ADVENT SERVICE – YEAR B Scripture, Reflections and Music Suggestions Procession of Light Warm the Time of Winter (Lori True) Eager Welcome (Opening Prayer) Open our hearts in welcome (Opening Prayer) Opening Prayer and Gesture To you, O Lord, I lift my soul, to you I lift my soul (Psalm 24) Responsorial Psalm To You, [...]
Archive | Advent & Christmas
Scripture in Advent
Scripture in Advent Bishop Martin Drennan, Bishop of Galway Christmas What Pope John Paul said of the Jubilee Year applies perfectly to what we do at Christmas. He said, May the Great Jubilee be a canticle of praise and thanksgiving for the wonder of the Incarnation. Christmas remembers the birth of Jesus who is called [...]
Advent Service
Prepare a Way Opening Hymn: Wait for the Lord Church in darkness – candles – procession Introduction The theme for this evening’s service is “there is a way.” There are so many voices of despair in the world around us, telling us it is no good. Perhaps even that voice speaks within us; “How can [...]
Daily Reflections for Advent
Reflections for Advent 2008 JUST GIVE THE WORD Monday of Advent Week One – 1 December 2008 Readings – Is.2:1-5, Ps.121, Matthew 8:5-11 Some times we fight wars of words in our heads. We practice the ‘put down’ lines that will devastate the argument of our opponents. We rehearse the ‘killer’ [...]
Advent Service 2008
ADVENT SERVICE 2008 Gathering Song Wait for the Lord (Taizé) All sing: Wait for the Lord, His day is near, Wait for the Lord be strong take heart. (The Entrance Procession is led by two carrying icons of Jesus and Mary, two acolytes with candles followed by the celebrant [...]
A Christmas Childhood
A Christmas Childhood My father played the melodeon Out side at our gate There were stars in the morning east And they danced to his music Across the wild bogs his melodeon called To Lennons and Callans. As I pulled on my trousers in a hurry I knew some strange thing had happened. Outside the [...]
Christ Climbed Down
Christ climbed down from his bare Tree this year and ran away to where there were no rootless Christmas trees hung with candycanes and breakable stars. Christ climbed down from his bare Tree this year and ran away to where there were no gilded Christmas trees and no tinsel Christmas trees and no pink plastic [...]
The Adoration of the Maji
The Adoration of the Maji A soldier’s recollection It was the arrival of the Kings that caught us unawares; we’d looked in on the woman in the barn, curiosity you could call it, something to do on a cold winter’s night; we’d wish her well that was the best we could do, she was in [...]
What has Happened
What has happened What has happened to me has been the very reverse of what appears to be the experience of most of my friends. Instead of dwindling to a point, Santa Claus has grown larger in my life until he fills almost the whole of it. It happened in this way. As a child, [...]
The Miracle of Ponsietta
The Miracle of Poinsettia The Mexicans call the poinsettia the ‘Flower of the Holy Night’, after a legend that tells of a little peasant girl who, on Christmas Eve, wanted to go to Midnight Mass with a gift for Jesus. She had nothing to give, but angels appeared to her and told her to pick [...]