Advent Week 1 | Hope for an Uncertain Future

Part 1 of a 4-week Advent series released every Sunday.

There’s a moment at the beginning of Advent when something in you finally exhales. A small but real sense of relief that you don’t have to be fully “ready” to begin again.

If you’ve been carrying more than you want to admit — the anxiety, the uncertainty, the subtle fear that the future is shrinking instead of opening — this episode is where you’ll feel held.

Welcome to the first week of Advent on the Holy Rebels Podcast, where we make space for grounded spiritual practices, nervous system awareness, and the quiet wisdom of the Christian mystical tradition.

This week is all about Hope. Not the kind you manufacture. The kind that returns when your body feels safe enough to imagine possibility again.

Nina Hirlaender OFS brings together the deeper spiritual meaning of Advent with what psychology now understands about future orientation, resilience, and the nervous system. 

St Francis and St Clare of Assisi walk with us as guides, offering a way of living that stays steady even when life feels uncertain.

What you’ll take away from this episode:

• the meaning of Advent as “arrival” and why it begins in the dark
• why so many people today feel disconnected from the future
• how hope actually forms — through goals, pathways, and agency
• what Francis and Clare can teach you about trusting the next step
• a simple embodied practice to help your system calm and re-open
• how to begin Advent with clarity instead of pressure

Hope isn’t a mood. It’s a nervous-system shift.

It returns slowly, through safety, honesty, and the gentle willingness to soften what’s been clenched for too long.

Press play to begin the season with space around your heart and steadiness in your body.