Anticipation - Rector's Rambling for December 18, 2016

One week!  Can you feel the excitement?  The anticipation?  Yet the 4th Sunday of Advent cannot get further away from Christmas Eve and Day as it does this year!  We have a full week before the Christmas celebration begins.  Next year the 4th Sunday of Advent is a Sunday morning and then Christmas Eve is that same evening!  I am guessing we will do our pre-greening a bit earlier next year.

This week we have a great opportunity to finish our last spiritual preparations for the coming Feast of the Nativity, as well as Jesus’ return (it could happen beforehand).  If you would like to make a private confession this week, please call the office to make an appointment, or plan on being at a weekday Mass and we can do so before or after Mass.

The other thing we can do with this long week between Advent and Christmas is to spend time inviting people to join us for worship at St. John’s this weekend.  Christmas is a time when people are looking for a place to come to church.  Your invitation could be how God will reach the heart of someone searching!  Invite them to a Christmas service and even offer them a ride if they are unsure of driving downtown.  The fear of the unfamiliar can be overcome by your hospitality.  It is a great chance to introduce people to St. John’s and to have them join us for worship and fellowship in the Lord.

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Thank you to all who joined us yesterday in worship to thank God for the life of Liz Oates.  Every funeral in the parish is a loss for us, and we mourn because of the love we have for each other.  The absence of another person diminishes us in one way or another, and Liz’s long and very active ministries around the parish contributed to the wonderful spirit of this church that she called home all her life.  And, of course, we continue to love and support Greg, Holly, Wendy and Tom, and the grandchildren as they grieve.