2024 Advent Week Three - Finding Joy: Let It Rise

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…but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

JOHN 16:22

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Advent. What a sacred time of the year! The Christian faith invites us to embrace this season as an experience of expectant waiting – to open ourselves to a spiritual kind of pregnancy while we rely on patient hope for the dawning of new life… new life for our broken world and for our less than perfect selves. We are asked to allow ourselves to experience the darkness, and to open ourselves to a radical trust that new life WILL emerge. From this faith perspective, we are called inward to listen deeply and to let go of anything that gets in the way of hearing God’s gentle, loving voice within us. Without distraction, we are fully awake, fully present, fully open to recognize the light and to share it in all that we say and do. The power of light penetrates and dispels all darkness.

The tone of our dominant culture is quite different. All things Christmas are ready for purchase even before Halloween. “Are you ready for Christmas?” is the conversation of the day. Thrown into a time of busyness, the hype and the glitz of a storybook Christmas strip us of the fullness of the power of Advent.

For those of us with a desire to engage in the season of Advent, there is inner tension. The Spirit draws us inward while the world forces us outward toward a frenzied pursuit of something that rarely satisfies. How do we reconcile this tension? We don’t have to only acknowledge the way the Spirit is moving us inwardly. We don’t have to rebuke the sentimentality of the holiday rush. The invitation of the season is to allow our inner longings to emerge and to be patient with them. Perhaps we can be intentional about practicing Advent again this year and, instead of resenting the tension, embrace it with joy?

This week we dive into what it means for joy to come from within…

The third week of Advent invites us to ground ourselves in joy, even amid strife, and let that joy well up.

Mary Anne

Mary Anne has dedicated the majority of her career to ensuring that health care leaders have all that they need to remain faithful to the Catholic Mission while

responding to the signs of the times. Through her leadership, Providence has developed a ministry leadership formation program that has been highly regarded as best in class.

Only have a minute? Start here.

Choose just one piece of content gathered here and dig deep: What does it say to you about joy? Can you point to an example in your own life?

Allow for the unexpected to bring you joy. Allow yourself to feel this joy in everyday life. The everyday is what life is all about. So revel in the small moments of joy and feel their effect. Let’s go!

MARIA SHRIVER

Be good. Keep your feet dry and your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.

Through all the tumult and the strife I hear that music ringing It finds an echo in my soul How can I keep from singing?

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How do you reconcile the tension between the chaos of the world and the desire for stillness in Advent?

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Where can you seek peace today?

How can you be open, willing to listen, and engage with a heart that’s fully alive?

Let It Rise

A reflection courtesy of Mary Anne Sladich-Lantz. The Catholic Health Association extends its thanks to Providence St. Joseph Health for the use of its recording studio and to David Solheim for his on-site direction.

“If joy really is an inside job ... nothing external to us can take joy from us.”

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What deeper joy grounds you and allows your soul to sing? Where in your life do you experience it?

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How can you look for the things that give you joy? How will you let that joy well up?

How can you release an inner joy so that your experience of the world is grounded and calm amidst whatever else is happening in the world around you?

God of joy, help me to discover anew a joyful heart. Help me to feel joy. Help me to know joy. Help me to spread joy. Help me to be joy. With a joyful heart, may all those who come into my presence feel more loved and healed. Amen.

Readings

for the Third Sunday in Advent

READING ONE Zep 3:14–18a

READING TWO Phil 4:4–7

GOSPEL Lk 3:10-18

Easy Listening

Songs, podcast episodes, and more to incorporate into your Advent reflections and accompany your daily routine.

PODCAST EPISODE: Oprah’s Super Soul: “The Seeds”

A POEM:

ADVENT PLAYLIST:

Read On

A few more bits of spiritual nourishment for joy in any season. See chausa.org/advent for an even more extensive list.

“Joy Chose You” by Donna Ashworth found in Wild Hope: Healing Words to Find Light on Dark Days

A POEM: “I Dwell in Possibility” by Emily Dickinson found in The Poems of Emily Dickinson

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