Advent 2 procession, 2017
The Week Ahead…
Dec. 6 – Second Sunday in Advent
Dec. 6 – 11:00am Morning Prayer – Join here at 10:30am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 874 0903 2653
Passcode: 699097
Music filmed at St. Peter’s prior to the service – Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring,O Come Emmanuel,
Comfort, comfort ye my people,Prepare the way, O Zion
Dec. 6 – 7:00pm Compline – Join here at 6:30pm for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID: 871 1089 1688
Passcode: 097146
Dec. 9 – 10:00am – Ecumenical Bible Study through Zoom
Dec. 13 – Third Sunday in Advent
Dec. 13 – 11:00am Morning Prayer – Join here at 10:30am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 874 0903 2653
Passcode: 699097
Dec. 13 – 7:00pm Compline – Join here at 6:30pm for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID: 871 1089 1688
Passcode: 097146
We all know of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” which takes place Christmas and after until Epiphany. What about the “Twelve Days of Christmas Carols?”
We will feature a carol a day that is part of an online course leading up to Christmas. Each day features an introduction, background of the carol, the actual verses (and some alternates) and versions which are chosen Youtube links online.
Course Link or https://www.churchsp.org/course/12daysofcarols/
Advent Continues
The name “Advent” actually comes from the Latin word adventus which means “coming.” It is a reminder of how the Jewish nation waited for the Messiah and how Christians are now waiting for the return of Christ.
Advent which begins on Sunday Nov. 29 is like a breath of fresh air -a new church year, a new set of Gospel readings from Mark, and the anticipation of the birth of Christ.
The four Sundays in Advent invite us on a journey. As the days grow shorter each week, we are invited to draw closer and closer to the light of Christ. We are invited to open our hearts a little wider each week to God With Us. In her book Learning to Walk in the Dark, Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor writes: “…new life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.”
The Advent season is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming at the end of time and also to the anniversary of the Lord’s birth on Christmas. It blends together a penitential spirit, very similar to Lent, a liturgical theme of preparation for the Second and Final Coming of the Lord, called the Parousia, and a joyful theme of getting ready for the Bethlehem event.
The Advent wreath, four candles on a wreath of evergreen, is shaped in a perfect circle to symbolize the eternity of God. The Advent Wreath is beautiful and evocative reminder of the life-giving qualities of light. The evergreens used in the wreath are reminders of ongoing life, even in the face of death.
There are 4 candles, one for each week in Advent, are used with one larger white candle in the middle as the Christ candle. During each Sunday of the Advent season, we focus on one of the four virtues Jesus brings us: Hope, Love, Joy and Peace. Three of the candles are purple. This is the color of penitence and fasting as well as the color of royalty to welcome the Advent of the King.
The Third candle is pink, a color of joy, the joy that Jesus is almost here and fasting is almost order. Gaudete Sunday (from the Latin meaning “rejoice”) which is taken from Philippians 4:4-5, the Entrance Antiphon of the day.
Advent begins in a season of darkness but using the Advent wreath we see light winning over darkness. Lighting candles is a way we can keep time in Church And as the season passes, and another candle is lit each week, light finally wins out over darkness with the turn of the solstice in the stars and the birth of Christ on the ground.
At the center of the wreath is a white candle, which is called the Christ Candle. This candle is lit on Christmas Eve as a reminder that Jesus, the light of the world, has been born and has come to dwell with us.
It is a season of waiting, of rest but also a time to find new beginnings. Since the 900s Advent has been considered the beginning of the Church year. It is antidote for our society’s frantic behavior during the holiday season. There is so much in the world that tells you, you are not enough or you haven’t do enough before Christmas but you have to find out during Advent that you are enough.
The first week of Advent is all about hope. Lamentations 3: 21-24: “Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; “therefore I will wait for him.” (NIV).
The altar changes during Advent to represent the new season, particularly in the use of color. Today, many churches have begun to use blue instead of purple, as a means of distinguishing Advent from Lent. Blue also signifies the color of the night sky or the waters of the new creation in Genesis 1. Blue emphasizes the season is also about hope and anticipation of the coming of Christ. Christ is about transformation as the sky changes from dark to light filling our lives with grace.
A Family Advent
1. Make Your Own Advent Playdough Wreath at Home!
2. Family Prayer for the lighting of the candle
Each week remember one of the virtues Jesus brings us – Hope, Love, Joy and Peace as you light the candle.
3. Antiphons for an Advent Calendar
An antiphon (“voice”) is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung like a refrain in a song. Antiphons were written with pieces of the Psalms and other verses from the Hebrew Scriptures. They also express deep theological convictions!
The singing of Antiphons (as sung by in early Christian communities by the end of the 5th century) had its root in the Synagogue. Early Christians borrowed the Jewish traditions of chanting psalms and of singing hymns together.
We have an Advent Calendar with one antiphon for each day
Advent in 2 minutes Check out this Youtube video
Advent in 1 minute– A 2015 video from St. Mary’s Cypress
Explore Advent, Part 1– Over the next 4 Sundays there will be a presentation each week focusing on that week’s scriptures, art and commentary and how they demonstrate the themes of advent. Let’s get started with Advent 1.
Advent is the time when we change to a different year in the Lectionary. This year we move from Year A to B and from a concentration on the Gospel of Matthew to the Gospel of Mark. There are several articles which are a general introduction to Mark 1. Shortest from christianity.about.com 2. Longer from the Catholic Bishops 3. Longest from a catholic source
Interested in the Church calendar ? Matthew’s interest about time in First Advent lends itself to understand how we measure time.
Collected Advent resources
1. Advent resources for 2020 from the Episcopal Church Foundation.
3. From the Diocese of California
5. Create your own Advent Calendar
The Season of Advent is alive with colors, candles, wreaths and song. David Bratcher has written a wonderful article on Advent traditions.
There are several articles/presentations about the infancy narratives 1. Brief summary between Matthew and Luke 2. Longer comparison
Advent is a time of music. Here is a link to National Cathedral’s Advent Lessons and Carols on Dec. 1, 2019
Explore Advent, Part 2
“Advent is a time to look for “desert places”: the place of solitude, the place of true silence in which we can become fully awake to our sin and God’s forgiving grace which alone can heal it.”-Br. Robert L’Esperance
This week we focus on John the Baptist through scripture, art and commentary. Let’s move to Advent 2.
John the Baptist presentation.
St Nicholas Day is December 6.
Here is a presentation that provides the background of this saint who has had a colorful and varied history over 1800 years.
Bishop of Dover, Trevor Willmott, has this message about St. Nicholas and Christmas at the annual Canterbury St Nicholas parade in 2013.
Arts and Faith- Advent 2, relating art and scripture
The voice of John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness and gathering great crowds invites us into the Second Sunday of Advent. Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s St. John the Baptist Preaching captures this moment as he presents a wooded wilderness embracing a colorful crowd. Left of center is John the Baptist, clad in camelhair, though we have to search the scene to find him. Instead of standing as a dominating figure, John is one of the crowd, one of the people who serves his peers with prophetic passion.
For Brueghel, the crowd itself seems to be the dominant figure. It fully saturates the landscape as one body that reveals its diversity only upon closer inspection. A chief way Brueghel shows that diversity is through hats, hoods, and headdresses—each signifying a different culture, vocation, or profession. Brueghel shows not only the mix of people that might have been present in the region, but the great diversity of all of humankind as the intended recipients of the Good News that John is heralding. John prepares the way of the Lord to go beyond boundaries, starting with the colorful cavalcade of people who come to hear the prophetic message.
The body of the crowd becomes vertical, as people all around the perimeter climb the trees to get a better view. Sitting on branches, they foreshadow the story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector, a figure of conversion and repentance from the Gospel of Luke. Thus, the tree climbers also underscore the message of conversion that John is preaching. Ascending the trees also foreshadows the cross itself as the ultimate place of reconciliation.
In the background, we see a clearing in the woods that presents a vista of a river, a walled castle, and misty mountains. This is an invitation to see beyond the immediate message to the possibilities of God’s ultimate home for us. The river, evocative of Baptism, is especially important as it winds like a road into the mysterious beyond.
We too are called to look beyond and see ourselves as part of a body of people who are gathered by the Good News. Like John, we are also sent to share the Good News so as to help open the horizon of possibilities that lead us all into God’s eternal love.
Advent 3, Dec. 13 is Gaudete Sunday
The third Sunday of Advent is known as “Gaudete Sunday.” The day takes its common name from the Latin word Gaudete (“Rejoice”). Its name is taken from the entrance antiphon of the Mass, which is: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. This is a quotation from Philippians 4:4-5, and in Latin, the first word of the antiphon is “gaudete”. We are most of the way through the season, closer to Christ’s birth and so that is the emphasis rather than coming again.
We light the rose colored candle in addition to the other 2 violet ones. Purple is a penitential color of fasting while pink (rose) is the color of joy. Long ago the Pope would honor a citizen with a pink rose (or a rose) Priests then would wear pink vestments as a reminder of this coming joy. Rose is also used during Laetare Sunday (the fourth Sunday of lent) to symbolize a similar expectation of the coming joy of Christ’s coming in Easter. The third Sunday of Advent is rose (pink) because pink symbolizes joy, the joy that Jesus is almost here. Adult Christian Ed discussed “Rejoice! What promises of God give you cause to rejoice?”
Theologian Henri Nouwen described the difference between joy and happiness. While happiness is dependent on external conditions, joy is “the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death — can take that love away.” Thus joy can be present even in the midst of sadness. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. As Nouwen says, “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”
This is break from some of the penitential readings earlier in Advent. How will you express joy this week? Consider the good things that have been given to you.
Besides the emphasis in joy, this is also “Stir up Sunday!” The collect has the words, ” Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins”. Let’s change the “our sins” to “missing the mark.” How can we hit the mark ? One way is to advantage of our opportunities.
“The Great Tree of Christmas”
Author Alexander Shaia talks the Christmas tree, a tradition adopted from the Celts. A fascinating perspective!
Advent Thoughts
Advent is a season of Watching and Waiting. It is a season of leaning into hope
Lord Jesus:
Come into our world and heal its wounds
Come into your church and raise it up
Come into our homes and make them holy
Come into our work and make it fruitful
Come into our minds and give us clarity
Come into our lives and make them beautiful
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
God of the past, the present and the future, grant me patience when I must wait, courage when it’s time to take action, and the wisdom to know when to wait and when to act. Amen.
Golden Hour at St. Peter’s
Come to St. Peter’s in the late fall and early winter between 4pm and 6pm and the beauty is overwhelming. These were taken on Friday, Dec. 9, 2016.
Explore Advent, Part 3 – Over the Sundays in Advent there will be a presentation each week focusing on that week’s scriptures, art and commentary and how they demonstrate the themes of advent. Let’s continue with Advent 3 readings.
A. Voices for Advent 3
“In Advent the church emphasizes these ways of continual change: Repentance. Conversion of life. Self-examination. Awakening. Deepening. “
– Suzanne Guthrie
B. “You Don’t Want to Be a Prophet (Isaiah, Luke)
“Christmas without Anglicans?” – Anglican contributions to Advent and Christmas carols.
Arts and Faith- Advent 3, relating art and scripture
On this third Sunday of Advent, we witness the prophetic call of St. John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord. Anton Raphael Mengs’ Saint John the Baptist Preaching brings us face-to-face with John, as he addresses us with expressive gestures. Mengs’ portrayal is intensely psychological, inviting us to encounter John’s deep conviction, prophetic presence, and sense of urgency. John’s penetrating look, coupled with his raised arms, make a burning appeal for us to listen, to look for “the one among us whom we do not recognize,” and to wait attentively for the coming of him whose sandal this prophet is not fit to untie.
In this portrayal, Mengs dares to move St. John the Baptist away from more traditional interpretations. Rather than the heroic portrayal of a martyr, the serene portrayal of a devoted servant recognizing the Lord, or a dutiful prophet preaching to a crowd, Mengs shows us a John who is caught up in emotion. This John is making his passionate appeal stirred by the dangerous knowledge of Christ coming, dying, and rising. In this image, John exists not in the historical moment of Jesus’ early ministry, but in the post-Resurrection reality of the Church that now awaits the final coming of the Risen Lord. The red shroud draped across his body and the cross-shaped staff to his right hint at this. The shroud is a symbol of his martyrdom, and the staff points to the crucifixion of Christ. Here John comes to us not as the wild preacher in the desert, but as the saint who has lived the whole story, who exists now in God’s eternal presence, and who intercedes for us as we continue to watch and wait. He is not the light, but he now dwells in it—demonstrated by Mengs by illuminating his body brightly from above.
St. John’s intercession is as intense as his preaching was—a voice that is still crying out with urgency, this time for the Lord’s Second Coming. His urgent voice comes before God filled with love for the Body of Christ, a love that seeks desperately to rouse this Body to readiness.
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Saints of the Week, – Dec. 6 – Dec. 13, 2020
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Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c. 342 |
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7
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Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, 397 |
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Richard Baxter, Pastor and Writer, 1691 |
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Thomas Merton, Monastic and Writer, 1968 Karl Barth, Pastor and Theologian, 1968 |
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[Francis de Sales, Bishop, & Jane de Chantal], Monastic, Workers of Charity, 1622 & 1641 |
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[Lucy (Lucia)], Martyr at Syracuse, 304 |