Fourth Sunday of Advent, and Hanukkah

The fourth and final part of advent begins today. When I have observed advent well, I find that I am now mostly prepared for Christmas - my house is fairly clean, shopping is finished, and the cupboards are filled with yummy food. I need to complete only a few finishing touches.

This is a good day to take a deep breath and go back to the source, back to the Spirit that brings me to this place of light and grace; back to living in Spirit, being Spirit. I remember then that happiness comes in calm simplicity, and awareness in the moment. I experience Spirit through my breath, and with each sensation, sight, sound, smell, and taste. I only need to be fully awake to the ordinary miracle of Being, and keep my focus on the Spirit of Love that guides me.

Tonight is also the first night of the eight day Jewish holiday known as the Festival of Lights. Hanukkah is observed beginning 3 days before the new moon closest to the winter solstice, at the darkest part of the moon phase and the darkest part of the sun phase.

Agenda today:

1. Read a novena

2. Plan ways to give attention to God

3. Winter Awareness Walk

4. Prepare for Hanukkah
5. Make potato latkes
6. Hanukia Ceremony

7. Advent wreath ceremony

1. Read a novena:

This is the third day of the Christmas Novena, a Catholic ritual of a prayer recited or sung during the nine days leading up to Christmas Day. I am reading this Creation Novena from the Indian Catholic Matters site:

Day 3: A Prayer for the Plants 

Creator God, we give thanks for every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit. We thank You for all that plants provide and offer us, and for all the ways they connect us with all life on Earth. Thank You for the sustenance—physical, emotional, and spiritual—that we draw from the plants. We give thanks for the grain, fruit, and vegetables we eat, and for the shrubs and flowers that fill our homes and parks. We give thanks for the oxygen they produce and the stability they bring to our world. And we give special thanks for the wheat and grapes that, through the work of human hands, become our offering of bread and wine, which you lovingly return to us as the body and blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

As we see the unimaginably rapid destruction of rainforests, grasslands, and aquatic habitats, we ask that You give us courage to speak for the voiceless and to change our lifestyles. Help us encourage our neighbors and policy-makers to care for Your creation.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

2. Plan ways to give attention to God:

This week of advent my focus is the Guiding Light of God. My image of God is the Creator Spirit of earth and sky, and the Love and Light that lives in all people. I try to live always awake and listening for the message of Love, and always feel a connection to Creation, but I get distracted. I want to have a more effectual connection to God, and so this week I'll practice and improve my mindfulness habits.

Things to do this week to give attention to the Spirit of God:

• Each morning as I wake, pause to take a slow breath, and center on the Light within. Stay in this gentle meditation as I get dressed and move through my morning.
• Light a candle, and sit every morning for a few minutes of silence, simply feeling a presence of Love.
• Start a new prayer journal: Write my prayers of gratitude, dreams and desires I want to hold up for Spirit, and list people to hold in the Light.
• Say my brief outdoor Dawn Prayer every morning.
• Go on an Awareness Walk, and send prayers to my loved ones, all the people of the world, and to the earth.
• Write about my personal spiritual path, how I weave together the threads of my belief, and my spiritual practices.
• Start an Inner Guide trance practice, to access new insights.
• Light all the candles at night to remind me that the Spirit of God is our guiding Light.

Seneca said: “You are a fragment of God; ... Will you not bear in mind, whenever you eat, who you are that eat, and whom you are nourishing? ... Whenever you mix in society, whenever you take physical exercise, whenever you converse, do you not know that you are nourishing God, exercising God?”

3. Winter Awareness Walk:

The simple fact of Being, along with a feeling of love, defines my essential self. I am sometimes distracted by searching for meaning and purpose, collecting experiences, relationships, and knowledge, and I forget to enjoy the being of now! 

When I relax and allow myself to appreciate the mystery and feel the wonders of the season, an awareness of the harmony of life emerges, and an amazing quality of aliveness; everything is in its place - just so. 

This week I plan to enjoy an Awareness Walk practice, for the purpose of being present to the winter and to Creation. Each day as I walk my dog I will give attention to these:

1. Physical Awareness: Concentrate on my feet as they touch the ground, the feel of my muscles, my breathing, my surroundings, the breeze, the sky. Continue this for 1-2 blocks. 

2. Heart Awareness: Turn a corner, and focus on my tender heart. Feel it soften and open. Send loving thoughts to my neighbors as I walk by their homes, to my family, to my community, to the world. Continue this for 1-2 blocks. 

3. Mindfulness: Turn another corner, and pay attention to my thoughts. Make an effort to open my mind to the ambiguity of the moment, and my life. Continue this for 1-2 blocks. 

4. Spiritual Awareness: Turn the last corner, and (holding on to the awareness I've raised) speak a prayer out loud as I’m moving; feel the power and energy move through me. Say, “Spirits of Love and Light and Creation, I remember thee. Amen.”

3. Prepare for Hanukkah:

Hanukkah commemorates a miracle that occurred in 142 BCE, when a single vial of oil kept the temple lamp burning for eight days. I like the ancient Babylonian Talmud story that explains that Adam left Paradise just before the time of the Winter Solstice. He noticed the days getting shorter, was worried, and decided to fast and pray for eight days to try to call back the sun. But when the winter solstice arrived, and he saw the days getting gradually longer, he said, "Such is the way of the world,” and proceeded to observe eight days of festivity. 

Today I will clean up my Hanukia (otherwise known as a menorah) and check my supply of candles- we need 44 candles to last each of the 8 nights.

4. Make potato latkes:
It is traditional to eat fried foods on this holiday, because of the significance of the oil in the lamp.

Ingredients:

• 3 large potatoes
• 1 small onion
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• dash of black pepper
• 1/2 c. oil
• sour cream and applesauce

Yield: About 15 pancakes-

1- Peel the potatoes and the onion, and grate them together onto a towel. 

2- Sqeeze out as much moisture as possible, then put into the bowl.

3- Beat the eggs and stir them into the potatoes, along with the flour, salt, and black pepper.

4- Heat the oil in a frying pan, and spoon in the batter. Fry the pancakes until crispy on both sides.

5- Drain on paper towels and serve with sour cream and applesauce.

Hanukkah 2021

5. Hanukia Ceremony:

Hanukkah is another winter festival with the theme of light and darkness, of moving from dark despair to a place of light and hope.

At sunset, I fit one candle into the Hanukia on the far right, plus a shamash (servant) candle in the center. 

Then I recite a blessing. Most of the traditional Hanukkah blessings don't seem appropriate for me, being not even a little bit Jewish, so I use the Blessing of Praise (Shehecheyanu), which is for the first night of anything, or any new experience:

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, shehecheyanu v'kiy'manu v'higianu laz'man hazeh.

Blessed are You, our God, Sovereign of all, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this season.

For a nice recording of how to pronounce this blessing in Hebrew, look here, at Interfaith Family.

I light the shamash candle and use it to light the first candle of the menorah. We let these two candles burn all the way down tonight.

We continue the candle lighting for eight nights, adding another candle each night, from right to left. Note, though, that the candles are lit from left to right, because you pay honor to the newer thing first.

7. Advent wreath ceremony:

Tonight (and every night this week through Christmas day) we will light four advent candles, and recite four prayers:

"We light the first candle for the earth, which sustains us. May we cherish and care for it."

"We light the second candle for all the people of the world. May we find unity and peace."

"We light the third candle for our family and the joy and love we bring each other."

"We light the fourth candle for the Spirit of God in each of us, which is our guiding light."