What a joyful noise resounding from our little church on Sunday, November 18 when Julie Rhodes invited her Honors Choir to sing for us! The potluck that followed was noisy and abundant and delightful. We were blessed with lots of guests and they were made to feel welcome and honored by all of you. Without our hardworking-persevering Jeannene Hall, Theresa Hillman and Carol Farley chaos would have ensued. Special thanks to all who helped out and to Julie and to her fiancé Kevin who helped carpool the choir members. Thanks for giving us such a very special gift to mark the beginning of the holiday season.

The hectic holiday season is upon us and I’m going to continue to remind myself and all of you to slow down; take time for prayer and meditation, and rest. Enjoy the holidays!  Have fun but don’t let the glitter and glitz drown out the sacredness of the season. The season of Advent is when we await the coming of Love. The Candlelight service at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve is a very special time for our community. I hope you will come.

I would like to share this prayer written by Davidson Loehr because it speaks to the true meaning of the season.  This is my hope for myself and for all of you this holiday season.

Holidays are easy. But preparing for the possibility of a holy day is an achievement. It takes some work, and a lot of faith. The attitude that can make advent happen and build a manger in which something lovely might be born is like the image of a little green shoot growing up through a hard crusted path. New life is only possible if that unlikely little green shoot can appear, even in our lives.

Let us try again to believe in miracles.  Not the flashy kind of miracle, but the warm and poignant kind.

Let us try again to see others through the eyes of love that they may learn to see us that way too.

Let us believe that little green shoots of life can grow up through even our hardest crusts.

Let us believe, again, that trust and hope are still the only soil in which life can grow - for us, and for those in our world.  Some holy days are coming, if we can let them be born within and among us.

For something sacred wants to be born, and it needs a manger.

Let us become that manger. Let us believe again that holy things can still happen, that we can still find our hearts miraculously opened, and our eyes opened with them.

Here, now, within and among us, let us try again to believe in miracles.

Amen

In faith and love, Cathy