Meditations for each day of Advent.
We don't like to wait, but the season of Advent is all about waiting—a time of expectation, when Christians have traditionally devoted themselves to practices of prayer and study.
This book offers a short meditation for each of the thirty days of the season, from the First Sunday of Advent through Christmas Day. In the spirit of expectancy, each meditation focuses on seeking and seeing God in the everyday of our ordinary lives, based on a psalm that corresponds to the daily office for the season of Advent.
Expectant: Advent Meditations is the perfect seasonal practice companion for spiritual seekers as well as devoted Christians, and ideal for church groups and congregations wishing to hand out a fresh and contemporary Advent resource to members.
Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
In the morning Lord, you hear my voice; early in the morning I make my appeal and watch for you.
Psalm 5:3
I slip my thumbnail under the flap to gently pry open today's door on my Advent calendar. It is a retro design, recalling the calendars of my childhood. A winter scene with forest creatures looking over a snow-covered village and a star shining on one particular spot in the distance. Each door reveals a tiny scene of preparation or anticipation of the celebration to come—all enhanced by a light sprinkling of glitter.
I had to hunt to find the right numbered door this morning, and in doing so remembered this as part of the ritual from my youth. How searching for the day's door carried mystery and delight. How could something so obvious and certain be hidden in plain sight?
In my journey toward Jesus, each day is a door opening to revelation, offering opportunities for the recognition of joy, divine presence, and redemption. Day by day I am reminded that revelations of the holy are hidden in plain sight. Some searching, a bit of attentiveness, a modicum of intention opens the way and the heart to sacred love.
"Anne Kitch hears the still small voice beneath the roar of everyday life. In Expectant, a quiet, poetic, meditative, and accessible book, she tells you what she has heard, and shows you, by example, how to listen."
––Sean Rowe, eighth bishop of the Diocese of Northwest Pennsylvania
"These small bite-size nuggets of spiritual wisdom allow us to comprehend what the mature life of faith lived out over a lifetime has to offer us. Aptly written for the frenetic time restraints of the Advent season, this book provides a simple way for busy Christians to stay focused on the spiritual dimensions of the four weeks before Christmas."
––Sylvia Sweeney, dean and president of Bloy House, The Episcopal School at Claremont
"Like Anne Kitch, I love Advent and I love the psalms. Walking with her and the psalmist in this season of holy expectation offers us a luminous, numinous experience as we wait in vigilant hope for the coming of Jesus."
––Peter M. Wallace, producer and host of "Day1" and author of Getting to Know Jesus (Again): Meditations for Lent
"Weeks that begin with a Sunday prayer from the communal liturgies of the faithful, a daily verse from the intensely intimate utterances of the biblical psalmist, and the homely experiences of common life: From these, Anne Kitch crafts an Advent calendar to enlighten predawn darkness, carry through the day, and ponder well into the winter night."
––Sam Portaro, former Episcopal Chaplain to the University of Chicago and Director of Brent House, author of Sense and Sensibility: A Lenten Exploration
"This wonderful book of meditations can be a great resource for preparing our hearts and minds as we await the coming of the Christ child during the season of Advent. Each daily meditation, drawn from the author's personal experience of waiting and expectation, invites us to pay attention to our own encounters with the living Lord."
––Phoebe A. Roaf, fourth bishop of the Diocese of West Tennessee
