Adam at A Wee Blether reads a church bulletin and has a revelation:

“As the darkness deepens and winter comes, each week we light one more candle to speak of our hope for the coming light. Much has been made of the symbolism of the Advent wreath, each candle given a particular meaning. Actually, it is the action of lighting one more candle in the darkness that bears its deepest meaning.”

As Rick McCall, professor of liturgics at EDS, likes to ask, “Why did Christians start putting candles on the altar? So they could see.”

Why do we add more candles at Advent? Because it’s getting darker.

There should probably also be echoes of the Easter Vigil candlelighting, in slow motion.

All the other meanings assigned are mnemonics for what’s happening in the lectionary.

Miranda finished her seminary degree and is now finished with school for the foreseeable future (hooray!), and was ordained to the Holy Order of Deacons in June. We moved to our new home in Hopkinton, New Hampshire at the end of June, and Miranda started her new position as Assistant to the Rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Hopkinton, in July. At the same time, I quit my full time job to take a turn as stay-at-home parent.

Since then, we’ve all been exploring our new town, adjusting to our new roles, and finding our places in the community around us. There’s still a lot of that to do.

But now, here we are come to Advent. The first snow of the year is falling outside my window. Time to start again.

Happy New Year.