The Fourth Sunday of Advent
It’s hard for me to believe that this Sunday is
the Fourth Sunday of Advent and that Christmas is only a little over a week
away. Are you ready? And by that I don’t mean have you finished your Christmas
shopping, mailed your packages, and made all your holiday plans. Are you ready
for the coming of the Christ child? Are you ready to receive Christ as he comes
to us? Is your heart prepared? I always find the busyness of the season to be a
stumbling block – for me it’s choosing music, drafting bulletins, lining up
readers, acolytes, etc. for the services (though Jonathan handles most of
that).
But this year most of that is done. And I have
some time for reflection. I am grateful. I’m grateful for our Advent study
group and our discussions, grateful for Mary Oliver’s poetry, and for the time
to stop and pay attention to the world around me and what is in my heart. I’m
grateful for you, and all the ways you help prepare the church for Christmas
and participate in the services. I’m grateful for your devotion to God and to
St. Andrew’s. I’m grateful for the financial support you offer through your
pledges to St. Andrew’s. Most of all I’m grateful for our church community, and
all the ways you come together to support each other and the church, and your
love for each other and St. Andrew’s. And I’m grateful for the beauty of the
peonies in my window, and of the earth.
May God bless you abundantly,
Caroline
It’s hard for me to believe that this Sunday is
the Fourth Sunday of Advent and that Christmas is only a little over a week
away. Are you ready? And by that I don’t mean have you finished your Christmas
shopping, mailed your packages, and made all your holiday plans. Are you ready
for the coming of the Christ child? Are you ready to receive Christ as he comes
to us? Is your heart prepared? I always find the busyness of the season to be a
stumbling block – for me it’s choosing music, drafting bulletins, lining up
readers, acolytes, etc. for the services (though Jonathan handles most of
that).
But this year most of that is done. And I have
some time for reflection. I am grateful. I’m grateful for our Advent study
group and our discussions, grateful for Mary Oliver’s poetry, and for the time
to stop and pay attention to the world around me and what is in my heart. I’m
grateful for you, and all the ways you help prepare the church for Christmas
and participate in the services. I’m grateful for your devotion to God and to
St. Andrew’s. I’m grateful for the financial support you offer through your
pledges to St. Andrew’s. Most of all I’m grateful for our church community, and
all the ways you come together to support each other and the church, and your
love for each other and St. Andrew’s. And I’m grateful for the beauty of the
peonies in my window, and of the earth.
May God bless you abundantly,
Caroline
Christmas Services Schedule
A Blue Christmas service will be held at 5:30 on Tuesday, December 21 at 5:30 pm. This is a quiet, contemplative service designed to offer comfort and consolation to those who have lost loved ones. Everyone is welcome – spread the word!
Christmas Eve services will be held at 5:00 and 10:00 pm on December 24. The 5:00 service is a family service and will be livestreamed on Zoom and Facebook Live for those who cannot attend in person. The 10:00 service is a quieter, more contemplative service, and will be in person only.
A Christmas Day service will be held at 10:00 am
On Sunday, December 26 there will be services at 8:00 and 10:00 as usual.
On Sunday, January 2 there will be a Service of Lessons and Carols at 9:00 am led by our lay Worship Leaders
This Sunday-December 19
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
at 9:00 a.m.
The Collect
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
First Reading Micah 5:2-5a
Canticle 15 The Song of Mary, Magnificat Luke 1:46-55
Second Reading
The Gospel Luke 1:39-45
Updating the Prayer List
Please let Deb know if you would like to add someone to the prayer list. Thank you.
As we continue in the
season of Advent, Father Richard shares why he believes devotion, or
heart-centered faith, is essential to the Christian journey.
I want to encourage the uncovering of what we mean by the
word devotion. We have to somehow live a life that’s connected
to the heart. Otherwise, we get into head ideology, righteousness,
opinionatedness, and insisting on the right or wrong words. All are ways of
avoiding the heart and staying in the head!
I have to admit that I’ve learned this kind of devotion from
good old-time Catholics and healthy evangelicals. They’re invariably
heart-based people who look out at reality with soft eyes. We can usually see
it in their calm face or the natural smile on their lips before they even start
talking. Trust that first impression, it is seldom wrong.
Perhaps this is what Jesus was talking about when he taught,
“Blessed are the pure of heart” (Matthew 5:8). It’s having achieved a purity of
intention, desire, and motivation that isn’t about me—how I look and whether
people are going to like me or affirm me. I think we all have to purify our
intention several times a day: “Why am I doing what I’m doing?” If we don’t
localize our intention in the compassionate space that we call the heart, it
all becomes about making an impression that will ultimately benefit ourselves.
We are all attracted to those loving people who are concerned about others more
than themselves and concerned about us specifically. It’s really
quite beautiful. We feel softened, we feel held, we feel more tender around
people like that.
We can’t fake devotion but sometimes I do suggest we “fake it
till we make it,” as many say. We need to practice some kind of heart-opening
prayer and practice being compassionate and kind toward others. Eventually our
hearts, as John Wesley said, will surely be “strangely warmed”. and no one is
more surprised than we are!
This is
one of the hardest things in the teaching of spirituality because we cannot
manufacture devotion. It is the work of grace, but of course we have to want it
and create the conditions that can allow it to happen. Anything that helps us
to be less willful, less pushy, less judgmental toward ourselves is a good
place to start, because the face we turn toward ourselves is the face we turn
toward the world.
