Advent Reflection With a Twist — Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine

Written by Anne Andersson

December 5, 2025

Thank you to Sister Lesley Block, O.P. for introducing me to this beautiful book!

All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings

—by Gayle Boss, illustrated by David G. Klein

Experience the wonder of Advent through the eyes of nature

Inspirational insights from scientists, poets, and philosophers who find God in creation

—Excerpts from Gayle’s book are used by permission of Paraclete Press—

Gayle Boss invites readers to embrace the ancient wisdom of Advent through the extraordinary lives of 25 northern hemisphere animals as they prepare for winter.

She leads her Introduction with a quote from the medieval German Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher, and mystic, Meister Eckhart (1260-1328):

”Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spend enough time with the tiniest creature, even a caterpillar, I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature.”

Gayle begins by explaining why, when her first son was a toddler, she gave up on putting up colored lights and outdoor decorations before Christmas and replaced them with the Advent Wreath—

—and only putting up the decorations and tree on Christmas Eve, a practice she continued with both of her children through their childhood and on into their adulthood.

[Christians light one candle on each of the four Sundays of Advent in preparation for Christmas; a purple candle on the first two Sundays, pink on the third (for anticipation), and purple on the fourth.]

Gayle explains that, after reading a few pages of a “dry tome on the history of Christianity,” she learned that:

the roots of Advent run deep beneath the Christian church—in the Earth and in the seasons.

“Late autumn, in the northern hemisphere,” she says, “brings the end of the growing season—and harvest.”

The people of the time wanted to enjoy the fruits of the hard work they had put in during the growing season—and to celebrate with a feast.

At the same time, they saw in the sky that the light was waning:

As December came upon them, they felt the shadow of primal fear—fear for survival—encroaching over them.

Deep down, they harbored a fear that, although the sun had returned the prior year, what if it did not return in the present year?

“Even today,” Gayle warns, “we ask the same question: We know that on December 21, the winter solstice, the sun will begin its return to our sky. But our animal bodies react with dis-ease. We feel, The light—life—is going.”

She continues with additional historical perspectives:

Advent to the Church Fathers was the right naming of the season when light and life are fading.

They urged the faithful to set aside four weeks to fast, give, and pray—all ways to strip down, to let the bared soul recall what it knows beneath its fear of the dark, to know what Jesus called ‘the one thing necessary:’ that there is One who is the source of all life, One who comes to be with us and in us, even, especially, in darkness and death.

One who brings a new beginning.

“This,” Gayle writes, “is Christian tradition at its best, moving in step with creation.”

Her book is her own version of the Advent calendar—”a daily Advent devotional exploring those 25 northern animals’ winter adaptations, revealing spiritual parallels between nature’s survival strategies and the season’s transformative darkness.”

A commercial description of her book states:

Each daily reflection unveils the intricate and awe-inspiring ways animals like the honeybee, porcupine, and painted turtle adapt to darkness and cold, revealing the timeless truth:

The dark is not an end—it’s a door to a new beginning.

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For those of us living in the northern hemisphere, each year in winter leading to spring, we experience—and trust—that light will follow darkness and life will arise from what appears to be death .

For this C:WED Advent post—Advent, a time when Christians await in anticipation—I will conclude by looking at an excerpt from Gayle’s first animal reflection:

Advent: 1

Painted Turtle

The water is maybe waist-deep in this pond, but a murky soup, clogged with roots and plants. One day in the fall, as water and air cooled, at some precise temperature an ancient bell sounded in the turtle brain. A signal: Take a deep breath.

Each creature slipped off her log and swam for the warmer muck bottom. She closed her eyes and dug into the mud. She buried herself. And then, pulled herself into her shell, encased in darkness, she settled into a deep stillness.

Sunk in its bottom-mud, for six months she will not draw air into her lungs.

To survive a cold that would kill her…she slows herself beyond breath in a place where breath is not possible.

And waits.

Gayle explains that the painted turtle’s body helps her to survive with physical machinations that, while totally miraculous, remain extremely stressful for her.

Gayle closes her chapter on the painted turtle with words from the wisdom of Nature—words that are quite appropriate for us during Advent:

It’s this radical simplicity that will save her. And deep within it, at the heart of her stillness, something she has no need to name, but something we might call trust: that one day, yes, the world will warm again, and with it, her life.

www.paracletepress.com

IN YOUR OWN WORDS:

Previous Post: “A Short Thanksgiving Reflection”

Written by Anne Andersson, November 21, 2025

—”I made a copy of the post about Thanksgiving because I want to see if I can apply it somehow to something in my own life. Thank you!”—EM

Previous Post: “1980: El Salvador: FOUR MARTYRED WOMEN: 45TH ANNIVERSARY”

Written by Anne Andersson, November 28, 2025

—”Powerful!!! 😊” —MA

—”Looks really wonderful Anne.”—CC

—”Thanks Anne! While I was reading this touching story….my tears started pouring out of my eyes. I remember them like if this happened yesterday….so sad. 😔"—SA

[SA was a 20-year old teacher in El Salvador in a school where Ita, Maura, Dorothy, and Jean often visited to be with the children.]

—”Dear Anne, A beautiful tribute indeed. Thank you for all the stories and photos. I keep a prayer card of all four women in my daily Give Us This Day prayer book. I was teaching in the religion department at Stella Maris HS in Rockway, NY, from 1987-1990, when they named the Religion wing: The Maura Clarke, MM Wing in honor of Sr. Maura Clarke, who graduated from Stella Maris in 1959, I believe. Sharing the story of those 4 martyred women each year, especially to Freshman, always moved me. The girls were impressed that a 'Saint' could have sat where they may be sitting! I'm touched each year on their anniversary. On the reverse side of that prayer card they give a quote from each woman and the one that always stood out for me was Ita Ford's words which she had written to her niece: '...I have no solution to this situation; I don't know the answers, but I will walk with you, search with you, be with you.'

Here are the others:

Maura Clarke, MM: 'The poor really strip you, pull you, challenge you, evangelize you, show you God.'

Dorothy Kazel, OSU: 'We are not able to participate fully, completely...We can only touch things in a hopeful way and in a loving way, and in this way bring Jesus Christ to the people.'

Jean Donovan: 'We have to die to ourselves and our wealth to gain the spirituality of the poor and oppressed... they can teach you so much with their patience and their wanting eyes.'

Keep well and keep writing...Blessings”—MVT

—"We’ll be celebrating Mass at Fontbonne on the 2nd.” —JP

[Ita Ford graduated from Fontbonne Hall, Brooklyn, NY.]

—”Thank you for reminding us of this important anniversary. What powerful witnesses they are for all of us.”—RE

—”This article was very interesting. Amazing that women trying to help the poor and do good have such a horrible ending. Life is sometimes so unfair.”—Barbara

—“Hi Anne, I really enjoyed reading your stories especially the one on the four women who were murdered. I remember when it happened—and it is mentioned every five years or so. You did a lot of work and found out so much about the one who wasn't a nun. I really enjoyed that. Thank you again.”—EM

C:WED’S WISH:

PLEASE REMEMBER US AS YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR END-0F-YEAR CHARITABLE GIVING

WE ARE SO VERY GRATEFUL FOR YOUR SUPPORT!