Tempus fugit . . .

Apologies for the long silence - caused both by Christmas 'busy-ness' and lack of inspiration!

We always joke about time seeming to go faster as we get older. Another 'old chestnut' is that once the Christmas Sales have finished, the shops start putting out Easter eggs.

This was brought home to me yesterday. After having had my hair cut, I went to make an appointment for my next visit, a week later than usual this time, and was told it would therefore be 17th February. Looking in my diary, I found it was Ash Wednesday. I couldn't believe that Lent is just 'one hair cut' away from Christmas. I think I've found a new way of measuring time!

Easter is just '2 hair cuts' away from Christmas.

Almost there . . .

Our crib's been blessed, the shopping's done, the presents wrapped and we're just off to have a drink with our neighbours followed by an hour's peace and quiet before we go to Midnight Mass, so there's only one thing left to do . . .

I wish you all a very Happy, Holy and Blessed Christmas.

Our Crib is up! . . .

Yay! Our crib is out of it's wrappings and displayed in pride of place in our sitting room - all ready for the big day - or should I say the big night, as we always place the infant Jesus in the crib as soon as we get back from Midnight Mass.

We had a lovely Sunday again today. We enjoyed a delicious meal with friends last night in their home which was beautifully decorated for Christmas which really set the scene for us. This combined with the very seasonal weather and the fact that we'll all be together again shortly as a family really makes it a Super Sunday.

This morning's Mass was great with a very good homily and the children's nativity play at the end of Mass which is always guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye. We spent a relaxed afternoon decorating the tree and putting up a few decorations. I was going to say 'tasteful decorations' but then they're not really. We still tend to belong to the school of putting the same up things every year which have become part of our family tradition. When it comes to the tree, it's a case of 'pile it all on' with no regard for colour scheme, or any other scheme come to that!

Maybe one year, we'll have an adult tree with a tasteful theme which will be echoed in the other decorations but I've a feeling that day is quite a long way off.

Finally, Number One Son and I lit the fourth candle on our Advent wreath at 6pm and prayed the Angelus together - it doesn't get much better than this! God is very good!

'Snow on snow' . . .

The view from our front door this morning . . . Very pretty but a very hazardous journey to the main road which luckily was clear. When you get to the 'slopey bit' at the end of our road before it joins another quiet un-gritted road, the power of prayer really comes into its own!

When I got back from work this afternoon, I found the Pater Familias up a ladder putting up the outside lights, aided and abetted by Number One Son and the tree had been brought inside from the back garden where it had been resting for a few days. With a CD of carols playing in the background, I'm finally feeling a little bit more 'Ho! Ho! Ho!' and less 'Bah, humbug!'

Number Two son is expected home tomorrow and hopefully we'll be able to decorate the tree together and put up a few decorations around the house here and there.

More importantly the crib has been unpacked and is now in situ (minus the infant Jesus of course and the Kings). All ready to blessed in the next few days, I hope.

Frazzled . . .

So sorry folks, no time for a proper post. Maybe we'll get snowed in and then I'll have a good excuse to forget about all the shopping etc. that still needs to be done.

Have you noticed everywhere you go, you see women walking around looking 'shell-shocked' muttering to themselves, 'never again . . . I say this every year' ? Meanwhile the men look on with bemused expressions as if to say, ' I dunno what all the fuss is about - a bit of extra shopping and a glorified Sunday lunch?- it's a piece of cake' !! :-)

Update (13th January 2010)

Oh dear, I've just realised what I said! Me and my big mouth - fancy actually wishing to get 'snowed in'.

Sing and shout for joy . . .

Gaudete Sunday - a day of rejoicing in the middle of a more sombre time of penitence and preparation for the coming of Our Saviour.

I wonder, was your parish priest wearing one of these today?


. . . or did your PP process out of church looking more like this? (Minus the mitre, ferula and pallium of course!)


Here's what Catholic Online has to say about Rose vestments, quoting from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal;

'Rose may be used, where it is the practice, on Gaudete Sunday (Third Sunday of Advent) and on Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent).'

And from Redemptionis Sacramentum;

'The purpose of a variety of colour of the sacred vestments is to give effective expression even outwardly to the specific character of the mysteries of faith being celebrated and to a sense of Christian life's passage through the course of the liturgical year. '

So, it's OK to use Rose vestments if you have them and the practice has not been discontinued.

Mind you it's probably a good idea to make sure you always refer to these vestments as being 'rose'. Some people are quite uncomfortable with the idea of a priest wearing pink in church - I can't think why! ;)

Gaudete! . . .

I watched several versions of this beautiful mediaeval carol before I eventually decided on this one. There's nothing like the clarity of a boy's treble voice for this sort of carol, I think, and the setting with the background of the Holy Land just swung it for me. Mind you, I also found some lovely versions of the song with beautiful slideshows using pictures of the nativity too.

Hope you enjoy listening.

Update:

Oops, silly me! Of course it's not the Holy Land. The atmospheric background is actually St Bartholomew's Church in London. (Not even close!) It's still beautiful though.

All honour to you, Mary! . . .

Well, it may not be a Holy Day of Obligation in England and Wales but we certainly had more than usual at our morning Mass today, and we were fortunate to have our organist available to play for us and we sang two beautiful Marian hymns. It really felt like a Feast Day.

The first reading today of the fall of Adam always makes me smile to myself. I expect that's probably not the expected reaction but it always makes me think of young children in the playground. When challenged for doing something they shouldn't, the first child says, 'it's not my fault, he made me do it' and this is repeated by the next child and so it goes on . . .

What a contrast between this reading and the Gospel telling the story of the Annunciation. A reading that is so familiar but never fails to move me whenever I hear it.

Sorry, this post is rather disjointed, I just wanted to try and put down in words some of my musings on today's feast. I hope you all had a Blessed Feast Day.

St Nicholas and 'Knecht Ruprecht' . . .

Poor old St Nicholas missed out again this year. As always happens when 6th December falls on a Sunday, we hear no mention of St Nicholas whose feast day it is today.

I always think it's a bit of a shame that we don't make more of St Nicholas as they do in many other European countries. I feel Santa Claus is very much an American invention and Father Christmas, our English equivalent bears little resemblance to St Nicholas.

When we lived in Germany for a while when our children were small (yes, a long time ago!) I always enjoyed seeing the the shops full of Christmas goodies and of course the tradition of children in the family leaving their shoes out for treats from St Nicholas on 6th December is a lovely idea. What I especially liked was that it wasn't 'over the top' - probably a few sweets and a small toy.

The other difference between St Nicholas and Father Christmas is that St Nicholas would be accompanied by 'Knecht Ruprecht' carrying the goodies for the children who'd been good all year. But Knecht Ruprecht also carried a bunch of twigs to punish those children who had not been good! Can you imagine how that would go down here today? Funnily enough, it didn't seem strange to the German families we knew and all the shops would have bundles of treats for St Nicholas' Day with a miniature bunch of twigs attached.

Calm before the storm . . .

We had a lovely, peaceful Sunday today, which is just as well as it's been a busy week and I've a feeling it's going to be another 'Manic Monday' tomorrow.

After Mass which of course is always a great start to the day and has a wonderful way of injecting peace and calm into our otherwise busy lives, our PP came home to bless our Advent wreath. Yes, I know it's been in use a week already but better late than never!

Part of the brief form of blessing he used was that beautiful reading from Isaiah which we hear at Midnight Mass:

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light;

on those who live in a land of deep shadow

a light has shone.

You have made their gladness greater,

you have made their joy increase;

they rejoice in your presence

as men rejoice at harvest time,

as men are happy when they are dividing the spoils . . .

. . . For there is a child born for us,

a son given to us

and dominion is laid on his shoulders;

and this is the name they give him:

Wonderful-Counsellor, Mighty-God,

Eternal-Father, Prince of Peace.

Wide is his dominion

in a peace that has no end,

for the throne of David

and for his royal power,

which he establishes and makes secure

in justice and integrity.

From this time onwards and for ever,

the jealous love of the Lord Sabaoth will do this.

We've always had an Advent wreath at home as we did when I was a child. It's a wonderful way to remind us what Advent is all about and also to focus on preparing well for Christmas, and I don't just mean making sure we get the tree and the turkey organised in good time (though they are also part of Christmas and nothing wrong with that, in my book!)

We leave the Advent wreath out after Christmas day with the other decorations and add a large white candle in the centre to represent Christ. It's always commented on by our non-churchgoing visitors, along with our crib and I'm often surprised at the interest they show in the symbolism of things like this.

Which reminds me, I hope our PP will also be able to spare a few minutes to come and bless our crib for us later . . . perhaps some mince pies and a seasonal drink ?

Quadruped with crimson probiscus . . .

I'm sorry for the long silence - no excuse apart from the 'busy-ness' of this time of year which other bloggers seem to take in their stride and still manage to post something just about every day. How do they do it?

Lest my few readers, give up on me, I found this Christmas quiz on the web and thought it might give you a few moments' amusement until I get around to writing something a bit more serious and appropriate for Advent.

NAME THAT CAROL!

1. Quadruped with crimson proboscis

2. 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. without noise

3. Minuscule hamlet in the far east

4. Ancient benevolent despot

5. Adorn the vestibule

6. Exuberance directed to the planet

7. Listen, aerial spirits harmonizing

8. Monarchical trio

9. Yonder in the haystack

10. Assemble, everyone who believes

11. Hallowed post meridian

12. Fantasies of a colorless December 25th

13. Tin tintinnabulums

14. A dozen 24-hour Yule periods

15. Befell during the transparent bewitching hour

16. Homo sapien of crystallized vapor

17. I merely desire a pair of incisors

18. I spied my maternal parent osculating a fat man in red

19. Perambulating through a December solstice fantasy

20. Hey there! The announcing celestial beings carol.

21. On commencement of Yuletide my honey bestowed upon me.

22. Decorate the passage with branches of evergreen sprigs.

23. O scared darkness, the asterisks are brilliantly shimmering.

24. O approach, y'all devoted happy and victorious...

25. Ourselves bid yourselves a joyous Noel and a cheerful neoteric 365 days . . .

If you got stuck on any of them, you'll find the answers here along with other Christmas trivia. I missed out some of the questions that were using lines from the middle of carols or were not that well known.