Final lighting of the Advent Candles

Advent Candles - Christmas Morning

Christmas has come and the celebrations are over. I share with you two pictures. The first is the final lighting of the Advent Candles - all five are now lit, the Christ Child has arrived. Worship this Christmas Eve was wonderful and powerful. Our 4pm family service at the Cathedral was filled with so many children and a wonder sharing of the Christmas story. And for the first time in my life I got to be a sheep - so much fun! (Getting to be a sheep with my two year old friend from church just made the evening that much more magical!) The 11pm candlelight service was also wonderful, different feeling then the 4pm with a powerful message. I like both the services and very much like being within the Cathedral community on this special night of celebration.

Christmas Morning picture

I spent time with the family between services and then after the 11pm service. And of course I got the late night shift with Taylor and Rhys who decided that not sleeping was a very good idea. I think we finally fell asleep around 3:30am. And then at 6:30am all the alarm clocks went off... thank you Taylor! We spent the morning together with mom and then went home to spend the rest of the day with dad. It was a good day with good company and good food.

We missed Deana this year. This was our first Christmas where one of us kids was not present. Deana was in Edmonton with her boyfriend and his family. We look forward to seeing her in the spring. So, this second picture is of us kids together on Christmas morning... yes, we had another brown Christmas.

Christmas Day Thankfulness

The long awaited for Christmas Day is coming to an end. My eyes are asking, "when is bed time?". My mind is asking, "how much longer can the kids who stayed up until 3:45am and woke up at 6:30am stay awake? When will the adrenaline from the excitement die down?" It's the beauty of having brothers and sisters who are still 8, 10 and 12 years old. The excitement is so present. 

As they sit playing a game and try to figure out new pieces of technology and I've opened every near impossible plastic case and read every set of instructions they still sit engaged and excited. And I sit here enjoying a pause in the evening and enjoy a cup of tea. Dad and Wesley are sleeping (I took my nap this afternoon!), Sara has gone to spend time with her boyfriend in Kamloops, Stewart is working and Deana wasn't home this year but is with her boyfriend and his family in Edmonton. 

We've enjoyed a Christmas feast and I even managed to shepherded the kids into helping clean up dinner and Christmas Day craziness. I've still got the talent!

After a very long December I've been thinking of what I am thankful for. Here is a start:

- My loving family. We're spread out and things are a bit different these days but they are all still beyond amazing! 

- Christmas Eve worship. The celebration of Jesus' birth with good friends and amazing worship leadership. It's an extension of my family, it's the community where I feel safe. 

- My role as a sheep in the Cathedral Nativity Play, my two year old "buddy"who gets so excited when she sees me... it makes my day every time I see her! We were sheep together!

- Aaron narrating for me the game he is playing on his DS

- Taylor and Rhys sitting on the couch together, helping one another figure out the unknowns of an itouch

- Sara's willingness to stay around and help with the clean-up before taking off

- The many phone conversations with Deana, distance may separate us but we talk oh-so-much!

- The love Stewart has for his brothers and sisters... he can't hide it!

- Wesley's humor, hardworking and caring self. 

Obviously there is lots more that I am thankful for on this Christmas Day. Maybe it is a good idea for us all to take some time to remember all the things we are blessed with. 

Merry Christmas my friends. May God bless you this day and all the days to come.

Advent Week 4

Advent Candles Week 4

Today all I share with you is this truly amazing and powerful poem. This is one of my favorite Sunday's of the year - I love Mary! What an amazing decision Mary made to say "yes" to God. Dean Louise preached at church this morning reminding us: If we dismiss the story of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26) as inconceivable, it will be: and then we risk the loss of God being conceived in us. Powerful words. It's been a day of powerful words.

Before Jesus 

was his mother. 

Before supper

in the upper room,

breakfast in the barn. 

Before the Passover Feast,

a feeding trough.

And here, the altar

of Earth, fair linens

of hay and seed. 

Before his cry,

her cry. 

Before his sweat 

of blood,

her bleeding 

and tears.

Before his offering,

hers.

Before the breaking

of bread and death, 

the breaking of her

body in birth. 

Before the offering

of the cup, 

the offering of her 

breast.

Before his blood,

her blood.

And by her body and blood

alone, his body and blood

and whole human being. 

The wise ones knelt

to hear the woman's word

in wonder. 

Holding up her sacred child,

her God in the form of a babe,

she said: "receive and let

your hearts be healed

and your lives be filled

with love, for

This is my body, 

This is my blood."

- Alla Renee Bozarth

from: Life Prayers from Around the World

Advent Week 3

Advent Week 3: Joy

As you can see Advent week 3 has come and gone. I spent the early part of the week writing my last exam of the semester and then piled into preparing for youth group and our young adults gatherings and did a lot of sleeping, baking and reading. Reading books that have nothing to do with school work of course!!

I had an amazing lunch with the staff from the Cathedral at the end of the week, a lunch filled with much laughter and storytelling. Saturday Taylor, Jenny and Samuel came over and we made Sugar Cookies together. That evening I went to the Holy Table Holy Word service at the Cathedral - it was a service of meditation, silence and the lovely music of the harp and singing bowls. It was amazing! Overall it was an amazing week, and I finished a good book!

Advent Week Two: Peace

Advent Wreath Week Two

"The God of peace grant us a quiet night and a perfect end. Amen."


I sat here in my living room Sunday night late into the evening on a lovely eve of Advent Week two. I was filled with peace and a sense of calmness. I wrote in my journal and I just sat in the glow of the many lit candles and the decorated tree. I stared into the dark and into the light, back and forth, back and forth. 


I love the night. I love the solitude and the silence. I love that time seems to slow down and I feel like I have time to breath and am at peace at the very last. The night is my down time, it is the time when I reflect on the day and all that I have learned and been part of. 


Tonight I sit here thinking how amazing it is that a group of young people this (Monday) evening at Youth Group made 56 handmade Christmas Cards for our friends at the Kamloops Seniors Village. How amazing is that? For two hours we worked on this project and there was a deep calmness within the group and within the space. God was there with us.


I am waiting, not so patiently, to light all the candles in the Advent Wreath. Advent is about expectant waiting and yet I so much want to be able to light all five candles. As I wait this Advent season I will be practicing patience - all good things will come and the celebration will be beautiful!


As I prepare for bed I remember a line from our Evening Prayer Service: 

"Preserve us, O God, waking, 

and guard us sleeping; 

that awake we may watch with Christ, 

and asleep we may rest in peace." 

*Quotes from Eucharistic Prayers, Services of the Word and Night Prayers: Supplementary to the Book of Alternative Services. ABC Publishing. Online here page 46.

Advent Week One: Hope

Advent Candles - Week One

The season of Advent is here and for that I am grateful. In the church the season of Advent is the four weeks before Christmas, before we celebrate the birth of Jesus. And in this season we get to wait. We are given permission to take a big breathe, sit and wait. To slow down and live in the in-between place. The place where we don't rush around with the rest of the society. The place where we don't get ahead of ourselves in celebration. 

We are filled with expectant waiting, like Mary waited for the birth of her babe. And hopeful anticipation because we know the celebration time will come.

For me Advent falls at the time when my academic schedule slows down. I take the time to rest, to relax, to pray, to be present with God. And I hold on to this time of waiting, this time when I don't have to get lost of the busyness of every day. 

A good friend of mine posted on Facebook that her Advent Mantra is going to be: "Slow is faster. Less is more." Wise words I think... I just might be borrowing them over these coming weeks. 

Take the time to slow down, to open you eyes, and listen to the Spirit's voice this Advent season. 

A Full Soul

The best feeling ever is having a full soul. I can't even describe the feeling in detail. I don't know if anyone can. How do you describe having a full soul? It's a good feeling. It's a full feeling. More peaceful. More calm. More focused. Happier. Ready for what's to come next. 

My soul is full. My soul is full because of community, worship, silence, friendship, laughter, scripture, song, and being fed with Holy food. I spent today with members of the Cathedral community for our Discernment Day. It was a good day, it was a full day, it was a fun day. Tonight I went to the Cathedral's "Holy Table, Holy Word" service. A service of meditation, chant, prayer, holy words and silence. As part of the service we had twenty solid minutes of blissful silence. It's been months since I've been fed in this way. It's been months since I've sat in silence. And hearing some of the words I share so often with the young people I work with (breath in love, breath out fear) was exactly what I needed. There's something different about hearing the words, about receiving them. Giving them to and sharing them with others is great and an honor but I was reminded tonight that I also need to receive them. 

And so this week I will breath in the love of God and breath out fear. I will breath in the love of God and breath out anxiety. I will breath in the love of God and breath out stress. I will breath in the love of God and breath out fear. This week I will strive to be present with God.

A full soul, it's a good thing. It will keep me going through the next week of classes. It will keep me nourished through my moments doubt, frustration, stress, exhaustion and panic. My soul is very full and it feels good.