Every year since my kids were old enough to anticipate Christmas, I have hoped to add practices to our family routines to mark the days of Advent with a touch of the sacred among the commercialism that crowds in at this time of year. So far, I have had little success making space for my idealism, and this year is no exception…
Read MoreWelcome to the 2024 New Leaf Advent Reader, Advent Undone: When the Mysteries of Christmas Have Come Unravelled. In the coming weeks, reflections will be coming to your inbox and online from writers and artists across Canada. As we wait for the arrival of Jesus on Christmas day, the season of Advent makes space for our complicated emotions and complex situations.
Read MoreWelcome to the sixth annual New Leaf Advent Reader. I am so excited to share this collection of reflections with you! In 2018, when we put out our first set of daily reflections, I felt like I was leveraging the whole network to find people willing to write a reflection for this unknown project…
Read MoreThat little whisper in my ear or a feeling in my gut that says there is not enough to go around. I need to fight for my share. My fear that something that can’t be healed will happen to my kids. My tendency to overestimate and project far into the future the negative consequence of one small action (or inaction). These are the ways that the accuser uses temptations in my life…
Read MoreWe have arrived at the end of this year’s Advent journey. We appreciated your joining with us as we navigated the Known and Unknowns of our Advent experiences. Even as the lectionary readings move from the apocalyptic and mysterious to the familiar Christmas narrative, there are still mysteries that linger…
Read MoreI have been learning that in life, there are many uncertain roads to walk. Uncertainty seems to be more prevalent now, as many of us face global pandemic uncertainties alongside all the other existing ones…
It’s been two years since the world began shutting down where I live in Saskatoon. My Facebook and google photo memories have been popping up these past few weeks with the events that I still remember as the last time I did this or that.
I see the memory of my gratitude for my birthday gathering and I can’t help but think “ahh, the last party we threw.” …
Read MoreThank you for joining us for the 2021 New Leaf Advent Reader. I am excited to share this collection of reflections from writers across Canada during the Advent Season. The authors are pastors and poets; historians and theologians; laypeople and church leaders. And they all come together to wrestle with the tensions of the Advent season…
Read MoreEach Good Friday and Easter, I have this strange habit of checking to see if the weather matches the theological mood of the day. Will Good Friday be gloomy and rainy? Will Easter be bright and sunny, preferably after a few gloomy days?
Welcome to the third annual New Leaf Advent Reader. We are so glad you are here with us to journey through Advent while reflecting on change and disruption.
Read MoreLast summer I spent many of my evenings listening to the voices of the multivocational ministers that had agreed to participate in the Canadian Multivocational Ministry Project. I was working on transcribing recorded interviews to pass along to the research team for analysis. A few nights a week, after my 1-year-old son was in bed I would go down into our basement to the computer tucked in a corner next to the furnace….
Read MoreHere we are at the end of Lent and Holy Week. And, I don’t know about you, but this has been a very strange season….
Read MoreDear Advent readers,
Thank you so much for going on this Advent journey through scripture and reflections with us…..
Read MoreThe liturgical season of Advent is a space where the mixed emotions of longing and grief are given space to sit in tension. In contrast to the “Christmas season” filled with Christmas parties, one more gift exchange to buy a gift for, hunting for the most desired gift on a child’s wishlist and preparing far more food than is good for many of us. Creating space for the tension between what we long for and the struggles that are immediately before us is a delicate task.
Read MoreIn the sparkly season of Christmas, I often feel out of sync when life is stressful or dark or just full of emotions. I know that Christmas can be full of happiness for many people, but sometimes I just feel the pressure to do Christmas “right” when I can’t muster up the requisite joy on my own.
Read MoreTomorrow is the beginning of Advent. Here on the New Leaf Blog, we are going to be journeying through Advent together with writers from across Canada. The New Leaf Network is a Canadian network spread across this northern country.
Read MoreMost of my work is done sitting in front of a computer, balanced out by chasing my two young boys around. But one day in September I got outside with my boys and I set out to do some harvesting in our yard.
Read MoreWhen I think of Canada, I often think of big – big landscapes, big mountains, big open spaces. But Canada is also small – small populations (relatively speaking on a global scale), small towns, small beauty.
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