St Andrew

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Advent, Photography

Today is St Andrew’s day the Patron saint of Scotland and of St Andrew’s Milngavie, which also by default means in these parts he is also the patron saint of fish suppers, as tonight after our Patronal Festival we will all tuck into fish and chips.

The picture above is a roof boss from Dryburgh Abbey showing St Andrew on his distinctive cross.  There are lots of stories about Andrew, from why he was crucified on a X-shaped cross, to how he came to Patron Saint of Scotland and as is often the case with the stories of the saints it can be hard to separate fact from later embellishments.  One of the things we hear is that Andrew was the first evangelist, going to tell his brother Peter that the Messiah had arrived, so I think it is highly appropriate that his feast day usually falls inside Advent.  St Andrew’s was prepared to follow, he was prepared to tell others, he was and is an Advent saint, the dawn of a new beginning and someone who we would do well to learn from.

What is More Pleasing than a Psalm?

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Advent

That is the question that Ambrose of Milan asks in his commentary on the psalms and then goes on to answer it his own question thus:-

David expresses it well: ‘Praise the Lord, for a song of praise is good: let there be praise of our God with gladness and grace.’  Yes, a psalm is a blessing on the lips of the people, a hymn in praise of God, the assembly’s homage, a general acclamation, a word that speaks for all, the voice of the Church, a confession of faith in song.  It is the voice of complete assent, the joy of freedom, a cry of happiness, the echo of gladness.  It soothes the temper, detracts from care, lightens the burden of sorrow.  It is a source of security at night, a lesson in wisdom by day.  It is a shield when we are afraid, a celebration of holiness, a vision of serenity, a promise of peace and harmony.  It is like a lyre, evoking harmony from a blend of notes,  Day begins to the music of a psalm,  Day closes to the echo of a psalm.

For those of you who didn’t know Ambrose is often credited with being the person who introduced hymns into western worship, he certainly has a way with words about him, his commentary could almost be mistake for a psalm in its own right.   I therefore find it interesting that nearly 1,700 years after he wrote these words and encouraged the Western Church to include singing in its worship – not only psalms but all music by voice or instrument directed towards God – that the love of hymns has meant in many churches the singing of the psalms has died out or in dying out.  In fact even the reading of the psalms is something which appears to have disappeared from many a service outside daily prayer.  Even if the psalms aren’t sung Ambrose’s observation on the rhythm of the psalms bringing about great beauty and harmony to our days and reciting them every day is surely something we would all benefit from.

So with Advent just around the corner I have decided that this year during Advent I will post the psalm for Morning Prayer along with what I hope might be a helpful picture over on Advent Jottings.  I encourage you to take time with the psalm to bathe in its words and rhythm and maybe find anew a source of comfort strength and praise for the whole of the year ahead.

Silver Lining

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Advent

Three Eucharists each Sunday means my new Rose Vestments will get six outings a year!

Advent Calendar – Rowan Williams

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Advent

He will come like last leaf’s fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud’s folding.

He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.

Pathways

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Advent

Sometimes our paths meander

like water returning to the sea as the tide retreats.

Sometimes however they join together making a wider,

straighter,

deeper path.

A path which draws others in like streams converging into a river.

A path were the journey is shared, shared in its joys and in its sorrows.

And in that sharing of a journey, the travelling can seem lighter as we are encouraged by each other.

Helping each other around the boulders of this life;

the things that try and alter our course.

Not swept along by the tide, but rather;

carrying others when their journey is rough,

and letting others uphold us when the storms rage about us.

Prepare

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Advent

Prepare that is the cry.

Prepare not the turkey, the presents, the cards.

Rather prepare our hearts and our lives.

Prepare them not just for one day,

but for a lifetime.

Prepare them not just for this life,

but for a life that we anticipate will come to us one day.

Prepare the way, the way for Christ to enter our lives, to abide with us, to been seen by others through our words and actions, so that He may also enter their lives and know the joy and peace He can bring, not just on Christmas Day but on each and every day of their lives.

Advent 1995 – John Betjeman

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Advent

The Advent wind begins to stir
With sea-like sounds in our Scotch fir,
It’s dark at breakfast, dark at tea,
And in between we only see
Clouds hurrying across the sky
And rain-wet roads the wind blows dry
And branches bending to the gale
Against great skies all silver pale
The world seems travelling into space,
And travelling at a faster pace
Than in the leisured summer weather
When we and it sit out together,
For now we feel the world spin round
On some momentous journey bound -
Journey to what? to whom? to where?
The Advent bells call out ‘Prepare,
Your world is journeying to the birth
Of God made Man for us on earth.’
 
And how, in fact, do we prepare
The great day that waits us there -
For the twenty-fifth day of December,
The birth of Christ? For some it means
An interchange of hunting scenes
On coloured cards, And I remember
Last year I sent out twenty yards,
Laid end to end, of Christmas cards
To people that I scarcely know -
They’d sent a card to me, and so
I had to send one back. Oh dear!
Is this a form of Christmas cheer?
Or is it, which is less surprising,
My pride gone in for advertising?
The only cards that really count
Are that extremely small amount
From real friends who keep in touch
And are not rich but love us much
Some ways indeed are very odd
By which we hail the birth of God.
 
We raise the price of things in shops,
We give plain boxes fancy tops
And lines which traders cannot sell
Thus parcell’d go extremely well
We dole out bribes we call a present
To those to whom we must be pleasant
For business reasons. Our defence is
These bribes are charged against expenses
And bring relief in Income Tax
Enough of these unworthy cracks!
‘The time draws near the birth of Christ’.
A present that cannot be priced
Given two thousand years ago
Yet if God had not given so
He still would be a distant stranger
And not the Baby in the manger.

Just Words?

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Advent

Christ Be Our Light

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Advent

A Calm Urgency

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Advent

As a child time seemed to pass so slowly.  Summer holidays lasted for what seemed like forever and Advent didn’t seem to last much less.  Things are different now, age no doubt has something to do with it, when you are 10 a year is a much smaller percentage of your life than when you are a 40 something.  Also, strangely enough what I do has something to do with it, there is a lot to be getting on with, however it is also to do with the season itself. 

Lent is a calmer season a season when there time, Advent might very well be a season of waiting but it is also a season of urgency.  We cry out ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ we sing ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’, those cries don’t die on Christmas Eve as the sun sets, our thoughts might then turn to other things but still the waiting goes on, but somehow the urgency gets lost, our waiting distracted by the turning seasons.

So why not take some time this Advent to sit and wait, in urgency still maybe, but also in calm and peace.  Over on Kelvin’s blog he has posted a link to a user friendly Advent Morning Prayer, if you are not in the habit of making some space each day to pray, then why not use this Advent to start?