I'm not sure whether priests are supposed to have favorites, but Advent is my favorite liturgical season. It is at a disadvantage because the entirely separate civic holiday seasons is roughly simultaneous with it and manages to occupy so much of our attention. But Advent so neatly points out to us our location between the first and second coming of Christ. It orients us toward the future even while reminding us of God's patterns in the past. As we prepare to remember Jesus' birth at Bethlehem (and hopefully his perpetual birth within the equally unfashionable neighborhood of our hearts), we are also waiting and watching for the ways he still comes and disrupts the petty vanities of our world and one day will come in triumph and great glory to judge and make just the world.
In our culture, we've gotten more used to the preparing than we are to the waiting and watching. This at least feels like an overlap with the civic holiday season. It may not all be preparing our hearts for his birth, but goodness knows we all have a lot of preparing to do. Preparing in Advent isn't always pleasant, but it is in some sense comfortable, because we can tell ourselves that we're doing it while we bustle around as we're used to doing. The other Advent practices are harder because they're less familiar: watching and waiting.
I especially want to invite you into some form of these practices this Advent. You'll find here ample opportunity to watch and wait with Saint Paul's. Whether you can make most of these events or few of them, may this be an unlikely time of refreshment and renewal. Whatever we are up to, Christ is coming, always coming, to this broken longing world. Let us be awake to greet him.
Eric+
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The Sacred Journey in the Sunday Forum
Beginning Sunday, November 27, through Advent
9:30 AM, The Berlin Room
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Our Sunday Forum continues during Advent when we will study Frederick Buechner’s The Sacred Journey. Buechner teaches us to hear God speaking through the mundane and spectacular parts of our lives. Books available in the Narthex Sunday and in the parish office during the week.
“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”
Weekly attendance for the four Sundays of Advent is recommended in order to more fully engage in the process of preparing our whole selves for the birth of Christ. The book is available on Amazon, but is not required for participation in the classes on Sunday mornings.
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Feast of Feasts Daily Devotion
Beginning Sunday, November 27 through Epiphany
Online
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The Diocese of Georgia will offer daily devotions written by Bishop Frank and Victoria Logue for a 7-week study from Advent through Epiphany. The short daily readings use the lens of Franciscan ideals including humility, simplicity, and peace as a focal point of each week.
You do not need to buy anything to take part in this study as the Diocese of Georgia Facebook page will offer the content daily. Each week the Facebook page will also feature a companion video that is posted on the diocesan YouTube Channel that expands on the theme of the week.
The reflections will also be posted on the Diocese website each day as well as their Facebook and Instagram accounts.
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Three Quiet (Half) Days
Monday, November 28, Tuesday, December 6,
Wednesday, Dec. 14
9:00 AM - 12 Noon, Chapel of St. Peter & St. Paul
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At just the time when life becomes most hectic for many of us, the Church tells us to slow down, wait faithfully, and prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. How can we wait while we run from appointment and errand to appointment and errand? This Advent at Saint Paul's, we'll hold three quiet (half-) days, to give us all a chance to take a breath and wait in the presence of God.
Join us for any or all of three Advent Quiet (Half-) Days this year: Monday, November 28; Tuesday, December 6; and Wednesday, December 14; 9 am to 12:00 noon, beginning in the Chapel.
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Guided Labyrinth Walk
Sunday, December 4, 4 PM, The Berlin Room
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On the Second Sunday of Advent, December 4, 4 PM in the Berlin Room, Belinda Peebles will lead a labyrinth walk as we wait and walk in anticipation of the birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ. There will be a brief introduction to walking a labyrinth and a time for reflection prior to the walk. No experience walking a labyrinth is required. |
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INTERGENERATIONAL EVENTS FOR THE PARISH |
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Make an Advent Wreath for your home
Sunday, November 27, 9-10:50 AM
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Join us in Tyler Hall, the first Sunday of Advent 9-10:50 AM to make an Advent Wreath for your home. Drop in as your schedule allows. All supplies will be provided, including wreathes, live greens, and candles. $20 donation per wreath.
This year we will also have music, a hot chocolate bar, and refreshments so we can enjoy time with each other. Your entire family is invited for fellowship and connection as we begin to ready our hearts and minds for this season of preparation.
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The Children's Advent Pageant
Sunday, December 18, 11:00 AM
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On the Fourth Sunday of Advent the children will present the Children's Advent Pageant in place of the sermon. We encourage all the parishes' children to join us this Advent season as we prepare to find God-with-us, Emmanuel.
Please have your child attend formation on the Sundays in December so we can fit them for a costume and prepare them for the program.
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We are a community of prayer, constantly engaged in prayer of different kinds. Just a few of these: our private devotions, graces before meals and prayers opening meetings, special practices like labyrinth walks and Sit and Wait, quiet mornings, the weekly zoom Compline service, the disciplines of vowed societies like the Daughters of the King, and our public corporate worship on Sundays and Thursdays. We may not each be saintly contemplatives, but together we're not far off from the Bible's injunction to "pray always." Through a wonderful diversity of practices, we are a community of prayer, praying in thanksgiving, praise, petition, and contemplation.
During this season of Advent, as we prepare for Christmas, you are invited to experience a new prayer practice.
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WEDNESDAY 8:00 PM
COMPLINE
A quiet service to end the day together in prayer with God. This service is held on Zoom and allows the community to gather from home. For more information email Kitty Gordon. |
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THURSDAY 11:30 AM
MID-WEEK EUCHARIST IN THE CHAPEL
Come to this small gathering for a mid-week refreshment and renewal. Beginning in Advent we will pray by name for all those on our parish prayer list. For more information email Fr. Biddy. |
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THURSDAY 7:00 PM
CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER
A short reading is offered followed by a 20-minute “Sit.” and then an open discussion follows until 8:00 PM. For more information email Suzanne Pursley-Crotteau. |
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SUNDAY 5:30 PM
PRAYERS FOR HEALING
This service offers the laying of hands by the priest for healing. In addition, you'll find quiet
reflection, focused prayer, and calming music, which all provide a welcome counterbalance to the frenetic and harried world about us. For more information email Fr. Biddy. |
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A DEEPENING CONNECTION TO OUR PARISH PRAYER LIST
Our official prayer list is an important part of our community of prayer, organizing our prayers for our beloveds. Each name on our list is someone loved by our parish and as we pray with and for them, we are widening our community of prayer. We publish our prayer list in the Sunday bulletin and also in the email that is sent each Sunday morning. We invite you to take the prayer list home with you to incorporate into your personal prayers, reading through the names daily and deepening your connection to our wider parish.
A FEW NOTES ON THE "MANAGEMENT" OF OUR PRAYER LIST
You may add a name to the prayer list by emailing the parish office or by writing a name on the list in the notebook found on the stand in front of the baptismal font on Sunday mornings.
In order for our prayer list to be effective, we must all stay connected to the list, so we ask that you contact the parish office to update us on the status of your prayer request with a quick email monthly.
The Daughters of the King pray the public prayer list daily, but also offer a confidential prayer ministry. You may contact them by email or by completing a prayer card found in the pew and handing it to any member of the Daughters of the King or placing it in the offering plate. (Your most Your most trusted, confidential prayer needs should be given directly to clergy.)
Currently, we pray every name aloud at 8:00 and 11:00 on Sundays, but not at the Celtic service, nor at the midweek Eucharist on Thursdays. We have recently suspended the practice of forcibly removing names from the list after a certain period of time, with the result that the official prayer list has gotten quite long—long enough that while God certainly still hears our prayers in corporate worship, it is not at all clear that we do.
And so, we are trying an experiment in reorganizing some of our constant practice of prayer. In Advent, the prayer list will be prayed aloud in full at 8:00 on Sundays and at the Thursday Eucharist, and will continue to be prayed by the Daughters of the King and parishioners who take the bulletin home with them for that purpose. At 11:00 on Sundays, we will cite the prayer list in the prayers of the people, but not read each name aloud. This does not mean that we are not praying for the prayer list! We are still ensuring that the names are read publicly in prayer and we invite you to take the prayer list home with you to incorporate into your personal prayers. We'll see how this experiment affects us as a community of prayer and then go forward from there.
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