Advent - the wreath.

Advent is my most favourite time of year. As November draws to a  close child like excitement effervesces quietly inside me as I plan and pray my way towards Christmas. This year my pleasure is  enhanced by the joy of being 'home' - it is winter, and it is dark as we light our Advent candles , the symbolism of light dawning gradually in a dark world is strong after years of summer and tropical Christmases. 

The Advent wreath is the focus of our celebrations. A simple ring of greenery symbolising the completness of God and renewal of our life in Christ and the utimate renewal we look for in his second coming. The four candles - three purple and one pink represent hope, peace, joy ( the pink one) and love. Another way of naming the  candles is the patriarchs, the prophets, John the Baptist and Mary , the mother of Jesus. We light our candles on Sunday evening and pray using a family litany from the Upper Room website. The litany that we use is from 2008 and when I tried to find the link I was unable to, maybe it no longer exsists. The link given takes you to the 2011 litany.

This year we did not place a fifth candle in the centre of our ring.We are going to decorate our Christ candle this year: I plan to buy a simple white pillar candle and have the children carve and paint their own designs on it. In the busyness of end of term events, scout visits to the panto, school christmas discos etc. etc. I hope that this will be a quietly  meditative activity to keep us centred on what is real. 

Ah well, I can but try!

Christ the King.

This Sunday is the feast of Christ the King. It is a relatively new feast, introduced in 1925 by the then Pope, but celebrates a timeless truth; the sovereignty of Christ over all. The Pope introduced a day to proclaim the regal power and kingship of Jesus at a time when fasism and secularism were on the rise in Europe. There is real joy in a day that reminds us of who is the King of Kings when all around the world individuals are clamouring and fighting to secure their own sovereignty and power. The deity of  financial sovereignty would appear to be supreme but Christ the King Sunday shows us another way of ruling, another way of expressing power. Martin Luther talked about the 'left handed power of the cross'. This is the power that puts relationships above results. It gives freedom and space, choosing reconciliation and restoration over oppression and control, grace, mercy and compassion over manipulation and coersion.  Our world is overwhelmed by right handed power - which uses force to gain the desired results. This is the conventional wisdom of the world  but Jesus rules using  subversive power that does not rule by winning but wins by loosing. I know that I need to hear this message again and I want to talk with my children about left handed power so that they can learn to win in relationships by loosing!

We will celebrate with a crown cake for dessert and , I hope , a stimulating discussion around the table. Here is a link to a fabulous looking crown cake, a bit too elaborate for me this year. I plan to do something simpler to fit time constraints!

This Sunday is also the last Sunday of ordinary time. Next Sunday Advent begins and the Liturgical year continues  its cycle. It is time to start making plans for Advent and Christmas!

All Saints Day Afternoon Tea

Afternoon tea has to be one of my favourite meals! Here's my menu for tea on All Saints Day - which is today. All of the items on the menu represent something to remind us of the significance of the day.

Ham and Wholeseed Mustard Sandwiches. ( reminding us of what can be achieved through faith the size of a grain of mustard)

Onions Rings ( to represent halos - just for fun!)

Rosemary Biscuits ( for rememberance)

Doughnuts  ( these are similar to Soul Cakes which are traditional)

Meringues (  the cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11)

Enjoy and let me know if you have any other ideas or suggestions.

All Saints Day.

It  has struck me, since moving back to England,  how much more Halloween is celebrated here now. Even the local charity shop is decorated with spiders webs and other ,some what irrelevant, scary stuff and my local Sainburys  is selling pumpkins for carving.

We have always celebrated All Saints Day , which falls on November the 1st. To me, a day to remember people who  inspire and motivate is far more bolstering for my faith and , I hope,  encouraging for my children. All Saints Day is the day in the church calender for remembering those Christians  who have lived and died in their faith , some as  martyrs, some famous for great deeds and  some unknown for no less great deeds. Some will be known to us personally .They lived by the words of Hebrews 11:

 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what

the ancients were commended for.''

The challenge for us at this time of year is: what do we hope for? What are we certain of ?  As Colossians chapter 1 verse 12 tells us we too 'share in the inheritance that belongs to his people , who live in the light '

What can we do 'by faith'?

This year our All Saints Day celebration will be simple. I plan to make doughnuts and we will watch the film 'Amazing Grace' about the life of William Wilberforce, the slave abolitionist of the 19th century. Doughnuts are akin to soul cakes which were  traditionally made to offer children who wandered the streets , knocking at doors and offering to pray for  deceased family members in return for a soul cake . Sometimes a game was played with the soul cake which involved tying a cake to one end of  a stick and a candle to the other end. The stick was then swung around and the aim was to take a bite of cake with out getting burnt! Our version involves tying doughnuts to a string strung across the room, everyone tries to take a bite of the swinging doughnuts with hands behind their back. The first person to finish a doughnut is the winner.

We will also carve pumpkin lanterns because it is such fun and represents to us the light by which we live.

Autumn in England

 Sorry for the gap in posts. We have re located to the UK and , although I would not exactly call us settled , we are gradually feeling moved in!

This is the first Autumn that I have spent in England for almost 20 years. I thoroughly enjoy all the seasons and  it is hard to decide which one is favourite but I think that, perhaps, Autumn is it. We have been picking blackberries in the wild and apples and late raspberries from the garden and I have been making crumbles, pies , jams and jellies. We live near several beautiful woods and  a forest and have enjoyed walks and bike rides through the gradually changing trees , across acorn stewn paths .

Last Friday was the Autumn equinox. An equinox occurs when the earths axis is inclined , either away or towards the sun and  day and night have approximately the same length. After the Autumn equinox the days become noticeably shorter and the evenings begin to draw in; we are clearly reminded that summer is over and winter is approaching. It is a cosy time of year and having lived in the tropics for the last three and half years I have missed cosy!

The celebrations of Autumn include Harvest Festival, Michaelmas, All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day. We have always celebrated All Saints but having lived in countries where Autumn is either not so noticable or non existant we have not observed  the others. This year we are discovering the pleasure of Autumn and I plan to celebrate Michaelmas , which falls on September 29th , this weekend.

Plans and ideas to follow!

Family Rituals 2

Of course, healthy family rituals do not have to be associated with religious occasions or ones faith. But they should reflect your personal beliefs and what you feel is important.

Here is another quotation from Mary Grant's ‘Cappuccino Moments for Mothers’

‘There is little chance that your child will remember all the things you did for her while she was growing up, but she will remember how it felt growing up as your child. She will receive emotional nourishment from the atmosphere, the fun, the routines, the celebrations and the outings’

Family rituals help to create the atmosphere in our homes.  They foster  fun,  festivities,  routines,  closeness and  spiritual awareness.

Rituals can be simple regular weekly events. On Sunday mornings my husband makes pancakes for breakfast – he has done so for as long as the kids can remember. We are never allowed to change the menu; Sunday morning would not be Sunday morning without them!

Or they can be linked to certain times and events.  We are just about to move from Cebu in the Philippines to Hampshire in England. We have moved countries before as a family and we have a ritual that helps us to process the gains and the losses in our transition. A few weeks before we leave we make four posters entitled:

• What we will miss about  … country we are leaving

• What we won’t miss about ….. country we are leaving

• What we are looking forward to in ….country moving to

• What we are not looking forward to in….country we are moving to

They are hung up on the wall and can be added to as we think of things during our final weeks.  Yesterday I went to get a haircut and realised that this is something I will miss in England. In Asia they really know how to help you relax and feel special with massages, tea, manicures and pedicures in an unhurried atmosphere and all for under 10 quid!

I have found that rituals help in times of transition and I am sure they can help at other times of family stress too.

Please share your own experiences with me and leave a comment – I am keen to hear from you.

Family Ritual.

  

 In the conclusion to her  book 'Cappuccino Moments for Mothers' New Zealand writer and 'parenting expert', Mary Grant, says

' When your home offers healthy family rituals and traditions and mixes them with fun, you give your children the roots that will nourish them for the rest of their lives.'

I believe this too. Ritual is very important to children; it  gives them a sense of security and safety and creates  reliability that children appreciate. They like it when things always happen in the same way.  As Christian parents we have an incredible opportunity to develop rituals that put roots down into the soil of hope and true love. In forming our family rituals around the liturgical year , the biblical stories of Jesus, it is my desire to give our children far more than self esteem and a sense of identity, although that is partly what they gain. We also teach them the stories that can evolve and  transform  them into the persons they are intended to be. This is my prayer and my intention when we celebrate the life story of Jesus over and over each year with rituals that are fun as well as life changing.