Start Your Advent Saturdays in Prayer, Poetry, and Quiet
Earth and All Flesh: Saturday Advent Prayer Gathering on Zoom
This Advent, you are invited to begin your Saturday mornings in community and quiet prayer. Earth and All Flesh: Advent Prayer Gathering meets on Zoom from 8:00–8:30 am MST on Saturdays, November 29, December 6, 13, and 20. Drop in when you can and leave when you must.
👉 Register to receive the Zoom link here: spiritinthedesert.org/earth-and-all-flesh-registration
Hosted by Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center, this series brings together like-hearted people longing for God’s shalom—for the healing of creation and all who dwell in it. Each gathering will follow the traditional Advent themes of hope, faith, joy, and peace, holding them alongside the deep longing of earth and all flesh for renewal in Christ.
At the heart of each Saturday is a brief reading from Martin Luther’s Christmas Book. Editor Roland Bainton writes that Luther “did not believe lightly,” wrestling honestly with the same doubts and questions that we bring to the Christmas story. Excerpts from Luther’s Christmas sermons have been arranged into a narrative and commentary, giving us a distinctly Lutheran way to ponder the mystery of God-with-us.
Each 30-minute gathering will include:
Short reading & reflection
A weekly reading from Martin Luther’s Christmas Book centered on the themes of hope, faith, joy, and peace.
Guided meditation & journaling
Time to quietly ponder, journal, or sketch in response to the reading. You’re encouraged to bring your favorite notebook or doodling tools.
Song and/or poem
Some songs and poems are “prayers in liquid form.” We will allow music and poetry to draw us deeper into the heart of Divine Love.
Silent contemplation
A simple, shared silence in the presence of Christ, who promises to be where two or three are gathered.
Prayers of the people & sending prayer
We will close by naming prayers of intercession—spoken or silent—for people, places, and all beings in need of God’s hope, faith, joy, and peace.
The gathering will be facilitated by Sheri Brown, an experienced liturgist and retreat leader. Sheri’s path has moved from news reporting and documentary work, to teaching elementary students with emotional and behavioral challenges, to becoming an avid walker after recovering from a serious injury. Since 2009 she has written liturgy, prayers, poems, reflections, homilies, and sermons for her local congregation and beyond.
Sheri leads contemplative retreats, facilitates the monthly Spirited Book Club and weekly Centering Prayer (Mondays at noon, also on Zoom) for Spirit in the Desert, and has created past offerings such as Examen 2021, Tidings of Comfort & Joy: An Advent of Making (Advent 2022), 40 Days of Caring for Creation: A Lenten Practicum (Lent 2023), Earth Rising for Easter, Climate Theater, and Advent Centering Prayer: Restore Our Hope.
Sheri and her spouse, ELCA pastor Kirk Anderson, live in northern Idaho, where Pastor Kirk serves as interim pastor of Lutheran Church of the Master in Coeur d’Alene. Sheri recently completed a two-year Lay Ministry Associate program and is in conversation with her bishop about serving as a Synodically Authorized Minister (SAM).
As we enter Advent, this is a gentle, Lutheran-rooted way to slow down, listen for the Spirit, and pray for God’s shalom—for ourselves, our neighbors, and all creation.
To receive the Zoom link, please register here:
https://spiritinthedesert.org/earth-and-all-flesh-registration/