News - December 2023 RSS Feed

Merry Christmas! Just want to wish a warm welcome to all visitors and guests, there’s really no better place to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus (our Savior) than at the Church of the Nativity, so thanks for being here to worship Him.

Well here we are at the end of Advent already, the shortest Advent we can possibly have, and if you have been following along with the daily readings, you might recall that this is the 4th time we have heard this exact same Gospel, the story of the Annunciation. I heard that fact somewhere, but I didn’t believe it, so I went back and counted and it’s true, 4 times in 22 days.

Today is a natural favorite in the Advent Season - today we lit the rose candle which represents “Joy.” Our readings are full of joy, Isaiah says, “I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul;” Mary says, “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” and Paul tells us to “Rejoice always.”

This is the second week into the new year reading the Gospel of Mark, and now in week two we start at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. You might remember that I said with Matthew, a big theme was “invitation” - so a big theme with Mark is “immediately” - it is a much shorter gospel, the fluff is cut out, Jesus is coming back soon, so do this immediately!