Advent, Grief, And The Waiting Miracle Artwork

SOLACE: Soul + Grief

This podcast is sponsored by SOULPLUSGRACE serving the San José area, offering grief support and grief journeying with spirituality. I hope to help you travel through grief with God at your side.

"I am a trained Spiritual Director for those who seek to complete the 19th Annotation of St. Igantius’ spiritual exercises OR seek spiritual direction while grieving. I have also worked as a hospital/cemetery chaplain and grief doula. I believe all paths lead to God and that all traditions are due respect and honour. I take my sacred inspiration from all of my patients and companions–past, present and future; the Dalai Lama, James Tissot, St. John of the Cross, the Buddha, Saint Teresa of Ávila, and, of course, Íñigo who became known as St. Ignatius. I utilize art, poetry, music, aromatherapy, yoga, lectio divina, prayer and meditation in my self-work and work with others. I believe in creating a sacred space for listening; even in the most incongruous of surroundings."

BACKGROUND

Jesuit Retreat Center, Los Altos, CA -- Pierre Favre Program, 3 year training to give the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius
Centro de Espiritualidad de Loyola, Spain -- The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola -- 30 Day Silent Retreat/
Center for Loss & Life Transition – Comprehensive Bereavement Skills Training (30 hrs) Ft. Collins, CO
California State University Institute for Palliative Care--Palliative Care Chaplaincy Specialty Cert. (90 hrs)
Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City, CA -- Clinical Pastoral Education
19th Annotation with Fumiaki Tosu, San Jose, CA, Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA M.A. – Pastoral Ministries

CONTACT ME: candeelucas@soulplusgrace.com with questions to be answered in future episodes.

All Episodes

SOLACE: Soul + Grief

Advent, Grief, And The Waiting Miracle

December 12, 2025 • Candee Lucas • Season 4 • Episode 50

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What miracle are we waiting for when the holidays feel heavier than ever? We open the door to that question and follow it through Advent’s candles and into the honest landscape of grief—where tears, memory, and hope share the same table. Guided by Isaiah 55, we explore how God meets thirsty hearts with real nourishment, how love takes on flesh in fragile places, and how the Advent wreath holds darkness and light together without rushing us to feel better.

The promise of scripture becomes more than poetry—it is a horizon for weary souls, a word that will not return empty, rain that soaks the soil of a broken season and brings seed for sowers, bread for eaters, and a path where peace brings us back.

We also reckon with the hard questions: Will we receive the gift of love, not as an idea but as a practice? Can mourning coexist with joy without canceling it? As we wrestle, we keep company with the God who draws near, the people we miss, and the community that holds us while we heal. By the end, you’ll have language for your lament, a gentler way to navigate holidays, and a renewed sense that hope can live alongside sorrow.

• Advent and grief held together as one path
• The question of the awaited miracle in a season of loss
• The Advent wreath as a model of darkness and light
• Traditions and the ache of empty chairs at the table
• Extending compassion to people on the margins
• Isaiah 55 as invitation to thirsty hearts
• God’s word as promise that does not return empty
• Honoring the dead while choosing love in the present

Please support us by subscribing on Amazon Music or Spotify
We welcome suggestions for future episodes or reach out to us for one on one spiritual direction, individually or as a family as you travel through griefIf you have questions about spiritual direction while grieving, or grief support or grief groups in your community, my contact information is in the show notes.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE

UPCOMING WORKSHOP ON SOULFUL LISTENING: https://events.scu.edu/markey-center/event/359741-soulful-listening-workshops-on-the-ministry-of

Art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/vasonaArts?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
and https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/candee-lucas

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2SFH4Z6

Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay

Candee: 0:46

Welcome to Solace: Soul+ Grief. My name is Candee Lucas. We know the death of a loved one is a huge life transition, and we've learned it creates and affects so many other losses in our lives. We wanted to offer you this place to grieve and find where God is moving in your life as you grieve. Each week we take a new scripture or reflection and seek to find a quiet place in our hearts together to contemplate our losses, honor our loved ones, and remember God's place in our hearts. We seek to make a continuing connection with those we've lost. We want to find that space where God is moving with us in our grief, where mourning can be transformed to comfort, where our hearts might be reopened and begin to mend, where tears can flow. For it's when we open our hearts we realize that we've made new space for more love, more compassion, and more humanity in our lives, and more space for God as well. This is a space we hope solace will begin to fill for you. Please join us if you're suffering or just want to spend more time having God move with you in your grief. You are always welcome in our circle of healing love.

Candee: 2:14

As I sat in Advent Mass this week and listened to the homily, I remember the words, what miracle are you waiting for? I'm not sure I heard the rest of the story because those words jumped out at me. And I saw them clearly in my mind. And I wondered, what miracle are we waiting for? What miracle as we walk in our grief are we waiting for? For of course the miracle we're waiting for in Advent is the question that God asks us by sending his son to earth. Will we love him? Will we receive him with love? Will we understand the love behind God's gift to us? Jesus' life on earth with us, simple men and women.

Candee: 3:25

And the more I thought about it, the more I thought about grief and advent and how the two, although when we initially entered this season, I felt they were mutually exclusive, have now become entwined in this season. Entwined much like the Advent wreath we light each night. That reminds us both of darkness and of light. That reminds us of a journey from darkness into light. That reminds us of our journeys in life and our journeys in grief. And so I thought about talking to you about this today, this idea of what miracle are we waiting for?

Candee: 4:23

In many ways, as Christians, we answer God's question, or we imagine answering God's question at our death, when we will be born into love, born into divine love, born into complete and divine love. That is our miracle as humans, the ability and spiritual freedom to answer yes to God. Yet those we love, those have gone before us into the light of God's love, we mourn their passing, and many times this time of year is the hardest one of all. Because we've made traditions and memories, many fond memories, especially at the season, a time when we make an effort to be together, a time when we make an effort to show love to one another, and people we don't know, people on the margins of our lives, people on the margins of life who may not have a family, who may not have friends, who may be wanting or imprisoned, or far from their homes, or living in a war-torn country, or just far away for some reason that's not their own. As I've listened to people through the weeks of Advent talking about their own experiences of grief, and wondered about this idea of lament and how the lamentations make us ready for love, remind us of love, remind us of how we are loved, and how we are given the example of love to carry forth in the world.

Candee: 6:47

And so I offer this reading from Isaiah chapter 55. "All you who are thirsty, come to the water. You who have no money, come receive grain and eat. Come without pain and without cost. Drink wine and milk. Heed me and you shall eat well. You shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen that you may have life. I will renew the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David. Because the Lord your God, the Holy One, has glorified you. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call him while he is near. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts. For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down, and do not return there till they have watered the earth and made it fruitful and fertile, giving seed to him who sows, and bread to him who eats. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. Yes, in joy you shall depart, in peace you shall be brought back. Mountains and hills shall break out in song before you, and all the trees of the countryside shall clap their hands. In place of the thorn bush, cypress shall grow. Instead of briers, the myrtle. This shall be to the Lord's renown an everlasting, imperishable sign."

Candee: 9:19

So God calls us, He promises a miracle, and we know it will occur. We know that perfect love will be offered for us, offered to us on that day when He becomes flesh. And as we contemplate the loss of those who've gone before, we recognize that they have made the answer. We win our loss. But we also celebrate their triumph. This has been another episode of Solace. A new one drops every Friday. Please support us by subscribing on Amazon Music or Spotify. I am Candee Lucas, chaplain and spiritual director. You can reach us at the email or phone number in the show notes. We welcome suggestions for future episodes or reach out to us for one-on-one spiritual direction, individually or as a family as you travel through grief. Stay safe, be gentle with yourselves, and travel with God, vaya con Dios.