Back to the beginning...

This morning I celebrated a little ritual which it has been my pleasure to observe now for some 34 years. Today I moved the ribbons in the Sacramentary to the First Sunday of Advent and to the Advent prefaces. The ribbon for the Sunday collects brings us back to the front of the Sacramentary such that the left hand page does not easily lie flat but buckles up a bit against the right hand which holds a year's worth of pages of prayer yet to work through. A small task, I know, but one which reminds me that the Church is beginning a new year, another year of celebrating our life in Christ and the saving events and grace that bind us together as the Body of Christ. As the seasons of nature repeat and bring us back to spring each year, so do the seasons of worship cycle back to these Advent days.

Thirty-four ribbon rituals; thirty four Advent wreaths; thirty-four Christmases; thirty-four Lents, Holy Weeks, Triduums and Pentecosts: and thirty-four years of lots of Ordinary Time! Those thirty-four years have found me ministering in St. Ann Parish in Wollaston, MA; at Moreau Seminary and Morrissey Hall at the University of Notre Dame; at St. Ann Parish in Boston for Northeastern University and Emerson College; at St. Joseph Parish in Medway, MA and for the past 13 years at Our Lady Help of Christians Parish and now Holy Family Parish in Concord, MA.

I moved that ribbon in suburban parishes, in campus chapels and in a city parish. That ribbon- turning began when I wasn't altogether sure of where the ribbons were supposed to go and then through a few years of wondering if I should remain in the ribbon-turning priesthood. I changed the ribbon in years early-on when I found the Sacramentary as somewhat limiting and into the years when it became an old and trusted friend. I've actually worn out a Sacramentary or two and even before trading in for a new copy, the ribbons can and sometimes do need to be replaced.

I've turned that ribbon back to Advent in good times and in bad, in years of the Church's grace and years of its disgrace. Those ribbons and the book they mark have been with me for more than three decades and I thank God for the grace of all those years born of the prayers and rites the Sacramentary offers us. And now a new Year of Grace has begun and I found myself at 5:00 this afternoon witnessing the lighting of the first candle on our parish Advent wreath and then opening the book to where the ribbon led me and praying those beautiful words for the thirty-fourth time:

Father in heaven,
our hearts desire the warmth of your love
and our minds are searching
for the light of your Word.
Increase our longing for Christ our Savior
and give us the strength to grow in love,
that the dawn of his coming
may find us rejoicing in his presence
and welcoming the light of his truth.


A happy and blessed Advent to you all!