In an age which offer a variety of escapes from the human condition, Christians are more than ever a sign of contradiction.  They continue to believe that the search for God must begin with the acceptance of the human.  They believe this because it is in the stable of humanity that God has come in search of us.
In the human experience of Jesus, God became available to us as the depth of human life.  Thus, a Christian believes that the experience of ultimate meaning comes not from a leap out of human condition, but a journey through its dark waters.
                                                                                                                     --John Heagle

Read and meditate on the following passage.  Then journal what stirs within you as you sit in silent reflection.
Hiking – I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not hike! Do you know the origin of that word ‘saunter?’ It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, “A la sainte terre,’ ‘To the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.””
                                                                -- John Muir

As you prepare for prayer, reflect on this passage:
For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning - not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last.
-- Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

Practice lectio divina using the Advent hymn, People, Look East
People, look east.  The time is near of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able, trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:  Love, the guest, is on the way.
Furrows, be glad.  Though earth is bare, one more seed is planted there.
Give up your strength the seed to nourish, that in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today.  Love, the rose, is on the way.
Birds, though you long have ceased to build, guard the nest that must be filled.
Even the hour when wings are frozen God for fledging time has chosen.
People, look east and sing today.  Love, the bird, is on the way.
Stars, keep the watch.  When light is dim one more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather, bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today; Love, the star, is on the way.
Angels, announce with shouts of mirth Christ, who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming with the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look east and sing today: Love, the Lord, is on the way.
                                              --Eleanor Fargeon (Glory to God, Presbyterian Hymnal)