Tag: carmelite advent
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Advent Reflections – Birthing
I’ve never told my birth story publicly. It was far from the candle filled water birth I’d imagined – in fact it was the total opposite of what I’d hoped. Three types of induction, hooked up to monitors, pethidine and an epidural before my newborn was whisked away for observations and antibiotics. Within hours, I…
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Advent Reflections – Journeying
Throughout the Bible, God’s people are on the move, and God seems to do much of His work in people through their journeys. Abraham’s journey to Canaan. The Israelites protracted journey to the Promised Land. Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem in the months before Jesus’ birth. We can but imagine the maelstrom of emotions…
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Advent Reflections Week Two – Accepting
When I decided to use the carmelite themes to reflect this advent, it was this word accepting that captivated and confused me in equal measure. For me at least, it conjures the concept of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ famous five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and at last, acceptance. It’s the pinnacle stage in this…
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Advent Reflections Week One – Waiting
This year for advent, I’m going to reflect each week on the Carmelite themes of Advent; waiting, accepting, journeying and birthing. Having read about them in author Sarah Bessey’s advent reflections, it struck me that they sound to me like stages of grief and lament and so I want to explore. Our emotional lives don’t…
Rachael Newham 