Taking out the Trash
There's a nor'easter tonight. Rain. Mixed with snow. I have to take out the trash.
My neighbor already has hers out. A trash can. Recycling. And her bare Christmas tree.
No lights. No ornaments. No angel on the top.
She's not alone.
Earlier today, as I walked the dog, I saw several other households had abandoned trees at the curb.
I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to give up on the Christmas holidays even though it is Jan. 2nd.
I go for the whole twelve days of Christmas. My tree will be up through January 6th.
Some of the big moments have passed.
But I still look forward to a quiet personal devotion.
Before I move the three kings/magi from the far bookcase to the manager on top of the entertainment center, I will read again the three page "Visit to the Christmas Crib" in my copy of St. Augustine's Prayer Book.
Here are some of those prayers updated:
O Divine Redeemer Jesus Christ, here before your cradle, I affirm that you are God even though I see you here as a helpless baby.
Humbly I adore you and thank you that for my salvation you were willing to be born in a stable--
naked, poor, cold and vunerable.
I wish I could show you the tenderness of your blessed Mother Mary.
I wish I could love you as she loved you.
I wish I could praise you with the joy and song of the angels.
I wish I could kneel before you with the faith of Saint Joseph and the simplicity of the shepherds.
Uniting myself with these first worshippers at the manger, I offer you my heart and pray that you will be born in me.
Give me, I pray, the virtues of your blessed Nativity.
Fill me with that same spirit of renunciation, of poverty, and of humility which prompted you to assume the weakness of our nature, and to be born a helpless child dependent on the care of others.
Grant that from this day forward I may in all things seek your greater glory, and enjoy the peace promised to all those of good will.
Sweet Babe of Bethlehem,
I praise you, I bless you, I thank you and
I love you with all my heart.
I desire to worship and serve you.
And to be like you in all your holy and blessed ways.
We pray, O Father, that the holy joy of Christmas may fill our minds with thoughts of peace,
and our hearts with a sense of your great love: hasten the time when war is no more, so that we may live together and love one another as brothers and sisters of your Son, our Savior,
Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Sometimes I linger and read the words of Christmas carols as if they were poems not yet committed to memory.
The last verse of In the bleak mid-winter always catches me:
What can I give him,
poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb;
if I were a wise man,
I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him--
give my heart.
Ah, a break in the rain. Time to take the trash out.
Anon, Good Friends and
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
posted by Canon Lexa @ 12:04:00 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Yeah, I agree. The celebration continues for the full 12 Days of Christmas.
Part of it is because my birthday is on January 6th, you know, the day the Wise Men arrived (well, OK, maybe the day some Wise Guys arrived, too.)
But a part of the celebration for me is the Epiphany Party that the EpiscoPals host each year. It is a reminder that Jesus was born for all of us, all over the world. The Wise Men went out to spread the Word to the gentiles. And thankfully the Word has reached me all these years later.
MarkT
It seems to me that as anxious as the world seems to be to get to Christmas-decorations, wrappings and all up before Thanksgiving Day even gets here. It is equally as anxious to be done with it and have any evidence of it gone and cleared away before nightfall of Christmas Day is even passed. This past Monday (1/2/06) someone I work with was concerned about sending a greeting to a friend of theirs since "Christmas was last week." When I told them Christmas isn't over, the 12 days START with Christmas Day and end on Jan. 6 with Epiphany, they were very happy and decided to send the greeting they had planned to mail earlier. Our tree still decorates the living room, our candles light the windows and the Wise Men are still makng their way across the piano to the manger. I pray that as they travel they and others will spread the Word too. May the EpiscoPals share the Word in their own special way -- it always touches my soul in a special way each year.
What a good selection of prayers. I am blog-surfing and came across your blog.
Regarding the hangers-on for a longer Christmas season, waiting the longest time to take down the tree and decoration, there is an instant nostalgia to the end of Christmas. What is supposed to happen, and does despite the lingering Christmas light, is Epiphany when one considers the meaning that the Christmas season brought. That's where I am now.
I'm reading a book, "On Christian Theology," by Rowan Williams and finding nuggets of interesting things in it that he has to say about living the life in Christ. Here is the kind of thing he writes. In one section he writes of the imperatives of living that life and says, "...they show God's glory and invite or attract human beings to 'give glory' to God--that is, to reflect back to God what God is..."
I just wanted to share a nugget i discovered after reading the nuggets that are the prayers you posted.
Peter
P.S. I have a new blog:
http://journals.aol.com/novatopete/Poemsandreflectionsspiritualreli/
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