O Antiphons

As we reach the latter part of Advent, we encounter seven traditional and ancient antiphons (responses) in the Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. You may recall that in Jewish practice the day begins at sundown, so praying these antiphons during the vespers of December 17-23 takes us to the beginning of Christmas Eve. Each of these prayers is a plea for Jesus' coming, addressing him by an ancient Scriptural name, and petitioning for a particular act of salvation from him.

Here's an interesting bit of information, found at catholic-resources.org:

In the traditional arrangement, when viewed from Christmas Eve backward, the first letters of the Latin texts (Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia) spell out the phrase ero cras ("I come tomorrow").

Please come back each day this week, as we bring our Advent preparation to its joyful conclusion!

A Holy Day

Wednesday, December 8 is an important day for us as Catholics. We call it a 'Solemnity'- that means it's a really big feast day, in fact, it is one of our "Holy Days of Obligation". Holy Days are those special times- in addition to every Sunday -when we as Catholics are called to come together in Mass and celebrate or commemorate something significant.

December 8 is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. I invite you to look at the readings for this day. The Gospel talks about the Annunciation to Mary about Jesus, not about HER conception... no wonder some Catholics get confused about who this feast is about! (If it helps to remember, we celebrate the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel to Mary of God's special plan for her on March 25- exactly 9 months before Christmas!)

I can think of three good reasons to use this Gospel:
1) Mary's role as the mother of Jesus, which she embraced at the Annunciation, was an acceptance that required all the strength and grace a human could muster ... a gift God gave Mary at her own conception to keep her from sin ('full of grace') throughout her life. Of course, since she had free will like every human being, she still could have said 'no' to God's invitation to bear Jesus, but because of this special gift from first instant of her life, she had enough love, courage and strength to say 'yes'!
2) From the 'it is fitting' school of thought - if God was to become human, God would deserve nothing but the best (e.g., would you really want to drink fine wine from paper cups?!), and to use old terminology, the 'stainless vessel' of Mary, sinless from the first instant of her life, was the most fitting means of the Incarnation.
3) Compare the Gospel with the first reading - a Genesis version of sin entering the world through Eve (AND Adam) succumbing to the temptation of the serpent. Through previously sinless Eve sin entered the world, and through the miraculously sinless Mary, the 'new Eve', the means of salvation from sin was born into our world.
oh, and
4) not so good a reason, but a practical one: there really is no Scriptural evidence for the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception beyond the angel's brief reference to Mary as "full of grace", and her cousin Elizabeth's later greeting her as "blessed among women".

But let's put this a bit more simply: every time we honor Mary, what we say about her is both a reflection of what we believe about Jesus, and what we hope for or anticipate for ourselves. So in this case, we celebrate the redemptive power of God through Jesus Christ to save us from the power of sin, enabling Mary physically and us spiritually to freely say 'yes' to God's invitation to carry Jesus in our lives.

So, please come and celebrate how much God loves us! Mass times at St. Andrew the Apostle are 6:30am, 9:00 am and 7:30pm.

Check out the new link!

Look over to the right side of the page, under the link for St. Andrew parish website. If you click on that link "Lectionary Readings for Children" , it will take you to a page which links to the upcoming Sunday readings, but using wording that is easier for children to understand. To tell you the truth, sometimes it makes it much easier for adults to understand the message, too!

Enjoy!

Feast of St. Nicholas

December 6 is the feast of St. Nicholas.
Click to read a little information about this 4th Century Bishop from the area that is now Turkey.

A tradition in my family, and for many families, is for children to leave their shoes out overnight when going to bed December 5, and finding them filled with small gifts and/or candy upon awakening (we put our shoes in the hall, rather than outside - St. Nicholas always found them okay!). As adaptations happen over time and across cultures, that's not a far stretch to hanging one's sock (stocking) by the fireplace for Santa Claus, eh?!

Maybe a few gold candy coins in a sneaker this year could open an opportunity to talk about how St. Nicholas was concerned about caring for those in need, and how fun it can be to do good deeds in secret, just to be nice, not to be recognized!

The Advent Wreath

Okay, so Advent begins this coming Sunday, November 28.

Here's a video to give you a bit of background:
American Catholic Video about the Advent Wreath

You can have one in your home this year without much expense at all:

• If you don't have 3 purple and one rose (Pink) candles, white ones will do. You don't need to use tapers. Pillar candles or tea lights are fine. IF you've got purple and rose-colored ribbon to wrap around the white candles or the candle holder, so much the better, but NOT NECESSARY!
• Go out and cut some greenery from around your yard: fir, boxwood... whatever is still green these days.
• Fashion a wreath (either a true circle or lay the branches in a circle-like shape), perhaps on a round tray (use foil or plastic wrap on the bottom if you have tapers that'll drip). IMPORTANT: make sure that the greenery will NOT be near the flame!!!  
• Arrange the candles in the wreath and, voila! Ready to go.

Now what?

• On the first Sunday of Advent, and the rest of that week, you light one purple candle. Maybe during dinner. Maybe during a daily prayer (Our bulletin this past Sunday had a great insert with daily Advent prayers). Maybe during breakfast: whatever works for your family. IMPORTANT: never leave burning candles unattended.
• On the Second Sunday of Advent and the rest of that week, light two purple candles.
• On the Third Sunday of Advent and the rest of that week, light the rose candle and those two purple ones. Do you need to refresh the greenery? Go ahead- no one said you have to keep the same branches for the whole month!
• On the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Dec 19) through Dec 24, light all four candles. That first one might be getting low-- watch out for flames too close to the greenery.

Enjoy this simple and beautiful way to mark our time in preparation for the coming of Jesus.

It's almost the new year!

This Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King, the final Sunday of our liturgical (church) year. That makes the following Sunday (Thanksgiving weekend), the FIRST Sunday of our new year (get out the noisemakers, pop the champagne corks!!)... also known as the first Sunday of Advent.

Does your family have any Advent traditions? Do you light an advent wreath at meal or prayer time? Do you have an Advent calendar?  Please send a comment-- how do you prepare, in a spiritual way, for Christmas?

Sharp listeners will notice a change during mass at the time for the Gospel. The Scripture readings we proclaim on Sunday follow a three year cycle. Each year focuses on one of the three 'synoptic' (means 'similar') Gospels, with John thrown in for good measure at particular times, like Easter season and some of Lent. During Year A, which we are about to begin, we read mainly from the Gospel of Matthew, Year B is Mark and Year C is, you guessed it, Luke. (An easy way to remember, should you EVER need to, is that the lectionary cycle goes in the same order of appearance in the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke.)

And a 'lectionary' is the book that has all the Bible readings for those three years in order, so we don't have to keep flipping through the Bible to find our place!

A free activity

Today is the feast of All Saints!  If you go to this link, you can click to download a free and simple crossword puzzle for your child to do (and you can get the answer key too, if you need it!)