Advent the beginning of the church year and a new chapter in the life of Church of the Incarnation.  The impending move to Canterbury is exciting and I look forward to worshipping and gathering in our new home.  Much of the holiday season is wrapped in preparation and anticipation.   In the secular world there are gifts to buy; parties to attend; trees to trim; decorations to set out adorning the yard and home; meals to prepare.  Not just Saint Nick but everyone is "making a list and checking it twice".  (Just look at their very full column to the left and you see all the activity in our midst as a congregation)

I would invite you in the Christmas rush to slow down... to contemplate for a moment what we are celebrating and anticipating; the joy of Almighty God clothing himself in humanity and redemption drawing near. 

J.I. Packer writes... The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity; hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory-because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross.

May this Advent be a time of preparing our hearts, fixing our thoughts and giving attention to Jesus in new and deeper ways, remembering why He came. 
in the mission,
JD+
Fr. Jon / Vicar

A link to a video from Sunday morning's  Study in Colossians
Louis Giglio

Collect for Advent 1
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for December 6th / Advent 2
Malachi 3:1-4
Canticle 16
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6

Some information on Advent (copied from Dean Rick Lobs
Interim Rector / Trinity Episcopal Church / Vero Beach, FL)
In Advent we begin a new liturgical year - telling once again the story of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Advent (ad-venio in Latin or "to come to") consists of the four Sundays before Christmas. The Advent season is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ's second coming at the end of time and history. It also celebrates the anniversary of the Lord's birth on Christmas.Advent liturgies are designed to reinforce the meaning of the season.
 
The Advent Wreath: The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent. Three candles are purple and one is rose.
The purple candles in particular symbolize the prayer, penance, and preparatory sacrifices and goods works undertaken at this time. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday.  Gaudete Sunday is the Sunday of rejoicing, because the faithful have arrived at the midpoint of Advent, when their preparation is now half over and they are close to Christmas. The progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord's first coming into the world and the anticipation of his second coming to judge the living and the dead.