O Wisdom!

[Weedon]

As the sun is setting out this way, the Antiphon for Magnificat upon this day:

http://emmanuelpress.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/sapientia1.mp3

[LutherMan]

It won't play on my laptop...

[J. Thomas Shelley]

Now through Christmas Eve my computer music is a CD of the Berlin Mass by Arvo Part.

My custom playlist begins with the proper O Antiphon of the day, then the Magnificat, then the Antiphon again, followed by the Mass.

These final Advent evenings have sometimes been called the "Golden Nights"; and to honor that custom I began lighting five (should be seven, and some year will be) wild cedar trees growing along north property line with golden amber lights.

I may as well note that in the vicinity of the "golden night" trees are an array of much larger cedars which do really  form a roughly circular pattern.  They have been lighted with blue lights sequentially at the vesperal hour preceding each Advent Sunday--a living Advent wreath, if you will.

By Christmas Eve there should be a total of 36 trees illuminated in one manner or another.

[Chuck]

It won't play on my laptop...

Fix your laptop. Simple.

[LutherMan]

One of the add-ons I use in Firefox blocked this from working.  I opened IE and it worked fine...

[Kurt Weinelt]

Although this is off-topic, my wife and I really enjoyed Pr. Weedon's Advent meditation on St Elizabeth in this month's Forum Letter (which we just recieved Tuesday). Don't miss it!

[LutherMan]

I am always edified by his writings, he is published in The Lutheran Witness frequently...

[Weedon]

Thanks, Kurt (and LutherMan), for the kind words. I just LOVE that story in Luke 1. I always picture Zecharias, when he hears that his prayer has been answered, thinking: "NOW? Seriously?? Aren't you a bit late?"

[J. Thomas Shelley]

This Advent/Nativity Fast has, understandably, brought new challenges with my formal beginning of the Orthodox Catechumenate.

Among the lesser challenges has been how to adapt the outdoor lighting from, heretofore, a four Sunday pattern adding new groupings with each successive Saturday Vespers to a pattern more befitting of a 40 day period.

The wild cedars comprising a "living Advent wreath" continue to be lighted according to the Western calendar; as do the "golden evening" trees.

As for the rest, the transition days will hereafter be linked to eve of key festivals:

November 15 - St. Philip the Apostle (Orthodox date--May 1 or 3 in the West)
November 21 - The Entrance of the Theotokos (Presentation of Mary in the Temple)
November 30 - St. Andrew the Apostle
December 6  -  St. Nicholas
December 13 -  St. Lucy & St. Herman of Alaska

Deacon John used to call me "Lutherdox", and I suppose this is the final vestage of that label.

[Brian Stoffregen]

Thanks, Kurt (and LutherMan), for the kind words. I just LOVE that story in Luke 1. I always picture Zecharias, when he hears that his prayer has been answered, thinking: "NOW? Seriously? ? Aren't you a bit late?"

I have told some of our older members who like to promote angels and wear angel pins that most often when angels appeared to people it was to announce that they were going to have a son. So, they might want to be careful about seeking angelic presence in their lives.