Welcome to Worship on the Advent Sunday of Love. May the service be a blessing to you!

Please also enjoy these musical selections:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, may you know that God loves you dearly!

Tomorrow is the Advent Sunday of Love, and I share with you these resources to help you prepare for worship. Let’s begin with this lovely version of Candelight Carol by Fountainview Academy:

The folks at illustratedministry.com have started sharing some free worship resources, so I invite you to take a moment to print and colour this page, which invites you to imagine what God calls you (you could interpret this a couple of ways – what does God call you to do, or what endearments and names would God call you…”Beloved” is a great place to start!)

This lovely prayer for Advent:

This lovely version of “O Come let us adore Him” by Hillsong:

And finally, this scriptural word on joy:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, may the Holy One be your source of joy!

Everything is different this year, but some things are the same. For the past three years, the Ministerial in my part of the world has put together an Ecumenical service of Carols and Lessons. Of course, this year we had to approach this service differently. However, I was heartened that the ministers and churches in that group wanted to contribute to a virtual Ecumenical service for Advent.

So today, I present that service to you – may it bring you comfort and joy. Many hands made this project possible, and I’m deeply grateful to all those ‘behind the scenes’ who contributed!

Until tomorrow, dear friends, be blessed!

My new musical obsession, For King & Country, did a live YouTube event on Tuesday. It was beautiful, amazing, worshipful. So I wanted to share it with you. Here we go:

I hope you enjoy this music of the season!

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep singing of His love!

(Because, really, as hard as it has been – you are doing AMAZING. Amazing right now means getting through the days, doing what needs to be done, letting go of things that don’t need to be done, and figuring out new ways to connect and grow. …Amazing doesn’t mean that you have to be doing all those things, surviving and being kind to yourself is more than enough!)

In the last few days, I’ve been having several conversations with people about how they are feeling about Christmas in this pandemic year. These conversations tend to go one of two ways: either the person I’m talking to feels absolutely no Christmas spirit and just wants the year to be over. Or, the person I’m talking to has found ways to enjoy simple things – christmas movies, zooming with friends, going for long walks, listening to the music of the season.

Today, I woke up to a light skiff of snow over the ground. When I took my dog out to do her business this morning, I saw that the kids who wait for their school bus in the little park across from my building had written their names in the snow:

It absolutely delighted me. Such a simple thing, but kids writing their names in the snow made me think of childhood and that wonderment that fresh snow brought. I love that the names are reflective of my city – some are anglicized names, but some are clearly other ethnicities. I love that I live in a city where people come from all over the world. I love that some of them wrote in all-caps and others in a mixture of capitals and lower case letters.

This year, simple joys are more crucial than ever. They may just be the thing that brings you into the Christmas Spirit. So I encourage you to find your own simple joys: a cup of peppermint hot chocolate, a conversation with a friend, a cuddle with your pets, a good song that you can crank up and sing along with.

Joys don’t have to be elaborate. Simple joys are still joys, still powerful, still meaningful. Still reflective of the heart of God.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, be full of joy in the Lord!

Snort!:

Hee hee…:

This one made me giggle:

Distracted driving endangers everyone!:

Well, dogs are getting their revenge, aren’t they?:

Seriously though, I was terrified for a minute there:

Anyone else feeling this way these days:

Truth!:

Every Christmas needs a little Linus quoting the Gospel According to Luke:

He just looks so proud of himself, though!:

And finally, this blessings for your day….Jesus said:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep on laughing and thinking and drawing closer to God!

This Sunday we celebrate the Advent Sunday of Joy, with this pre-recorded service:

And for a little extra cheer, here are some musical selections for you to enjoy:

This is my favourite version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Barenaked Ladies with Sarah Mclachlan):

Until tomorrow, dear friends, may you cling to the good news of great joy for all the people!

Time to gather some resources to get us into the spirit for the Advent Sunday of Joy tomorrow!

Let’s begin with this sweet, lovely variation on I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (thanks Eric Medhurst for sending it to me!):

This lovely little Advent prayer:

I’ve long been a fan of Carrie Underwood, and while this isn’t specifically a Christmas carol, it’s hard to imagine another song that speaks so powerfully of joy:

A couple of thoughts on joy:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, may you experience the joy of the coming of the Christ!

I promised a while back that I’d share some more traditional carols on the blog. So that’s what up today!

Let’s begin with this amazing version of The Carol of the Bells by the Piano Guys:

And how about this version of O Holy Night by the Houston Chamber Choir:

Or this mashup of The First Noel and Mary Mary by Sarah McLachlan (no visuals here, but her voice is so wonderful, I invite you to just close your eyes and enjoy!):

And finally, this joyful version of Joy To the World by Celtic Women:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, I hope this music is a blessing to you and reminds you of the reason for the Seaosn!