The Liturgical New Year and Advent

Today, the First Sunday in Advent, is the official "New Year" of the Church Calendar. At Lake Murray we lit the first Advent candle, the Prophecy Candle, and heard the reading of Isaiah 40:1-5 which contains the prophecy of the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

The following is from the today's edition of the Beadle's Report of Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity, with apologies to the Beadle for different paragraph breaks due to wonky copying into my blog. So all credit goes to Hap, the Beadle, for his wonderful explanations of the liturgical year and the season of Advent.

Liturgy-based Christian churches who consider themselves catholic, or universal, use a Christian Calendar which has a pre-set annual cycle of liturgical seasons which determines when Feasts, Memorials, Commemorations, and Solemnities are to be observed and which portions of Scripture are to be read. Distinct liturgical colors are used in connection with different seasons of the liturgical year.

The dates of the festivals vary somewhat between the Western (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Protestant) churches and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, though the sequence and logic is the same. The dates of many feasts vary from year to year (Moveable Feasts) due to the variation in the date of Easter, and all other dates follow from that. The extent to which the fasts and festivals are celebrated also varies between churches; in general Protestant churches observe far fewer of them than Catholic and Orthodox churches, and in particular are less likely to celebrate feasts of the Virgin Mary and the Saints.

The liturgical cycle divides the year into a series of seasons, each with their own mood, theological emphases, and modes of prayer, which can be signified by different ways of decorating churches, vestments for clergy, scriptural readings, themes for preaching and even different traditions and practices often observed personally or in the home. In churches that follow the liturgical year, the scripture passages for each Sunday (and even each day of the year in the Anglican tradition) are specified by a list called a lectionary.

Anglicans and Lutherans have traditionally followed the lectionary since the days of the Protestant Reformation. Since the 1960s, the adoption and use of lectionaries in other Protestant churches (Methodist, Reformed, United, etc.) increased. This has led to a greater awareness of the Christian year among Protestants in the later decades of the 20th century, especially among mainline denominations.Biblical calendars are based on the cycle of the new moon.

The year is from the first new moon on or after the spring equinox to the next new moon on or after the spring equinox, rather than an arbitrary starting point like the modern calendar. Western Christian liturgical calendars are based on the cycle of the Roman or Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, including Lutheran, Anglican, and Protestant calendars since this cycle pre-dates the Reformation. Generally, the liturgical seasons in western Christianity are:
• Advent
• Christmas
• Ordinary Time (Time after Epiphany)
• Lent
• Easter
• Ordinary Time (Time after Trinity)

Advent From the Latin adventus, "arrival" or "coming", the first season of the liturgical year, begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve. Historically observed as a "fast", its purpose focuses on preparation for the coming Christ. Although often conceived as awaiting the coming of the Christ-child at Christmas, it also points towards the final coming of Christ.

This period is marked by the Advent Wreath, a garland of evergreens with four candles. Traditionally, the wreath is made of four candles in a circle of evergreens. Three candles are violet and the fourth is rose. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday of Advent. Although the main symbolism of the advent wreath is simply marking the progression of time, the church attaches themes to each candle, most often 'hope', 'faith', 'joy', and 'love'. Color: Violet or Blue. On the third Sunday of Advent, also called Gaudete Sunday, Rose/Pink is used.

Historically, the primary sanctuary color of Advent is Purple. This is the color of penitence and fasting as well as the color of royalty to welcome the Advent of the King. Purple is still used in Catholic churches. The purple of Advent is also the color of suffering used during Lent and Holy Week. This points to an important connection between Jesus’ birth and death. The nativity, the Incarnation, cannot be separated from the crucifixion. The purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world, of the "Word made flesh" and dwelling among us, is to reveal God and His grace to the world through Jesus’ life and teaching, but also through his suffering, death, and resurrection.

To reflect this emphasis, originally Advent was a time of penitence and fasting, much as the Season of Lent and so shared the color of Lent. In the four weeks of Advent the third Sunday came to be a time of rejoicing that the fasting was almost over (in some traditions it is called Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin word for "rejoice"). The shift from the purple of the Season to pink or rose for the third Sunday Advent candles reflected this lessening emphasis on penitence as attention turned more to celebration of the season. Churches other than Anglican have changed colors and emphasis on the whole wreath, we remain true to tradition.

The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival. " The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. That is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate.

Scripture reading for Advent will reflect this emphasis on the Second Advent, including themes of accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment on sin, and the hope of eternal life. In this double focus on past and future, Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation, as they affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power. That acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising from a profound sense that we live "between the times" and are called to be faithful stewards of what is entrusted to us as God’s people.

So, as the church celebrates God’s inbreaking into history in the Incarnation, and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which "all creation is groaning awaiting its redemption," it also confesses its own responsibility as a people commissioned to "love the Lord your God with all your heart" and to "love your neighbor as yourself."

I DID IT!!!!!!!

I hit 50,157 words tonight!!!!!!!!!!

By the sheer grace of God, I did it. Twelve chapters. The novel isn't finished, but I have my 50,000 words and am thrilled. Woo-hoo!

And more to write in days to come... and much, much revision. MUCH revision

I can't believe it. I've always said that I couldn't write a novel. Never. Not possibly. But I have twelve chapters down in a very ragged format that needs much work, much polishing. But I'm on my way

And it was fun. Hard work, but fun.

Thanks to all of you who have cheered me on this month. Especially Dru and Kathy -- thanks for the encouraging e-mails. You have NO idea how helpful you were. And are. Kathy -- I do still want to read yours!

I'm still pinching myself....

NaNoWriMo Update....

As I head to bed this Friday night, I reached 46, 151 words -- I have fewer than 4,000 words to go over the next two days to finish NaNoWriMo. Very do-able, dontcha think?

I doubt I will be able to officially "win" at the NaNoWriMo site simply because my novel is on my computer with no Internet capabilities, so I can't exactly upload it into the site for confirmation. Perhaps we can try a dial-up connection for a few minutes, but that's my only hope.

But even if I don't get the "winning" prizes like little widgets for my blog, if I reach 50,000, I'll still have the satisfaction of achieving a goal. I doubt that my book will actually be "done" at 50,000 words, which is like 110 pages, but I'll have a good amount to revise and edit in subsequent drafts.

3,849 words left, and I have all morning and evening tomorrow (Saturday) but very little time Sunday with church, Logos, and school planning. Plus, if I finish tomorrow, then I should be able to have Keith figure out a way to get my laptop online Sunday.

3,849 words. That's it. I think I can; I think I can!

With Advent Appoaching.....

... here is an excellent article on the Advent season, written by Michael Spencer, known as The Internet Monk in the blogosphere. Advent tells us one important fact that we cannot, must not forget: we need a Saviour. You may read it by clicking here.

Advent is my second-favorite season in the Church Year, behind Lent of course. Both seasons remind me of my own sin and my need for Jesus on a minute-by-minute basis. And both require a time of penitence, a time set apart for prayer and thanksgiving to Jesus Christ.

Advent begins this Sunday. I pray that we all prepare our hearts for the patient waiting that is Advent, waiting for the Light of the World to dispel the darkness of sin. I'll write more about Advent on Sunday. I already have my Advent candles ready for our family devotions, and at Lake Murray we'll be setting up the beautiful Advent wreath built by Keith several years ago and I'll also contact families to light the candle(s) and read Scripture at each service.

I can't wait for our own family devotions of reading Scripture by candlelight, singing carols, and praying together around our own Advent wreath. I love Advent -- and I'm so glad that Pastor Rollo started the tradition of celebrating Advent at Lake Murray. It's a blessed, blessed time to worship together as a church family as well.

NaNoWriMo!

Okay, we're in the final days of the National Novel Writing Month -- it all ends at midnight on Sunday, November 30. I've written just over 41,000 words, so I have 9,000 more words to go over these last three days. Fortunately, I got some new ideas last night that I hope will carry me through these last few thousand words, most of which I need to write today.

Tomorrow (Saturday) E and I will help decorate Lake Murray for Advent and Christmas, starting at 2:00, so I'll have the morning and evening to write. On Sunday after church our Logos group will be meeting for lunch and discussion of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, and the kids also want to decorate for Christmas. Plus I have school planning to do. So with little to do today, I'd love to get 5-6K into my laptop before bed tonight.

And after NaNoWri Mo, I want to start going some genealogy work. This past week I attended a genealogy workshop at our local library, led by a resident of our town who is also a member of the San Diego Genealogy Society. I discovered that our library has the research site ancestry.com available for free, and in just a few moments I located my great-grandfather's World War I draft registration card in his own handwriting, plus his family information in the 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 census, including where his parents were born (Germany) and where my great-grandmother's parents were born (MIssouri), and where my great-grandfather was born (Kansas -- I thought *he* was the one from Germany). In the 1900 census I found out that his household had two older siblings ages 18 and 16, and he was five while a younger sibling was 1. No mother was listed, and with the age spread between the groups of siblings, my guess is that my great-grandfather was the product of a second marriage, and that his mother may have died in childbirth with his younger sibling. I need to take better notes when I go next time and perhaps have my dad invest in a genealogy program where I can enter all this information. It's really cool, and I can't wait to do more research, even though I will have to do it all from the library. So we'll see what I can find out about my family over the next few months. Ken, our genealogy guru, is willing to meet with our group again just before the next writing workshop. I'm really excited. Research is my life, you know. :)

So I'd better stop procrastinating here and get to writing my novel. I always dread getting started, but once I sit down, I don't want to get up. Only 9,000 more words to go -- I can do it! (Right?)

Have a blessed weekend, everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;make music to our God upon the harp." -- Psalm 147:7

I wish you all a wonderful day of Thanksgiving with your families. May God's love abundantly bless you this day as we thank Him for His bountiful graciousness, everlasting mercy, and, most of all, for His gift of eternal life through His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We will be spending the day in Ramona where Keith's brother, sister-in-law, and their five children live next door to Keith's dad. Keith's older sister, Karen, will be joining us, but none of her grown kids will be this year as Connie is in India on a photography trip with Brook's Institute where she is a student. Scott, Beth, and their kids just moved to Georgia where Scott is becoming active duty in the military again, and we just received the wonderful news that they're expecting child #4! And Steven is in the military, currently stationed in Hawaii after a recent deployment in Baghdad. And Keith's younger sister, Karla, her husband, and their three girls who all live in Arizona may come out in a couple of weeks for a visit, halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So it will be a rather small gathering compared to other years. My parents are in Montana, spending Thanksgiving with my sister Tracey's family, and my brother Tom spent time with his kids today as it's little Tommy's birthday today. So with Keith's family today there will be only fifteen of us, most of them (like nine!) kids. We're taking along our favorite game, Apples to Apples and Keith made two gorgeous pumpkin pies as well as an apple and an apple-blueberry. He's definitely the Pastry King of both sides of the family. He'll be making another apple pie this weekend for his dad's 77th birthday on Sunday.

So, Happy Thanksgiving! God's blessings to you, dear friends and family!

Dancing with the Stars: The Finale!

Yes, Brooke and Derek, the leaders of this seventh season of Dancing with the Stars indeed walked away last night with the gaudy mirror-ball trophy. E and I were quite, quite disappointed that Warren and Kym came in second as their technique is extremely weak and we felt that Lance and Lacey really deserved at least second place as Lance is definitely the most improved dancer in the finals.

But Brooke and Derek started out strong from week one and they came in first 80% of the time throughout the entire competition. Really, they only had two weak dances out of the whole thing, one of them in the semi-finals. But their freestyle was agreed to be one of the best freestyle dances in the history of the program as they danced to Grease's "You're the One that I Want." Brilliant.

Last night, each of the three final couples danced their favorite dance from the competition: Warren and Kym danced their hustle, Lance and Lacey their jitterbug, and Brooke and Derek their Viennese Waltz. Of course, their dances followed dances by the majority of the eliminated dancers, with Misty and Toni unable to dance because of recent surgeries. It was a fun evening, full of great dancing and great music by both Alicia Keyes and Miley Cyrus (whose dad was on the show a few seasons back).

So now Brooke joins the past winners of Dancing with the Stars: Kelly Monaco, Drew Lachey, Emmett Smith, Apollo Anton Ohno, Helio Castronedes (spelling?), and Kristi Yamaguchi. And now Derek Hough gets to join his sister Julianne (who won twice with Apollo and Helio) and his best friend Mark Ballas (who won with Kristi) -- the only other professional dancers to win are Cheryl Burke (twice with Drew and Emmett) and Alec Mazo (with Kelly). So congratulations to Derek as well -- he's a wonderful teacher and a great dancer.

So congratulations to Brooke and Derek -- they earned their win last night on Dancing of the Stars! With Brooke's win this season, and Kristi Yamaguchi's last season, the ratio of female winners to male winners is catching up: three women winners to four men. Go, ladies! Let's see if we can tie it up next season!

The Lovely Bones

I finished Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones last night, and it is indeed a strange and haunting novel. Sebold's writing is harsh at times and infinitely gentle at others. Her idea of heaven is strange and Godless and perhaps very comforting to non-Christians who would desire to maintain connections with their loved ones still on earth.

Here's a quick summary: 14 year old Susie Salmon was raped and killed by a neighbor at the beginning of the story, and we see the shock waves of her disappearance affect her family: her father (who has strong suspicions at to the identity of Susie's murderer, and he is right on the money although no one believes him or can find proof until quite some time later), her mother (who ends up having an affair with the detective on the case then runs away to California for years), her younger sister and very young brother, her grandmother who comes to live with them when her daughter leaves her family, as well as her school friends, her neighbors, and, most intriguing of all, her killer. Susie observes all that we see from different levels of heaven, and she, as our first-person narrator, even comes to see into the minds and hearts of those she loved as well as her murderer. It's a fascinating look into life in the 1970's and how grief affects people differently, including Susie's own grief at her life being cut so violently short.

I didn't much care for the scene in which Susie enters Ruth's body and Ruth goes to heaven while Susie and Ray make love. That was simply too weird and too blatant for me. But the look into the 1970's cookie-cutter suburbia was fascinating -- how dysfunctional families attempt to function, how grief both tears people apart and brings them together. I thought that Sebold's examination of the minutiae of life was intriguing and was the strength of the novel. Her writing is evocative, pungent, yet gentle and patient at times. She has deep insight into grief and how different people respond to the death of a loved one.

Sebold draws characters with realism and sensitivity. Ruth, a girl who did not know Susie well, seems to have perhaps the closest connection to Susie after her death. Ruth is sensitive and intriguing, a loner who is a deep thinker and a highly intelligent young girl and woman. I like the character of Ray as well, the boy who kissed Susie a few days before her death and who bonded with Ruth after Susie's death. But Lindsey, Susie's younger sister, ends up becoming the strongest character. She does not become angry like her younger brother, or broken like her parents. She triumphs somehow, using her grief to both unearth Susie's killer and later to become a psychiatrist so that she could continue to help people through grief. She marries her high school sweetheart who is indeed an upstanding young man and ends up stronger, more sensitive, more intuitive, as a result of losing her sister. I couldn't help both being angry with and totally understanding the actions of Susie's mother and feeling great sympathy for Susie's father who nearly went insane with his grief yet who rightly knew the identity of Susie's killer long before the police had any evidence. The characters are quite real and are drawn with such a delicate hand that we can't help liking them even if we don't like or approve of their actions.

Even Susie's killer is written to be somewhat sympathetic. While he commits horrible crimes as a serial killer, we learn just enough about him to not see him as an absolute monster. It's interesting, intriguing. Only the finest of writers can create that balance of horror and empathy. Sebold truly is a master, even if she didn't publish her first book until age 39 -- something I sympathize with as I'm working on my first novel at age 42.

I was quite surprised by how much I liked this book and how, once I started it, I couldn't put it down. Usually I'm finishing up the books for our Logos discussions, our monthly literary group at church, the night before we meet, but I finished The Lovely Bones with nearly a week to spare. I can't usually handle violence toward children, but somehow this book wasn't just about Susie's rape and murder -- it was about so much more, and it all intrigued me. So I do wholeheartedly recommend it and do agree with many of the reviewers who believe that The Lovely Bones will become a classic along the lines of Beloved and To Kill a Mockingbird. We will indeed have an interesting discussion on Sunday afternoon....

NaNoWriMo Update

I've just reached 35,000 words tonight -- I have 4,000 words to go to catch up tonight. According to my own schedule, I should be at 39,000 words tonight, so I have a ways to go.

But after hitting a slow spot, I'm finally getting on a roll again. I wish I could transfer some stuff in from online -- history on the Anglican Church, etc., but I'm using my old (1989) Encyclopedia Brittanica in order to fill in the gaps. It's an interesting way to approach my non-fiction research, but again I'm trying not to self-edit, evaluate, or critique any part of the novel so far -- I just need to write 50,000 words by November 30. 15,000 words in six days. I really hope I can at least do that -- finishing is the only criteria of success for NaNoWriMo. Not quality. Not if it "works." Not if it's good. Just that it has 50,000 words.

The kids and I are taking the entire week off of school, so I should have plenty of time to get it finished. I also have the end of a Brave Writer discussion to finish this week also. And I have a few things I'd like to do around the house, like clean out my closet, the linen closet, etc. But getting those 50,000 words completed is my main deal.

35,000 words. I'm 70% done. And I've never written a novel before -- never even started one. Just finishing will be a triumph. I hope I can indeed do it.

PS I reached 38,000 words tonight after all. Cool!

Dancing with the Stars Finale

So it's been a very exciting season of my and E's favorite dancing show, Dancing with the Stars. Early on we were big fans of Misty May Treanor whom we watched win the gold medal for beach volleyball in the Olympics last August. But Misty was out early with an injury. We were ever so grateful to see 82-year-old Cloris Leachman leave ... it just should have happened perhaps five weeks earlier than it did. We were glad to see Susan Lucci leave -- she tried too hard, although we felt quite bad for poor Tony who always gets stuck with the older women like Jane Seymour, Liza Gibbons, etc. It was definitely time for Maurice to go before the semi-finals, and Cody was a bit young and green, so it was time for him to go before the finals.

But really the finals are between two couples: Brooke & Derek and Lance & Lacey. Brooke has the most natural talent, but Lance has grown the most as a dancer, and he was downright incredible in the semi-finals this week. His and Lacey's mambo was stunning, and their jitterbug was nearly as good even though it was scored higher by a point. But their mambo was a work of art, truly. I've never been into NSYNC, but Lance has earned my respect as a dancer who is willing to work very hard and take some hard knocks along the way. And I remember Brooke from her Rock Star: INXS gig a couple of years ago, but I haven't seen her do much else. Brooke choked on her first dance, a jive, and redeemed herself somewhat with her samba, but Lance has truly transformed, and I find myself rooting for him to win. We've voted for both of them throughout the weeks, but we watched Lacey on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance so she's quite a favorite for us even if this is her first season on DWTS.

Don't miss the Final Dances on Monday night on ABC and the Final Result Show on Tuesday. We'll be fine as long as Warren doesn't win -- he's a ton of fun (quite literally) but his content and technique simply isn't in the same league as Brooke and Lance. So we're okay if Brooke wins, but I think that, underneath our "girl power" thing, we're both kinda hoping Lance wins. He's earned it.