During Advent we wait. And dare to hope. We allow the space for mystery and unanswered questions while choosing to trust that the new creation is coming. And as we feel the pangs of labor and wonder “How long, oh Lord?” we know we are ultimately held by the one who knit us together and chose to be knit together like us.

Longing and joy, reality and hope, today and tomorrow are held together here in Advent.

While waiting to celebrate His first coming we are reminded He is coming back. We don’t know when. The time is always ripe. The adventure is always almost ready to begin. 

By Dustin+ Messer, Associate Priest for Faith Formation, All Saints Dallas

Advent is a gift for the church of all ages. Here are tips and tricks I have seen work for some families to make for a thoughtful Advent season.

We celebrate Advent not so much as a precursor to Christmas, lost in the shuffle of the holidays, but as an invitation to the retelling of the greatest story ever told. It’s a prologue that sets the stage to begin again, to retell a story that’s new every morning.

We try to build up anticipation for the Advent season so people become ready to focus on the birth of Jesus, to make Christmas the celebration that it should be.

Lead Bishop Philip Jones shares how to use the Advent season to prepare our hearts for Christmas.    

Brief reviews of "Remaking a Broken World" and "The Household of God: Lecture on the Nature of the Church."

"On the Incarnation" and "None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God" are reviewed recommended as good readings for Advent.