Wednesday Night Pray Advent I
The season of advent began on the tail of Thanksgiving Break. For the past 24 years I have lived on the "School Calendar". A year ago I added the
Ordo Calendar. This calendar is used by the Clergy and Altar Guild to know what Saint Days are when and what colors are used on the Altar. I am the altar guild at my church currently and the Ordo Calendar has become my best friend in the sacristy. (That is the little room next to the platform where all my tools are kept.)
The Saturday after Thanksgiving a group of us met at the church and "Greened the Church". Social Distancing is not a problem when I am on the ground and the Deacon is on a 20 foot ladder. For over 10 years I had a cleaning business beginning in 2001. Every year I would help my clients decorate for Christmas and help them take down all the decorations at the end of the season. As I decorated the church tree in the foyer I had found memories of these wonderful Saints in Glory. My church often only has a few people in it this year because of Covid. However, I always feel that the building is full to overflowing with the "Great Cloud of Witnesses."
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| St. Andrews Day Altar |
Saint Andrews Day is November 30th. Advent is the "4" Sundays before Christmas, which is always December 25th. Our colored ribbons of gold and red looked so pretty with the color of red for St Andrew. He was the brother of Peter and the second in the song I learned as a child to remember the disciple's names.
𝅘𝅥𝅮 Peter, Andrew, James and John, - fishermen of Capernaum
Thomas and St. Matthew too, Philip and Bartholomew,
James the less and Jude the brave,
Simon the zealot and Judas the knave...
Twelve disciples here in all,
Answering the Master's call.𝅘𝅥𝅯
Following the Ordo Calendar I have been studying Saints all year. It has been exciting and sometime sobering to read about the Saints who went before me and are in that Cloud of Witnesses with my clients and family who have died. Studying the Saints makes Heaven a fuller more interesting place.
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| Lighting Candles for Prayers |
The lighting of a candle with a prayer is another new thing for me. Being raised protestant we did not light candles for anything except the New Years Eve Candle Light service. In the past year I have become to love the smell of the bees wax candles that are lite at Saint Luke's Anglican Church. As in the Old Testaments we also have the incense to be a sweet aroma of prayer.
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| Psalm 141:2 |
Matthew 18:20 has been given new meaning to me this past year. Our Church door is not lock during mass and prayers. However, often only two or three are gathered to pray. I go to the sanctuary of St Luke's almost daily to set things up for the Priest and Deacons to pray and take communion for those who can't come to the church. I feel peace in those walls like no place I have ever been.
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| Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel.. |
The season of Advent is to prepare our hearts for Jesus. He came as a baby and He is coming again for His people. As we prepare our heart during Lent, we also prepare our hearts in Advent. The Deacon told me a few weeks ago it is like cleaning that closet that you have thrown things into and slammed the door to keep it from popping open. My children can relate to this as I would clean up their rooms before Christmas and we would throw away and give away broken and unused things.
As I sang " Oh Come, Oh Come Emanuel" today I thought about my closet and asked God to help me clean out the unnecessary things in my life.
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| Molly has new tricks |
Molly has been letting me know tonight that she doesn't want me to clean out her food closet and give her treats away. She opened the cupboard and took out a package of wet food. I heard what sound like a hockey puck scooting around on the kitchen floor. There is food in her dish and I gave her a serving of her wet food. Since that first time she has packed a wet food packet to the bathroom where her food dish is...what a great game. Thankfully, so far she can not open the wet food packet...that will be the next trick.
Mathew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Hebrews 12:1,2 "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
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