I am happy to announce that Prayerful Reflections: A Daily Devotional for Advent 2024 is available to download for free or you can follow along on the blog as we count down to Christmas day. Prayerful Reflections is a devotional centered on scripture and prayer. Each daily reflection highlights a chosen scripture from the daily lectionary and follows a rhythm inspired by Lectio Divina of Read, Reflect, Respond, and Rest. This year's devotional highlights 25 female theologians, clergy, leaders and artists and will take you through Advent from December 1st until Christmas day.
This is the eighth edition of Prayerful Reflections. During the last four years, Prayerful Reflections has brought together the written reflections of 130 different women—pastors, theologians, missionaries, artists, writers, and community leaders from around the globe. Over the years, we have written 324 biblical reflections, offering readers an opportunity to pause their busy days and create space for holy listening. Over the last four years, as we all traversed a global pandemic, national protests, wars, and the challenges of everyday life, authors have shared their honest struggles, laments, proclamations, celebrations, and wonderings through the rhythm of read, reflect, respond, and rest, inspired by the spiritual practice of lectio divina or holy listening.
This edition of Prayerful Reflections is much like the ones that have come before it, but this is the first to immediately follow a U.S. presidential election. The re-election of a leader (and his allies) who repeatedly disrespected and harmed marginalized groups through rhetoric and policy, has left many feeling hurt, fear, anxiety, anger, and sadness. There is space for that in these pages–space to lament or question the public spheres and private realities of our everyday lives. For many of our readers it will be a breath of fresh air that Christian leaders are addressing real concerns and not brushing contentious topics under the rug, but for others these laments might be uncomfortable or unfamiliar. Each of you may resonate with some reflections more than others, which is why I encourage you to come back to the practice each day, recognizing that each reflection is the views of the author and not of everyone.
As a spiritual director, I acknowledge that many spiritual practices, including spiritual direction, are deeply personal and often done in private. However, just because something is private doesn’t mean it’s apolitical. After all, this devotional celebrates the anticipation of Jesus, a person who was anything but apolitical. Jesus challenged the religious and political authorities of his day, championing the cause of the marginalized and oppressed. His radical message called us to love our enemies and to pursue justice for all.
In spiritual direction, we don’t shy away from hard topics or discomfort. Instead, we pause, listen, and acknowledge our feelings. We seek guidance from the Holy Spirit and our conscience. This devotional and its community are a form of group spiritual direction, where we listen to the Divine within the words and silences of the text. My hope in spiritual direction is to bring out our inner mystic and our inner prophet, that as we encounter the mystery and goodness of God, we would also bravely face the inequities and injustices in our world and be inspired to loving action.
May the light of Christ meet you in the darkness of Advent.
-Rev. Julia Styles
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