Blue – Lutherans began using blue, instead of purple and pink, in 1978 to note that Advent is different than Lent, which uses purple. There are, indeed, themes of quiet waiting, repentance, and a fasting from the full expression of Christmas. However, there is a joy, expectation and hope that...
Advent Practices for Home, Inspired by the Sunday Advent Liturgy
Silence as an Advent Practice: Find some time every day to sit in silence. Let God hold your life and the world. Put it all down for a time. Begin with this prayer: Stir up your Spirit, O Christ, and come. If you’re new with silence, give it a chance....
Background on the Advent Liturgy at Gloria Dei
We gather with a time of silence. With so much noise in our world, with so many words that are false, or designed to divide, or crafted to manipulate us, silence is counter-cultural, healing, and prophetic. The liturgy will begin with an invitation to put down the words that hurt...
What will you get for the 2024 Giving Tree?
During the first couple weeks of Advent, you have the chance to make Christmas merrier for people less fortunate in our community. Gloria Dei's custom of having a Giving Tree is back and there are nearly 500 individual gifts and gift cards to be purchased this year. Click here to...
Advent 2023: All Earth is Hopeful
Sunday marks the start of Advent and our spiritual preparation to meet Christ at the end of time and in the babe in the manger. As the nights get darker, for four weeks the church lights more candles, a sign of flickering hope in a world that needs a word...
Preparing for a “Less is More” Christmas
Advent starts this Sunday (Nov. 27), a time for reflection as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Over the course of the last few years, many of us have learned to scale back and think about the holidays in simpler terms. This season Gloria Dei is making available...
Practice Hope — By Martha Wegner Member Blog, Day 20
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Practice Hope – By Julie Schulz. Member Blog, Day 18
I’ve had my share the last few years. Our oldest son struggles with addiction. The fallout from that journey has put stress on my relationships with my husband and younger son. I’ve had two hospitalizations, one broken neck requiring surgery, and I discovered at age 48 that I was adopted,...
Practice Hope – By Meg Stevenson. Member Blog, Day 17
This year, the Thanksgiving holiday was filled with many blessings, as so many of the people I love gathered over the four days. In many ways my family is my rock, but it is also very much my hope. This strong bond of love fuels my hope and sustains my...
Practice Hope – By Joanne Kendall. Member Blog, Day 16
Waiting for the late-January (2018) birth of my first great-grandchild is a wonderful way for me to practice hope in Advent 2017. To welcome new life into the world always involves hope and expectation. It gives new significance, too, to these words of a 12th Century mystic, telling me that...