Welcome! As you set aside time each day for Advent prayer, consider using this approach, which works well for individuals and groups of all ages.

Light a candle. Pause to remember the presence of God filling you with Light and Love.

Pray this Opening Prayer:

Radiant Creator, awaken me to your presence. Jesus, Light of all Lights, kindle love in my heart. Spirit of Illumination, guide my path today.

Advent Reflection for the Day

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. Luke 10:23

Do you remember the Total Eclipse of the Sun in August of 2017? Our family spent that day in northern Wyoming. A few of us drove the Jeep high into remote wilderness to view the eclipse in 98% “totality.” But a second group was determined to experience 100% darkness, taking a longer off-road drive plus a three-mile hike into actual totality. Photos of the eclipse from each group demonstrate the difference between 98% darkness and TOTAL darkness. It was stunning to see how much light a fingernail-slice of sun provided for the first group.

We can have the best eyes in the world, but in total darkness, we see nothing. We need light to see our way; and a little light is BRIGHT. Advent is a season for letting a little more of Christ’s Light shine in our spiritual darkness.

When I stop to notice the shadows in my own soul, I realize that most of them are caused by the way I choose to see things. This distorted vision corrupts my understanding of people and situations; and it causes me to impose false expectations on God and others.

Sometimes my distorted view of life comes from NOT knowing my True Self. Spiritual blind spots play tricks on my eyes, giving me a false picture. It’s usually in looking back that I can see how I’ve concocted a false story about myself or something else. It’s funny how even a “glimpse” of Reality feels great and floods me with Christ’s wisdom. This small light of inner guidance is the greatest gift I have known on the journey of my human life. Without God’s luminous direction, I would be hellishly trapped in self-deception, judgment, false beliefs, resentment and overreaction. Yikes!

Jesus told his disciples they were blessed to be able to see as much of God’s Truth as they were able to see. He urged them to keep looking beyond their own experience and deeper within their own souls to know the Truth. They also received guidance in the form of Jesus’s interpretation of God’s message in scripture. Over time, they grew in their understanding of God’s kingdom of love. At times they experienced epiphany and swift transformation. Other times, the enlightenment was slow or regressive.

In Jesus’s time and today, it is up to each person to seek and live into the clarity Christ freely offers.

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Set your intention for the day. Say: Today I will look with the eyes of Christ on one person or situation that causes me distress.

Pray this Closing Prayer:

Jesus, you are the Everlasting Light. Help me to bring your love everywhere I go. Fill me with Light this Advent that all my life will reflect you. Shine through me so that that everyone I meet today would feel your presence in my spirit. Let them look and see, not just me, but you, Light of all Lights, shining through me. Amen

As you blow out the candle and the flame vanishes, remember you have divine light within you that will never go out. You take the light of Christ with you wherever you are.

Enjoy your practice, Katie Martinez