Advent - a thin place.

The last week of Advent can be especially busy.  The pressure of the list of things still needing to be done is always present and ( in my case anyway) so is the tendency to get irritable and distracted.

I came across the blog site Behold  and have been following it this week. I particularly liked this post on Advent as a thin place. Keeping focused on what is real in the middle of this flurry of activity and spending we call Christmas is a discipline and this blogger has helped me this week.

We are here to worship...

This is the darkest time of the year and we put our Christmas lights up today.

'Light of the world 

You stepped down into darkness

Opened my eyes, let me see

Beauty that made this heart adore you,

Hope of a life spent with you.'

Chris Tomlinson

St Nicholas Day

 

Today was a day of great excitement in our house. It began with a candle lit breakfast of porridge and croissants. In the centre of the table stands our St Nicholas figure. We walk to school with bags stuffed with packages carefully wrapped in bright tissue paper. These were prepared last night and contain homemade baking. (We made St Nicholas Coin Purse cookies using this recipe. As Hersheys Kisses are not available here we used Cadburys Twirl Bites instead). The gifts are left on our neighbours doorsteps and secreted into friends school bags.

I am amazed at how much my children enjoy the thrill of preparing and secretly delivering packages for friends and neighbours. They plan the whole operation so as not to be seen , although I am sure that the giggles and retreating feet are heard!

St Nicholas is the historical person - a 4th century bishop know for his generosity and compassion - who is the inspiration for Father Christmas. The latter has become associated with commercialism and consumerism , the former with the joy of giving. We like St Nicholas better! There are  lots of legends and stories associated with this saint, all of them demonstrate his spirit of mercy , his faith and his generous compassion. They make great family reading during Advent.


Secret parcels ready for delivery.

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.