Welcome to the third week of Advent! During this time, we are focused on creating space for reflection with the Holy and we are actively sitting with the expectation that the Lord is coming but the Lord has not come yet (at least in the lectionary calendar).

As we enter into this third week of Advent, we continue to focus on our own contemplation with self and add to it a focus on contemplation with Land. As we are members of creation, it becomes necessary to our selfhood that we reflect on what it means to be in right relation with all of creation. When we are disconnected from the rest of creation (human and nonhuman), we are disconnected from our Creator, because it is only through relationships that we are fully ourselves.

Thus, this week, consider finding the time and space to de-center yourself by focusing on how connected you are to all of creation, especially nonhuman creation. Think about the connections that you have with the Land on which you live; as you sit down to eat a meal, reflect on how long it took to grow that food and how many miles it took to bring it to you; think about the species that dwelled on the Land before it was taken up by buildings; think about land practices that consider all of creation and not just humans; think about the season of winter and how it provides rest to the Land.

Let us reflect on the words of ecofeminist writer, Diann Neu,

Winter brings sweet darkness and chilling cold. We see the stark trees and barren lands, hear the quiet and silence, smell fires burning, touch the snow, feel the blustery wind, and taste steaming soup to warm us inside. This is a time to lie fallow. The spirits of the ancestors knew the power of the darkness and hibernation, the sacredness of death and rebirth. The darkness, dormancy, and silent beauty of winter offer time for another vision. It is time to examine mortality. Mysteries lie in darkness. Solitude brings new dreams from the silence, the waiting, the time apart. Winter invites a long journey inward to draw on natural resources and strength. The starkness of the environment can bring clarity. The structure of the tree and the shape of the land are revealed as they are freed from vegetation. We participate with the Earth in the sacred cycle: death preparing for rebirth, emptying to make space for the new. We rest and hibernate.1

As you reflect the given scripture this week, which talks about in God, “we live, move, and have our being,” think about what it means to live in God. As the culture speeds up, eagerly consuming as Christmas approaches, what does it mean to live and move and have your being in the Creator? Does this change how you live in the world and the ecological footprint that you leave on the earth?

**Scriptural contemplation for the week: Acts 17:22-34

1 Diann Neu, Return Blessings: Ecofeminist Liturgies Renewing the Earth, (Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 2002), 173.