Advent Series 2024
Mary THE ROSE
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This is the irrational season
when love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
there’d have been no room for the child.
-Madeleine L'Engle
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This series was inspired by "The Way of The Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary" by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn. I highly recommend the audiobook for the season of Advent. It is not a catholic book but written by a former Buddhist monk and his spouse telling the story of how they found Mary. It is helpful for us to look with fresh eyes to see how the Spirit may move us in our pathways to God.
Advent 1: Mary the Rosebud
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You were born into this world from My womb,
and every moment of your life I accompany
you and guide you
and watch over until the moment you
are laid in your tomb.
That moment is like a doorway that leads
right back to this life:
Your going and coming are all of one moment.
-The Way of the Rose
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Ways to Engage with The Divine Feminine this Week:​​
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Watch Lo how a Rose e'er Blooming by the Atlanta Master Chorale.
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Watch for beauty this week. Will you see any roses or flowers? What colors remind you of mother Mary, of your own mother, or perhaps yourself if you are a mother? How will you be surprised by joy?
Watch for grief this week. Will you see it in yourself? Will you see it in others? Are you brave enough to look for grief? To truly feel it in the darkness?
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Pray asking God to help you to always persist in love like Mary. To widen your love, deepen your love. To break open your spirit so an inbreaking of power may change you from within. The bud of the rose is waiting within. May you seek it and find what your heart desires. Amen.
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Above image is Madonna In Rose Garden by Martin Schongauer, (1473). ​​
​Advent 2: Mary the Rose Garden
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There is one delusion at the bottom
of human experience today:
the belief that you live in a Motherless,
comfortless world.
This is the source of all other delusions,
and the cause of all unhappiness.
-The Way of the Rose
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Ways to Engage with The Divine Feminine this Week:​​
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Watch this version of "Mary Freaking Knew" by Jenny LaJoye and laugh.​
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Watch "Mary Don't You Weep" by the artist formerly known as Prince and weep with grief with the women and mothers.
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How have you been punished for being contrary? How have you punished others for being contrary? I challenge you to think about how we condition women and others with less power to uphold the status quo by not complaining or by putting their needs last or leading quietly from behind the scenes. But most of all we must change how we hear the voices of women in our faith context for Advent is silent but for the women.
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Will you work for the voices of the women to be the ones that are primary during Advent?
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Pray asking God to fill you with her divine spirit, giving you wisdom as you prepare to make room for the child. Pray for holy connection, and union as you are fed on the vine of the mother. Amen.
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Above image is Hail Mary by Paul Gauguin.
​Advent 3: Mary the Thorny Rose
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It seems like there are mothers
and children in the world-
but there are only Mothers.
The truth is, there are only Mothers.
-The Way of the Rose
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Ways to Engage with The Divine Feminine this Week:​​
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Watch This is to Mother You by Sinead O'Conner.​
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​​How are you a mother this Advent? The article speaks of each of us being the only begotten child. How is this held in tension with our mothering like the poem suggests?
Will you look for the feminine within Advent whether you are male or female or non-binary? How will your eyes be opened to the astonishing female way God came among us?
Take a few moments this week to soak up beauty and joy and hide them in your heart for the days to come like Mary.
Pray asking God to fill you with her divine spirit, so you may be filled with peace and gladness. Pray for courage so that you, like Mary will have bravery to act in fierce love and to speak with prophetic voice the words of God.
Amen.
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Above Image is The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child by Botticelli
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​Advent 4: Mary the Wild Rose
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When you understand where the words
dirty and holy intersect,
you will have found the secret
to everything.
-The Way of the Rose
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Ways to Engage with The Divine Feminine this Week:​​
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Watch this version of "The Wexford Carol" with Alison Kraus and Yo Yo Ma. ​
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Go to my Pinterest page Mary the Rose and enjoy the art pinned there.
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How has Mary changed the way you see Advent this year? Take some time to journal and pray or talk with a friend about your thoughts. Have you been changed?
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The female body, the female voice can be trusted to bear God and to speak for God. I hope you will join me from the margins in teaching ourselves the values of love and freedom we have craved from birth. Mary has shown us the way.
In these last few moments of Advent, I pray blessing upon you, peace upon you. May you find a moment of quiet to feel the trust that God has in you, for you are beloved. May we all be reminded in the difficult days to come God's law is love. Jesus, the incarnate Word is joy and will be born again. The labor pains are beginning to show us the way.
Amen.
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Above image is Madonna by Edward Munch.
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Deep Peace Advent Series 2023
Each week of Advent, 3 Minute Ministry Mentor will feature one of my paintings with poetry and visio divina, which is a way of contemplative meditation that invites a sacred image to lead you in reflection and to take you beyond the image to the presence of the holy.
Week One: Deep Peace of the Running Wave
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Week Two: Deep Peace of the Flowing Air
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Week Three: Deep Peace of the Quiet Earth
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Week Four: Moon & Stars Pour Their Healing Light on You
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Darkest Night
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Christmas Day: Deep Peace of Christ
Look at the painting, and continue looking after the music ends, allowing yourself a time of silence and deep, prayerful attention. In that time of reflection and attention, let yourself encounter the peace of God’s creation with the eye of your heart. What do you see in and through the image of the prayer? How does that peace, which transcends word and art, speak to you?
Baptist News Global Advent Series 2023
Ever hear the phrase, “Behind every successful man, there is a woman?”
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Jesus is the successful man; Mary is the woman.
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Mary is an enigmatic figure. She has been used and abused to subjugate women, to keep women under control, under the thumb of the Christian church for centuries. Women must spend most of their early lives birthing and then nursing children. Often denied birth control methods, raising multiple children, caring for husband and households, carrying the emotional load, making sure the world runs like it should while expected to smile demurely — we should look to Mary as an obedient example.
