Pass It On
Great thoughts to ponder as we prepare...
Clavis David – Key
Posted: Dec 20, 2013 01:00 am
You need not be afraid any more, the fearless one says. The one who is forever unbound, the unbounded one, the one who is our unbinding, comes even now to transform lives riddled with fear into lives of joy. To unbind the winding cloths of fear and to restore us to the path of life.
About Clavis David -
Today’s O antiphon links beautifully with the gospel of the day, Luke’s account of the Annunciation. Both remind us of the freedom we have been given in Christ. Yet how many of us think of ourselves as being really free? We are bound by our history, our genetic make-up, the choices we have made through life, the circumstances in which we find ourselves. These can be both limitation and opportunity, but being human, we tend to concentrate on the limitations rather than the possibilities. The sad fact is, we are often quite happy in our bondage: if we are not free, we are not responsible. We can be moral Peter Pans all our lives.
Or can we? It may not be so much a case of being Peter Pan as a prisoner. The key image in the antiphon is a powerful one. To be locked into a room, even accidentally, can be an unnerving experience. To know that one’s release is entirely dependent on another challenges all one’s belief in one’s ability to impose one’s own will. We are reduced to waiting and hoping that the key-holder will let us out.
Two thousand years ago a young Jewish girl held the fate of all of us in her hands. Would she consent to be the Mother of God, to accept the Key of David who alone could set us free? That she did is the cause of all our joy this coming Christmas. Our liberation is close at hand.
Excerpt from blog entry on iBenedictines.org
The World seen from the Cloister . . .
This is a blog written by Benedictine nuns from Holy Trinity Monastery, formerly of East Hendred, now at Howton Grove Priory, U.K. We prefer to call ourselves cloistered rather than enclosed because the word ‘enclosed’ may suggest a closed mind. We have a special interest in using contemporary technology to reach out to people who would never otherwise come to the monastery.
The Nativity Story with Eucharist
Posted: Dec 20, 2013 01:00 am
The children have been making stars to hang upon the tree,
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits,without partiality and without hypocrisy.
It is time for our visit to Shore acres Nursing faciltity and this time we'll bring Christmas Cheer to those who may be away from loved ones for the Christmas Season. The children have baked christmas cookies and they look (and taste) great! 
Childbirth, at least at one time, was both a life giving, and life threatening event, and the birth for which we wait is no different. It will both give us life and threaten the life that we have come to know, for by it we experience both our beginning and our end. We see in it both manger and cross. We know from it both salvation and judgment.
Time to take a deep breath. Thanksgiving Holiday is over and somehow we jumped right into the First Week of Advent. For those of us who have been away this is a bit of a shock even though we knew it was coming! Time to focus, truly FOCUS.
Advent & Christmas, Waiting in Joyful Hope - Silent Saturdays, 7:00 a.m. Each Saturday in Advent beginning Saturday, December 7th, we will come together early in the morning before the rest of your day begins to reflect on the readings of the week and participate in centering prayer. This year we will follow a daily reflections devotional that can also be used throughout the week. This is a practice that was established last year during Advent and we look forward to our second year. Questions? contact Dee McMahon.
Swinging with the Savior - This Sunday, December 8th Harmony will be joined by the Helios Swingtet for contemporary worship and an amazing Big Band sound. Traditional carols with original arrangements courtesy of our own Jay Shull.Join us for a wonderful morning of worship,fellowship, and joy.
