Send an Advent Cards
Send a Christmas Cards
| Quote for the Day: O Rex Gentium: “O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.” Isaiah had prophesied, “For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.” (9:5), and “He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” (2:4) . O Antiphons - FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS |
Today was "clean" day in the chapel for me as I hope to bring out some of the first trimmings for Christmas tomorrow. So it was such exciting things as vacuuming and dusting. I would have taken a picture of that - but it was just too exciting to stop and go get a camera.
Early this morning before Mass I did sneak a quick snap of Sr. Rita Louise reading her advent meditation. One of our community Advent preparations (besides cleaning, cooking and trimming the halls with boughs of holly) was to have Advent sharing each day at our noon meal using the Advent reflections from these Advent booklets.
It's always surprising to see how many different ways the Spirit leads our meditations even though we all read the same thing. Sometimes they are similiar but most often they are quite unique and sharing them brings forth even more fruit!
Here is a picture of the Advent wreath which is in our chapel. It is not real big because our chapel is actually quite small... but it does bring forth a sense of growing anticipation as each week a new candle is lit.
 | In the Chapel everything gets a little dash of purple. I found these beautiful little candles holders several years ago and they are my great treasure for Advent and Lent. |  |
Tonight I am totally exhausted but I feel good because I made definite headway in getting the chapel ready for the big day. One thing I did was to take a whole hour of time and plan out for each day what I need to do in order not to be frazzled and hazzled (new word but seems to fit don't don't you think?) for Midnight Mass. It really, really helps - now instead of just feeling that I have a ton of stuff to do - I have it all split out.. and I don't have to worry except for what I need to do today. Isn't it just amazing how long it takes for some of us to get organized?
I feel I am really making progress in this and that is good. Maybe reading all these organizing books and listening to Susan Rowland's seminar and reading her book.. is actually paying off!
One thing I do to keep me motivated - is break everything up into 30 minute bites. Than after every 30 minutes I get to do ten minutes of something different that I want to do! This may sound silly but what I really wanted to do was to clean up my bedroom which seems to have adopted many stray objects lately. I didn't feel justified in taking time from Chapel cleaning to do "self" clean.. but this way... I get both things done and I feel energized. My goal (this will also sound rather silly) is that on Christmas day I can just take an hour and just "sit" on my bed and enjoy being quiet and peaceful all by myself. Maybe take a nap.
I love taking naps. I have found I can take a ten or twenty nap at my desk by resting my head on the squisy mouse pad (it has one of those gel arm rest things) and it makes a totally perfect pillow. I feel a bit like romper room - but it works for me!
Only three more days tills Christmas!
Blessings of Peace and Joy!
Sister Patricia
No comments:
Post a Comment