• Sabbath Walks Blog
  • Worship
  • Ministries
REV. DR. ADAM TIERNEY-ELIOT
  • Sabbath Walks Blog
  • Worship
  • Ministries

Sabbath Walks 

Advent Day 8

12/10/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Here we are in a different Advent, younger, with three young children, and somehow more time...
Well the road to church was quite eventful.  As you may have gathered from yesterday's installment, things didn't go as planned.  We were hoping to catch up on our Christmas stuff.  We haven't decorated much at all.  Christmas shopping has been put on hold.  So Saturday--the last day in the first week of Advent--was going to be the day.  Instead we rushed about to get ready and...well...we ended up in the emergency room. 

Don't worry about that part.  Honestly everyone will be fine in a couple days.  Still, it made for a late night getting ready to worship today, which was followed by a long day of errands just getting ready for the week ahead.  At least we discussed where we would like to have a Christmas tree.

Today we lit the peace candle on the Advent wreath, which reminded me of last week's prayer.  I have been thinking about peace a great deal lately.  There seems to be so little of it.  There is so much going on in the world and there is a great deal going on in our hearts as well.  Last week's pastoral prayer addressed many of the same issues even though it was supposed to be about hope.  Here is the "prayer" from today though I guess it is more of a poem when I look at it...

Advent Peace
​Adam Tierney-Eliot


It feels strange 
to pray for peace in
a time of growing war.
Our souls yearn for
Something better, more
holy, more powerful
than the drama of
human conflict 
and yet…here we are;
In a world filled
with prayers that
we do not heed.

But we persist in our dream. 
The dream is better than reality
and somewhere in our hearts
we still believe
that it is possible, possible
to build that
commonwealth of heaven
where justice will roll down
and wars will cease

So we light candles, we sing songs 
About life subsisting in hard places.
We bring the green of life into
the dark of winter.
We tell stories of peace and justice and
we even act on those stories.
So may we keep on dreaming
though the world may
try to stop us
and force us into despair.

Hope exists as it always has
in acts of love when love
is not expected
an attitude of faith
when despair is desired
And always hope for the next day
And the next step
That will bring us closer to grace 
​

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Adam Tierney-Eliot

    I am a full-time pastor in a small, progressive church in Massachusetts.  This blog is about the non-church things I do to find spiritual sustenance.

      Monthly Newsletter

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022

    Categories

    All
    10 Memorable Hikes
    48 Wrap Up
    52 WAV
    5 Memorable Posts
    Actual Sabbath Walks
    Advent 2023
    Church Life
    "Easyish" Hikes
    Gaming
    Gardening
    Great Glen Way
    Hiking
    How It Began
    MA Hikes
    ME Hikes
    Mid State Trail
    Music And Art
    NH 48
    Quinobequin/Charles River
    Spirituality/Ecology
    Stuff Recommendations
    Videos
    What And Why

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Sabbath Walks Blog
  • Worship
  • Ministries