During our Advent Forum series and our Advent Edition of Living Wi$ely (online here: http://stpaulcathedral.org/9am-forum and here http://stpaulcathedral.org/livingwisely ) we have been talking about Advent Calendars and how they can be much more than a fond childhood memory about little cardboard windows and chocolates. They can really be a wonderful devotional, helping us to slow … READ MORE…
Advent is in its second week, by the church and its calendar it is a reflective; promising time. Outside, the holidays have picked up energy. The shopping season is in full swing. Stores are draped in glittering things, reams of wrapping paper roll like waves, everywhere are Christmas displays and pine trees are, lately, a … READ MORE…
Advent is a great time to slow down and a take time from our consumer culture out as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We all know that Christmas is grand finale of our consumer calendar, but Advent is the beginning of the church calendar. It’s a time to “begin again” and renew … READ MORE…
Editor’s note: a Cathedral member who prefers to be anonymous sent us this blog for the Christmas season. You may be sitting next to this Secret Santa on Sunday! In the last year or two, there has been a spontaneous surge of people acting as “Secret Santas” for folks who have Christmas gifts on … READ MORE…
It is Advent. The beginning of the church calendar, four weeks, four Sundays to celebrate the coming of Jesus. It is a mystery, divine and definitely material that those four weeks of Advent match the most consumerist and stressful season in America. Many churches change the colors of their draping’s and vestments for Advent, for … READ MORE…
For us today, Advent is a time for us to explore the spiritual ideas of waiting, patience and delayed gratification. We are counting the days until Christmas and allowing ourselves to hope for all of the best to come. The concept of the Advent wreath actually originated in pre-Christian times when people would gather … READ MORE…
This is one of several short videos from the Episcopal Church Center in New York, of different Episcopalians describing their experience of Advent. What does Advent mean to you? Advent Greetings: Schuyler Halsey from The Episcopal Church on Vimeo.
The Rev. Marshall Scott is a hospital chaplain in the Diocese of West Missouri. He writes, After spending the better part of a year moving from the Nativity to the feast of Christ the King, in Advent we seem to reverse that process in four weeks. We return in our lessons to the unsettled time … READ MORE…
Do you have sites you like to visit during Advent? Trinity Wall Street once again offers an online advent calendar.
Every year, it seems the commercialism of Christmas becomes more extreme: decorations up before Halloween, incessant carols on the radio (if I hear the Chipmunks singing one more time I think I shall go mad!) and of course, rampant consumerism. The Advent Conspiracy is a movement to try to reduce the consumption, and increase the … READ MORE…