{"id":6182,"date":"2016-12-03T12:18:21","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T17:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/notstrictlyspiritual.com\/?p=6182"},"modified":"2016-12-03T12:18:21","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T17:18:21","slug":"lighting-the-advent-wreath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/notstrictlyspiritual.com\/family\/lighting-the-advent-wreath\/","title":{"rendered":"Lighting the Advent wreath: just hit pause"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lighting the Advent wreath each night for prayers before dinner has long been my family\u2019s tradition. The flickering candlelight growing brighter with each passing week mirrors the interplay of darkness and light we see outside our kitchen window at this time of year. There is something both haunting and comforting about a single flickering candle or two dancing against the velvety darkness. Our brief pause as we light a candle and offer a prayer opens up just enough space in our jam-packed lives to let the beauty of Advent edge its way into our souls.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This is a season that asks us to be patient, to bask in the waiting even as the rest of the world rushes us to deck the halls and play Christmas music. This is a season that asks us to hold things in tension\u2014birth and death, Christ\u2019s arrival in a manger and Christ\u2019s second coming\u2014even as the rest of the world urges us to focus on buying gifts and accumulating things.<\/p>\n<p>The Advent wreath serves as a visible sign of God\u2019s impending arrival, a growing glow and sense of anticipation as we prepare to celebrate again, as if for the first time, God\u2019s willingness to break into our world and live among us as one of us. Light beyond all bounds. Light that never goes out. Light that burns within each one of us.<\/p>\n<p>Each time you light the candles on your Advent wreath this season\u2014day by day, week by week\u2014may it be a reminder to step outside the frenetic pace of the world and set your life to a slower rhythm, a sacred cadence that gives you room to breathe in God\u2019s goodness, to revel in the waiting, to look into the darkness all around you and find the Light that can never be extinguished.<\/p>\n<p><em>You can get a monthly subscription to Give Us This Day by clicking<a href=\"https:\/\/www.giveusthisday.org\/\"> HERE<\/a>. Why not get one for a friend or family member this Christmas?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lighting the Advent wreath each night for prayers before dinner has long been my family\u2019s tradition. The flickering candlelight growing brighter with each passing week mirrors the interplay of darkness [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[136,81,30],"tags":[64,560,138,42,391,561,84,445],"class_list":["post-6182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent","category-faith","category-family","tag-advent","tag-advent-wreath","tag-christmas","tag-family","tag-give-us-this-day","tag-liturgical-calendar","tag-prayer","tag-rituals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lighting the Advent wreath: just hit pause &#8211; Not Strictly Spiritual<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ritual of lighting the Advent wreath can be like hitting the pause button on our chaotic lives, if only for a minute or two.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/notstrictlyspiritual.com\/family\/lighting-the-advent-wreath\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lighting the Advent wreath: just hit pause &#8211; 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