We lift our hearts to God on high

by chuckofish

Now that the daylight fills the sky,
we lift our hearts to God on high,
that, he, in all we do or say,
would keep us free from harm this day:

Our hearts and lips may he restrain;
keep us from causing others pain,
that we may see and serve his son,
and grow in love for everyone.

From evil may he guard our eyes,
our ears from empty praise and lies;
from selfishness our hearts release,
that we may serve, and know his peace.

–John Mason Neale
#4 The Episcopal Hymnal 1982

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving.

It was just the three of us (the OM, daughter #1 and I), but it was a nice day spent leisurely getting ready for our dinner and listening to nostalgic show tunes on 50-year-old LPs. Who doesn’t like to sing along with John Raitt?

And now we have a lovely day off. We have a lot to do now, getting out all the Christmas decorations and preparing for the visit of daughter #2 avec petite famille in a few weeks. We also will celebrate the boy’s thirty-something birthday this weekend!

He hasn’t changed much over the years, certainly not in the way he perceives himself (see above self portrait). 😉

We love him dearly and he makes us proud every day.

Sunday is also the first Sunday of Advent–not that anyone is really paying much attention to such things these days. I plan to do what I did last advent, which, if you recall, was read one chapter of Luke each night starting on December 1. On Christmas Eve I will have read the entire account of Jesus’s life and been reminded who and why we celebrate.

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which thy 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 quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

BCP, Collect for first Sunday in Adent

Happy long weekend. Keep doing your best.