For Advent 2025 I created a full downloadable guide. This is the introduction to the guide. You can download the guide via a link at the end of this post.

Matthew has spoken to me this year because it reminds me that Advent and Christmas are not about luxury-item advent calendars, warm and cozy nativity scenes, or sugar-sweet platitudes about peace on earth.

It is a troubling and violent story and it has so much to say to us in this present moment.

Living in the U.S. and looking around the world, I am acutely aware that we are surrounded by leaders desperate to hold onto power. They are willing to use violence almost whimsically and disturbingly comfortable harming the most vulnerable.

Matthew knows all about that.

This is also an important time of year to think about the West Bank and the current realities of Bethlehem and Nazareth. The genocide in Gaza forced me to see how romantic, fairy-tale narratives of Jesus’ birth have contributed to the invisibilization of Palestinian people and their suffering. So this Advent I want to reflect on the past and engage more honestly with the present.

Which is not difficult, because the past and present of this region are eerily similar. Both unfold under occupation and under the threat of violent rulers. Both are filled with flight, fear, grief, visions, and refugees running for their lives.

It is a story dripping with empire.

Strangely, this gives me hope because Matthew understands the world we live in.

It knows the suffering empire produces.

It knows all about corrupt and violent rulers.

And it offers hope and a way forward.

Each week I will offer two reflections on Matthew, a reflection on Palestine, spiritual practices to explore, and some art. Typically, I try to keep reflections short, because I know we are all busy. But I am tired of compressing everything into tiny social-media sound bites, so I let myself write more this year.

However, the purpose of this guide is to serve you. Do not burden yourself with feeling like you have to read everything or do every practice. Trust what draws you, and feel free to leave what does not serve. You can skip reflections. You can pick one spiritual practice for all of Advent and ignore the rest. If the art draws you in more than the writing, then sit with the art.

I simply offer this as a witness that Jesus understands the world we are navigating and offers us hope in the midst of the darkness.

You can download the full guide HERE.