Today is the first Sunday of Advent and a happy day it has been.
Yesterday, Aisling got out the Advent calendar, a wooden one shaped like a stable with little pegs inside where you can hang twenty-five little pressed pasteboard figures -- Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus are the last three to go on. This is a family rite that Aisling takes very seriously every year.
We also got out the Advent wreath, which we used for two years before we even became Catholic. I ordered it online from the grandaddy of all online Catholic gift shops, Catholic Supply of St. Louis, Missouri. It makes me laugh (in a wry kind of way) to think how nervous I was about ordering from them, not because I was afraid they'd mess up my order or steal my identity, but because it was a Catholic store and I was a Protestant. What if they found out?!?!
We said the prayer for the Advent wreath. There are lots of prayers like this, most of them centering around the idea that we are preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord Jesus, in awaiting Him at Christmas time, and also in His second coming. We wait. We prepare. We hope.
Aisling, as the youngest child, has the honor of being the one to light the first candle on the Advent wreath, but this year, the Aim-n-Flame ran completely dry and the only thing we had left to light was a match from one of those flimsy cardboard matchbooks. That is the LAST kind of match in the WORLD I would ever let Aisling light, short of a military ordnance flame-thrower. So I lit the candle this year, although Aisling hovered by my elbow.
The Advent candle burned while we prayed the rosary tonight, and it was very sweet to look at the burning flame while meditating on the events of Jesus' life.
Advent appears to be off to a wonderful start this year.
Yesterday, Aisling got out the Advent calendar, a wooden one shaped like a stable with little pegs inside where you can hang twenty-five little pressed pasteboard figures -- Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus are the last three to go on. This is a family rite that Aisling takes very seriously every year.
We also got out the Advent wreath, which we used for two years before we even became Catholic. I ordered it online from the grandaddy of all online Catholic gift shops, Catholic Supply of St. Louis, Missouri. It makes me laugh (in a wry kind of way) to think how nervous I was about ordering from them, not because I was afraid they'd mess up my order or steal my identity, but because it was a Catholic store and I was a Protestant. What if they found out?!?!
We said the prayer for the Advent wreath. There are lots of prayers like this, most of them centering around the idea that we are preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord Jesus, in awaiting Him at Christmas time, and also in His second coming. We wait. We prepare. We hope.
Aisling, as the youngest child, has the honor of being the one to light the first candle on the Advent wreath, but this year, the Aim-n-Flame ran completely dry and the only thing we had left to light was a match from one of those flimsy cardboard matchbooks. That is the LAST kind of match in the WORLD I would ever let Aisling light, short of a military ordnance flame-thrower. So I lit the candle this year, although Aisling hovered by my elbow.
The Advent candle burned while we prayed the rosary tonight, and it was very sweet to look at the burning flame while meditating on the events of Jesus' life.
Advent appears to be off to a wonderful start this year.
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1 comment:
Lovely post...I can so see all of you doing these things. What a great mom you are to the girls! They will remember these things always and pass them to their own families. Very nice.
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