08 Sunday Dec 2019
Posted in Advent, AdventWord, Christianity, Christmas, Uncategorized
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December 2–Advent Word: Visit
December 3–Advent Word: Time
December 4–Advent Word: Humble
December 5–Advent Word: Raise
December 6–Advent Word: House
December 7–Advent Word: Unity
December 8–Advent Word: Worthy
01 Sunday Dec 2019
Posted in Advent, AdventWord, Christmas, Nativity
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Last year for Advent Word, I focused on shooting a black and white photo for each word. This year, it is my intention to use Christmas-related decorations (ornaments, Nativity scenes, etc.) for each word. Wish me luck!
December 1st is the first day of Advent this year, and fortunately, the first photo was easy: Unexpected.
I inherited this little Goebel Nativity scene from my grandmother and have added the other creatures, all of which I’ve received unexpectedly.
08 Sunday Sep 2019
Posted in Advent, Book covers, Books, Christ, Christianity, Christmas, Devotional, Forward Movement, God, Jesus
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Now available for pre-order, my husband Frank, and I, have written a week of devotions for this book from Forward Movement:
Explore Christ’s birth as recounted in the Gospel of Luke through the lens of the Way of Love and the seven practices of turn, learn, pray, worship, bless, go, and rest. With daily devotions of personal stories, modern examples, art, and invitations to prayer and journaling, the authors challenge you to discover and incorporate these practices into your own life. During Advent and Christmas, walk with the shepherds and the angels, Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah, and Anna and Simeon. All of their paths—as well as yours—lead to the same destination: the humble manger where Love was born.
For more info, see here: A Way to the Manger
04 Sunday Nov 2018
Posted in 7-Week Advent, Advent, Book of Common Prayer, Christmas, Collect
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A Seven Week Advent? Yes! There was a time when liturgical churches used seven weeks of preparation for Christmas to match the seven weeks in Lent leading to Easter.
This tradition remained in the Orthodox churches–Russian, Greek, etc.
Nest Sunday, November 11, is the first day of this year’s Seven Week Advent and begins with this collect:
Eternal God, your Word of wisdom goes forth and does not return empty: Grant us such knowledge and love of you that we may perceive your presence in all creation and every creature; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, now and forever. Amen.
Frank and I created a booklet for a nightly service for a Seven Week Advent, which can be found here if you are interested: Seven Week Advent
You can also find more resources here: The Advent Project
10 Sunday Dec 2017
It is Advent, and the time when we sing one of my favorite hymns as Christmas approaches. But O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is not just one of my favorite Christmas hymns (O Holy Night and What Child Is This? are high on the list as well), but it is also the song from which I picked the titles of the three books in the Hallowed Treasures Saga.
Here is a video my husband, Frank, made of O Come, O Come Emanuel:
The song came first. The first two books had several working titles before I decided on The Path to Misery for the first book in the trilogy. But the song appeared early in the first book when the Princess Eluned, Jabberwock, and Bonpo finally make it through the snowstorm in the Mountains of Misericord, and Eluned sings: O come, Thou Key of David, come and open wide our heav’nly home; make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery.
Once I decided on The Path to Misery for the first book, it made it easy to incorporate lyrics from other verses into the next two books and to choose In Lonely Exile and Death’s Dark Shadows at their titles.
The hymn is a translation of a Latin hymn, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, which is a metrical paraphrase of the O Antiphons, a series of plainchant antiphons attached to the Magnificat at Vespers over the final days before Christmas. The 1861 translation, which I used to choose the titles, is from Hymns Ancient and Modern, and is the most used, by far, in the English-speaking world. Because the original song is in Latin, though, you will find many versions with different lyrics by artists who wished to copyright their version.
Each antiphon is a name of Christ, relating one of his attributes mentioned in Scripture. They are:
According to Fr. William P. Saunders, “The exact origin of the O Antiphons is not known. Boethius (480–524) made a slight reference to them, thereby suggesting their presence at that time [the sixth century]. At the [Benedictine Abbey of Fleury] these antiphons were recited by the abbot and other abbey leaders in descending rank, and then a gift was given to each member of the community. By the eighth century, they are in use in the liturgical celebrations in Rome. The usage of the O Antiphons was so prevalent in monasteries that the phrases, Keep your O and The Great O Antiphons were common parlance. One may thereby conclude that in some fashion the O Antiphons have been part of our liturgical tradition since the very early Church.”
While the hymn is often linked with the 12th century, the earliest surviving evidence of the hymn’s text is in the seventh edition of Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, which was published in Cologne in 1710. The familiar tune called Veni Emmanuel was first linked to this hymn in 1851, when it appeared in the Hymnal Noted, paired with an early revision of the English translation of the text. In 1966, British musicologist Mary Berry (also an Augustinian canoness and noted choral conductor) discovered a 15th-century French manuscript containing the melody. Most versions are sung to this tune today.
Here is the version from:
Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861)
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o’er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Adonai, Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
And here is Punk version Frank created:
25 Sunday Dec 2016
Almighty God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son
to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be
born of a pure Virgin; Grant that we being regenerate,
and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily
be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our
Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee
and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end.
Amen.
