A very nearly…
Happy Christmas.
This last week of Advent can often feel a little odd, a little silly. This year especially so given where Christmas Day falls.
We get nearly a whole week of children off school and crazy Christmas shopping and online ordering. People dashing too and fro and on top of all of this the underlying doom of what COVID may deliver next.
It’s not exactly the state of peaceful calm and expectation that we’re encouraged to discover before Christ is born in us is it?
It takes an act of will to set aside the world and to look inward to the coming of Jesus. I say look inward because that is what is going to happen – if you allow it – on Christmas morning.
Jesus will once again be born in you. In your heart and in your mind. He once again has an opportunity to come to you afresh.
I was reading some of Evelyn Underhill’s Prayer Book this week and discovered this absolutely gem of a prayer that I think very simply brings us to the right place this week:
“Grant, oh lord, that the birth of Christ in us may be such that Christ’s very spirit may come and take possession of our souls, all our faculties and powers, and be wholly united with us forever – not fleetingly, but abidingly and with a settled peace (in like manner as the soul reposes in the body). Thus let us come to Bethlehem and ask the child Jesus to make His abode in us forever more.”
Luis de Leon
I shall be praying this each day this week as we draw closer to the birth of Jesus in each one of us (again) on Saturday.
Fr. Matthew
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Other news
The new giving envelopes are now ready for collection, they’ll be available at the back of church on Sunday for all those who have registered. Thank you so much for your continued giving.
Don’t forget we’re singing for the Christmas shoppers this Saturday between 1pm & 3pm. We’re also going to offer a small bric-a-brac stall and offer mince pies and leaflets for our Christmas services – do pop along and join in even if it’s only for a short time.
Don’t forget to book a time to make your Advent confession. Fr. Matthew hears confessions after Evening Prayer on Tuesdays or by appointment.