was a really neat idea and maybe one day I would try it out. The notion stuck with me though and one day is finally here (I’m using this app)

At its most basic, the FlyLady’s routines and objectives are very much in line with my Lenten observance this year: to be a good past self. She divides your home into zones and each week focuses in depth on one zone. Every Monday has an additional “home blessing” where you spend 10 minutes in each zone sprucing it up without getting stuck in the weeds, or cobwebs, or legos, or whatever dust bunnies are slowly forming under your couch. What I am loving about this system (well, I think I’m loving, it’s only been a week so far) is that each day’s task that I have completed has not taken more than 15 minutes and I still feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. Rather than saying to myself, “Today I need to clean the kitchen. The whole kitchen – shudder, dread, find other things to do, oops now it’s too late I guess I’ll work on that tomorrow.” I am saying, “I can definitely double check the refrigerator and make sure nothing is expired and wipe down the front and fronts of the shelves in 15 minutes, no problem.” Some other daily routines include making sure you clean up after yourself, immediately, and eliminating excuses by getting dressed right away (so that if the garbage needs to go out at 7am you don’t have to scurry about in your pjs or robe or choosing to live with a smelly garbage until you get around to it at lunchtime).

It’s doing a little everyday, rather than burning yourself out in one day and then not cleaning anything for the next 3.

“Your home did not get dirty in one day, and it will not get clean in a day either” to quote the Flylady.

So what does all this have to do with Advent prayer? As I was wiping down a bathroom this morning (yes, I’m cleaning bathrooms! In the morning! Shocking, I know. Right your seat and continue reading). I was thinking about the above quote and realized that a disordered, lacking or non-existent prayer life works in a similar way. We can’t expect to go from nothing to a full blown prayer routine overnight. Trust me, I’ve tried it. Many times.

For this Advent, I have decided to break up the 4 weeks into 4 types or themes of prayer. Each day will have an idea to ponder, a Scripture to meditate on, a prayer to recite, or some other kind of short activity that will guide you to a prayer experience. This is not supposed to be long, arduous or in any other way taxing. 5 minutes of your time, 10 if you get really into it. My goal is to offer a variety of prayer opportunities that will help all of us gain a deeper understanding of Advent and also learn what kinds of prayer brought us to encounter Jesus during our day. What better way to prepare yourself for the coming of Jesus at Christmas than by spending Advent discovering what ways you communicate with Him best?

Every day there will be a new post. I am planning on posting the night before so that you early risers don’t have to wait for the day’s prayer experience. Posts will be linked on the page “Advent Prayer Experiences – 2016” along the top toolbar as well as on the homepage.