Welcoming Advent with Mandalas, Candles and Prayer
with Rev. Sharon Seyfarth Garner
Wednesday, December 4, 2024, 1 - 4 p.m.
$40 (includes Sharon’s book “Mandalas, Candles and Prayer – A Simply Centered Advent”)
A limited number of overnight rooms are available on Dec. 3 for an additional $165 (single), $140 per night/per person double, including meals. To inquire about availability and register, contact Guest Services at (203) 245.0401, Ext. 114.
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About this Offering
Begin your Advent journey with a quiet afternoon of prayer, candlelight and contemplative coloring in a sacred
community at Mercy by the Sea. The beauty of Advent can easily become lost amidst the busyness of the holidays.
If we are not careful and intentional, the sacred invitation to “wait with bated breath” quickly becomes the cultural
compulsion to “shop with stressed-out spirit.” Are you longing for a simpler and more centered Advent this year?
Join us for a quiet program of rest, renewal and the introduction to a simple Advent practice designed to help us keep
Christ at the center of Christmas. Based on her book “Mandalas, Candles and Prayer – A Simply Centered Advent”
(Upper Room Books, 2017), Rev. Sharon Seyfarth Garner will explore how the spiritual practice of lighting the Advent
wreath’s candles and coloring prayer mandalas can help bring hope, love, joy and peace to our journey toward the
manger.
About the Presenter
Rev. Sharon Seyfarth Garner, an award-winning author, has also written “Praying with Mandalas: A Colorful,
Contemplative Practice.” She has shared her writings widely throughout the United States and beyond including
facilitating workshops at the Spiritual Director’s International Conference, Wild Goose Festival, Weird Church Camp,
Jesuit Retreat Center, a school in Liberia and a women’s prison in Cleveland among others. She is a United Methodist
pastor and the founding director of Belly of the Whale Spiritual Direction & Retreat Ministries. Sharon holds graduate
certificates in Spiritual Direction (Ignatian Spirituality Institute, John Carroll University), Diversity Management
(Cleveland State University) and Ecumenical Studies (World Council of Churches). To learn more about Sharon:
https://www.bellyofthewhaleministries.net/meet-sharon.