Good day,

Our final Advent Scripture Study is tonight! “Igniting Our Hope Through Knowing Our Why”. On Zoom, 7pm, looking at 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16. We will also explore one of the lectionary readings for Christmas if time permits. See you there.  Can’t find the link? See the bottom of this post. 🙂

This Wednesday, Dec.20, is the big day for the Cathedral’s Christmas Walk: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”.  They have four time slots and might have a few spots still available: https://files.constantcontact.com/e2b1c2f5601/f49a2689-5ae3-41d6-92a0-f4dba46477b7.pdf?rdr=true)

A Liturgical Note For You: Have you ever noticed that there are three sets of readings for The Birth of  the Lord? You may think that it’s one set of readings for each of our liturgical years (A, B, C) but it’s actually for three different worship services all held on the same day every year: Christmas at Midnight, Christmas in the Early Morning, and Christmas During the Day. 

Remember those ancient “O Antiphons” that we use as our Prayers of the People throughout Advent? Well, yesterday (Dec.17) was the first day for using them during Evening Prayer – one each day until we arrive at Christmas Eve.  

A few more tidbits: The Advent Wreath is put away after your final liturgy for The Fourth Sunday of Advent unless the wreath has the white Christmas candle in it. If that’s the case, it stays out and the Christmas candle is lit until the final liturgy of The Baptism of the Lord. That’s right…the Christmas season continues until the end of our worship services for The Baptism of the Lord on Sunday, January 7!  This is when the Christmas decor and the creche can go away for another year and our liturgical colour changes from white to green. Yes, we traditionally sing about “12 Days of Christmas” but, this year, there are 14. The number varies from year to year. (The traditional 12 days of Christmas bring us to the Eve of the Epiphany.)

More about the creche: Of course, you know that Jesus is not placed in the creche until your first Christmas liturgy. The wisemen are placed in the creche on the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan.6).  

Okay…One Last (Important) Note: The Advent Ember Days occur this week.  Need a reminder of what Ember Days are?  Ember Days are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of certain weeks through the Christian year – traditionally at the turn of the four seasons (so…during the 3rd week of Advent, the week of the first Sunday in Lent, the week after the Day of Pentecost, and the week after Holy Cross Day).  According to McCausland’s Order of Divine Service, these are days on which the church engages “in intentional and deep prayer for its whole ministry: for the mission of the Church, for the ministry of the Church, for peace, and for the unity of the Church.”  Okay, so if they occur at the “turn of the season” then why do Advent’s Ember Days happen during the third week of the Advent Season?  Well, this week does indeed correspond closely with the beginning of the winter season in our neck of the woods (although sometimes it looks and feels like winter long before).  Clearly, these particular days of observance are based on a western (northern hemisphere) sort of Christian experience with seasons.  

 Anyway, this is also the exciting time of Advent when the Church liturgy and mind set takes a turn as well…we begin to look forward with greater focus and longing to the birth of the Saviour – beginning especially on December 17 (the octave before Christmas).  As I mentioned before, we use these antiphons daily – or at least each Sunday – throughout all of Advent (They are the Prayers of the People in Advent in the BAS). They are a powerfully transforming reminder that our God has many names by which we acknowledge God’s saving activity in our Great Story of Salvation – a very good reason why they are in our prayer book. 🙂  This focus and longing for the coming of Christ is also why there are no memorials or commemorations acknowledged during this final week of Advent. 

In the hope of Christ,

Susan

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