Letter from Katie • December 10, 2025

Tree of Jesse by Marc Chagall, 1975; oil on canvas, 130 × 81 cm; Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France

Dear Holy Comforter,

I’ve been celebrating Advent for about 20 years now and one of the things I appreciate most about marking Advent, but really all the seasons of the church’s year, is how repeated prayers, scriptures, songs, and traditions like the Jesse tree, take on different shades of significance each year. Every time I celebrate Advent, its beauty seeps deeper into my heart and heals a different aspect of my broken relationship with God and others. 

I am not by nature a very patient person and so I really need Advent to teach me—again and again—how to wait with hope and trust. My waiting too often slips into impulsive action or churning anxiety, but Advent reminds me that my faith in God’s promises of justice and restoration will eventually be sight. And my hope will eventually meet its object. In eternity, faith and hope give way to Love, born in us as it once was in the Virgin Mary. Only Love will remain. 

But now we need faith and hope to sustain us. And in Advent we look to past generations of saints, particularly the prophets, to learn what it means to wait with hope and faith. 

The prophets call us not to resignation or acceptance but to expectation because “the coming of the Lord is near” and “the Judge is standing at the doors”. (James 5:8-9) Consequently, the prophets invite us to cry out to God for relief, for rescue, and for justice while we wait for God to intervene. Advent is when we give voice to the longing in our hearts. 

Advent is also when we confess our own participation in the brokenness of the world. Advent, then, is not only about longing for Christ to come again and put everything back together; it’s about repenting and receiving grace so that we get to be put back together now and participating in bringing wholeness to others. 

James says it this way, 

“Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

James 5:13-16

May we pray with faith and hope this Advent that God the Lord will make us and the whole world well. 

I hope you’ll join us this Saturday night for Carols and Cookies. We’ll kindle our hope by singing and celebrating together. And please bring a friend.

With much love,

Katie