Advent Church School is in session! Following communions during the 9 AM Mass, classes are offered for children of all ages. Please contact Emily Litman 617-852-2661 to register or schedule a tour of our classrooms.

Children's Sermons: After the Gospel reading, willing children may process out of the sanctuary to hear a sermon put into their own words. Following the message, they process back into the service to join their families for the liturgy of the Eucharist. Children's bulletins may be found in the back of the church as an alternative.

The first meeting of this year's Entracte, the Advent's Adult Education Series, will take place this Sunday, October 19, following the 9:00am Mass (approximately 10:20am) in the Parish Library.  This year's topic will be entitled Sacraments and Sacrifice. This Sunday, Fr. Warren will talk about the Sacrament of Baptism.

 

The central and essential conviction of the Christian religion is that a new kind of life for  women and men and a new world has come and is coming into being through the Incarnation of Jesus the Christ. Through his obedient life, his sacrificial death, and his rising out of death, human reality has been forever changed.  Classical Catholic Christianity understands that one way by which Christians are joined to the new life in Jesus and enter his new world is through the Sacraments of the Church.   In this series we will think about the connection between Jesus' Sacrifice and Resurrection and the Sacraments he provides for us as a means of grace and life.

Opportunity for Mission at Cambridge Rehab and Nursing Center. This Sunday afternoon Advent parishioners will participate in a service of Evening Prayer for residents of the Cambridge Rehabilitation & Nursing Center near Central Square in Cambridge. All are welcome! We'll depart from the Advent's Brimmer Street entrance at 2:30 PM. If you prefer, you can take your own transportation to 8 Dana Street, Cambridge, which is a 10-minute walk from the Central Square T Station. The service begins at 3 PM. If you have any questions please contact Fr Wood or Drew Reese.

Visitation hours will be held on Friday, Oct. 31, 4-9 p.m., including the Office of the Dead at 6 p.m., and Compline at 8:30 p.m., at the Monastery Chapel of the Society of St. John the Evangelist (980 Memorial Drive) in Cambridge.

A Celebration of the Life of the Rt Rev'd M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, with Holy Eucharist, will be held on Saturday, November 1 at 2 PM at Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston, with reception to follow.

All Souls Day will be observed on Monday, November 3 with a Solemn Requiem Mass at 6:30 PM. The Music of the Mass will be the Missa pro defunctis cum sex vocibus of Tom�s Luis de Victoria. Envelopes to receive the names of persons to be remembered at these Masses may be found with the offering envelopes given to those who pledge to the Parish or at the rear of the Church.

In addition to the All Souls' Day Mass, there will be a Solemn Requiem sung on Saturday, November 8 at 11 AM. This Mass is sponsored by the Guild of All Souls.

The Guild is a devotional society which was founded in 1873 to promote prayers for the dead and dying and the celebration of Mass as part of the funeral rite. Both of these practices, as familiar as they are to all of us nowadays, were uncommon in the Anglican Communion at the time of the Guild's founding, and it would be no exaggeration to say that the Guild had a great deal to do with their current familiarity. Members of the Guild pledge themselves to prayer for the departed throughout their lives and will be prayed for by members of the Guild after their deaths. If you are interested in becoming a member of this society, please speak to Christopher Laconi, who is the Guild's representative at the Advent.

A light lunch will follow the Requiem. If you wish to come, please speak to Fr. Warren so that we will know how many people for whom to prepare.

An Organ Recital, played by David Enlow, the well-known and widely praised organist at the Church of the Resurrection in Manhattan, will follow the luncheon at approximately 2:00 PM.

Now and at the Hour of Our Death:  Medical Decision-Making in the 21st Century // Saturday November 15, 10 am to 2 pm // Moseley Hall:  Eventually, each one of us will be faced with making decisions about our own care, or someone else's.  Today's healthcare system presents patients and families with choices undreamed of only a few decades ago.  This four-hour, interactive seminar explores the factors influencing medical decisions from an historical, theological, and practical point of view.  Each participant receives a comprehensive toolkit with resources that provide in-depth information about a full range of topics: advance directives, healthcare proxies, decision-making tools, fact sheets about various treatments, and much more. Limited to 25 participants.  For information and registration, contact Deacon Noyes, [email protected] or 617-354-2540. 

Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.