The Second Friday of Advent -- December 10, 2010

Matthew 11:16 - 19

“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

“‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.”


I talked to a group of public school teachers and administrators today about prayer. They meet weekly to support each other and to share the spiritual journey. They were interested in the method of prayer I offered in Fingerprints on Every Moment.

At the end of our time together, they said, "We want to use your book as an Advent resource. What would you suggest we do through Advent?"

Good question. I suggested a couple of things for the movement toward the birth of Christ. This is some of what I said to them.

First, I suggest using some Advent resource regularly that encourages prayer and reflection. Whether you use Fingerprints on Every Moment or some other resource, find a regular time to spend praying with the resource. The combination of the consistent resource and the consistent time will serve as a regular marker. This daily time will root you and give a structured pattern to your day. You'll find yourself looking forward to the time, which may come early in the morning, during a break at work, or at the end of the day before bed.

In using a resource this way, you are actually establishing a rhythm for life that includes intentional times for prayer and reflection. Over time you'll find that your prayer and reflection -- when you are making conscious contact with God -- spills over into the rest of your life. Those mile-markers signify where you are and hold you steady for the in-between times.

If you use Fingerprints on Every Moment or some other Scripture resource, I suggest an exercise for putting the words of the Bible in your own words. When you feel drawn to a particular phrase or verse, write it out across the top of the page, then try to find as many ways as possible to put the verse in your own words. Notice your own words and images that make it to the page. Pay attention to what you've listed. You'll notice that some of your inner wisdom will emerge, what I would call your soul. You may be surprised at what you see. I suspect that you'll find that you know more than you know.

I also encourage carrying a particular prayer through the season. I'm carrying a breath prayer from Fingerprints on Every Moment through Advent, taken from Psalm 24. My breath prayer is:

Open up, you door of my heart;
Swing wide, you long-closed gates.

It is the prayer I keep on my heart all through the day, reminding me to stay open to God's coming and God's appearing. It reminds me to be aware of things that lie outside my normal field of vision, the "all-things-are-possible" of God.

You don't need to take up my breath prayer. Choose your own. Notice a phrase in the Psalms or from the prophet Isaiah and pull it out for use as a prayer to carry in your awareness through the day.

In a similar way, I suggest taking up a gesture that symbolizes openness to God and awareness of God's presence. The gesture may be something as simple as opening your hands palms-up, touching your heart, or making the sign of the cross. The gesture expresses our intention to be open to God and keeps us mindful that we are continually present to God. The gesture itself does not keep our spirit open to God, but serves as an active reminder of our desire to be open.

One final thing I said to the teachers. . . . There are times when we each lose the peace or the awareness or the conscious sense of God's presence that comes from prayer or meditation or a corporate worship experience. In a moment of chaos at work or home we lose touch with the breath prayer or the gesture that represents our desire for God. What do we do then?

My best suggestion is, "Don't judge it." That is, don't beat yourself up for having lost the immediate sense of God's presence, or for losing your cool, or for the hastily spoken words. You and I are human, not yet complete. We will stumble. The important movement is not to be perfect and never stumble, but to stop judging ourselves as failures or successes.

We are making our way with God through this holy season as best we can.