Balancing Joy and Stillness in This Advent Season

Twenty years ago(!), Henry was in seminary, and we were living in an apartment on the campus of Andover-Newton Theological School. One of the gifts of being on campus was access to a well-stocked mosaic studio. One former student had been a mosaic artist. After their death, the family gave their collection of mosaic tiles to the school, which allowed members of the school community to take a class and then make mosaics in the basement studio.

At that time, I also belonged to a liturgical dance group, which provided the inspiration for the mosaic pictured above. To me, it speaks of the need for balancing joyful movement and inner stillness in liturgical dance—or any movement meditation. (Movement prayer is still central to my spiritual practice.)

As I was pondering this Advent, and specifically my blog posts from the past two weeks, I realized that I am illustrating a necessary balance in the spiritual life with these posts as well. As Richard Rohr puts it, “We need both action and contemplation to have a whole spiritual journey.”

To be made whole, we need energetic and joyful anticipation. When the going gets challenging, we need to celebrate and embrace what gives us life and hope to keep persevering. We also need the deep inner rooted stillness that comes from religious practices. We need an interior focus that can sustain us when the winds of the world swoop around us.

As I noted a few weeks ago, we will need to be well grounded in God for the work of resistance that lies ahead. Looking ahead to the Christmas story, Mary and Joseph also needed to be well grounded. There were certainly moments of joy, as Jesus was born and wise visitors brought rich gifts. There were also moments of outright terror, as the family fled to Egypt as refugees, escaping Herod’s fear-driven violence.

We don’t know what lies ahead. This Advent season is for waiting, watching, and preparing ourselves. We do that best when we balance joy and stillness. How can you commit to both—embrace joy and seek stillness—in these busy days?