Advent 2 – 7 Dec 2024
Vicar’s Message
As the second week of Advent nears, I would like to share with you a poem by Luci Shaw, who died on Monday. She was a poet, editor and essayist, long-time friend of Madeline L’Engle and poet in residence at Regent College, who was writing and publishing into her nineties. Her poem reminds us, as the season of Advent does, to pay attention and to wonder.
MIDNIGHT.
The brilliant disc of a full moon
dodges the sharp edge
of a shifting cloud, stoops,
slides a finger through
the glass skylight,
Hard as ice, silted with frost.Reaches into my room.No feathers. No sudden fright.
I am not Mary, but this is
a visitation.In the bedroom, under
the sheet, I lie, printed with
the fresh promise of light.
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.
Verse 2, People Look East, Common Praise #91
We continue our advent practice of getting to know plant neigbhours in our watershed. The large red berries in our wreath are rose hips or rose fruit from the Nootka Rose, a thorny bush with bright pink, five-petaled flowers. Named for the Nuu-Chah-Nulth people of Vancouver Island, the Nootka Rose is found along the coast from southern Alaska to northern California.
When many other foods are unavailable, the bright red hips remain on the bush and provide food for many birds and mammals, including humans. Some people even call roses deer candy.
Salal + Cedar community collect rose hips in winter to use in preparing the Oil of Chrism used in baptism. Listen to the word qá:lq, Halq’eméylem for rose here or here.