Happy New Year! Welcome to Advent and the beginning of a new church year! This is a four-week season of quiet, peace-filled, hopeful prayer and expectation-an oasis of hope-filled anticipation in the midst of the world’s Christmas frenzy. In worship, we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ at Christmas-the one who was, who is, and who is to come.
This year in our lectionary, the focus in our Gospel is Luke (with occasional insertions from John’s Gospel). The Gospel of St. Luke has 24 chapters-so I’m inviting you to join me in a special Advent devotion. If we begin Wednesday, December 1 and read one chapter a day, by Christmas Eve we will have read the entire Lukan Good News and greet the birth of Christ with renewed energy and joy as the one who was born in order that he might die on the cross to save us from our sins.
Please join us in the holy season of Advent on weekends and Wednesdays December 8, 15, and 22 at 4:30pm for prayer, worship, and song as we prepare our hearts and lives with John the Baptizer and the Blessed Virgin Mary to greet Emmanuel, God with us. A blessed Advent be yours!
With love in Christ, Pr. Jen Schaefer +