Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree....

Here is a new, LIVE Christmas tree.

Something different this year and this specimen is one that will grow with us. It is a native Australian plant, the Daintree Pine. It is a rare native from the World Heritage Forests of Far North Queensland.

They keep a beautiful, traditional Christmas tree shape without the need of pruning and it will thicken and grow as the years go by, giving it a beautiful vibrancy in the advent/christmas season as long as we look after it well enough the rest of the year round!

It might not be strong enough to hold electric lights this year but we intend to put our Jesse Tree images and hopefully other light decorations. After reading the Cobweb Christmas: The Tradition of Tinsel, we would like to find some light, tinsel-like decorations in gold or silver... I hope to get a nice pot for our Daintree and have the pot overbriming with pinecones for extra effect.

It will all be happening soon...

The Feast of the Miraculous Medal

Today is the feast of the Miraculous Medal. To those who are detovees to this special sacramental and the story behind it all, happy feast day!!

It was a timely reminder to finally get my Miraculous Medal locket and chain in for repairs AGAIN! It has been pulled and fingered by little chubby fingers for many years and even though the chain is strong, it is not strong enough for the facination of curious breastfeeders, namely my children!

In May this year the children and I made a Miraculous Medal Prayer Petition Mobile to hang all the intentions for which we pray daily, "Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Here are the three parts to the making of it:

Part One
Part Two
The finished project

The prayer attached to this devotion, "Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." is a beautiful, powerful prayer, calling upon the motherly intercession of Our Lady to her Divine Son.

I have been pondering the biblical roots of our intercessory prayers to her, of late. The typology for it is beautiful. Jesus is the Son of David, He reigns on the throne of David - a Davidic Kingdom. If I were to ask you, "who was the Queen in that Old Testament kingdom?" what would you say?

Here is an excellent article written by Edward Sri that explains her Queenship and her intercessory power, a must read!!

How Exciting!! Our New Nativity Lights!

No,we are not turning on the lights for good just yet, but we are doing a 'trial run'.

Dh got out his drill and screws and attached this beautiful nativity scene to our french doors and I have used clear, thick tape to hold some of the outside edges to the glass, in case of a bit of wind (or a tropical storm or two...)

We were so thrilled to purchase this scene as we like to have some modest display of lights outside that is fuss free and minimalistic enough to create a christ image that is not distracted by other fancy lighting.

We hope to have these lights on each night starting either on the feast of St Andrew or the first Sunday of Advent..

It is all getting very exciting!

Our New Advent Wreath!

All done! Our advent wreath will take pride of place on the dining room table, sitting on top of the lazy susan that was used for the template of the wreath board. The children are very excited and have had a lovely time working on this project with me.

We have the four advent candles and the Christ candle in the middle. The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent. A tradition is that each week represents one thousand years, to sum to the 4,000 years from Adam and Eve until the Birth of the Savior.

The circle of the wreath, which has no beginning or end, symbolizes the eternity of God, the immortality of the soul, and the everlasting life found in Christ.

Looking down into the centre of the wreath you can see two of the four boxes, one for each advent candle. I was thinking of placing the prayers for each week in the boxes....unless anyone has any other suggestions or ideas?

Here is a close up of the pinecones, a particularly beautiful decoration which didn't cost anything! Alternating the smaller pinecones sprayed gold with the medium sized pinecones. They were glued in place. I bought an extra thick glue that I have applied with a knife and any glue that could be seen underneath, once dried, we painted with the gold.

The pinecones are not just decorative, they have spirtual meaning - pine cones, nuts, or seedpods used to decorate the wreath also symbolize life and resurrection. Some of the ever green sprays we bought in either purple or pink, also have little gold pinecones.

Here is a close up of one of the advent candles - the Gaudete Sunday candle which is rose. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, when the priest also wears rose vestments at Mass; 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.

Around each candle I have used sprays that match the candle's colour and added a bow (with four bows - one for each Sunday in Advent, they are pinned to the gold foam ring) near the base of each candle.

The candles sit snuggly into the recessed cuts I made in the foam ring and so they sit firm enough without any other assistance but still easily removed when the candles will be replaced with new ones each Advent. The ribbon connected to the Christ candle sit under the advent candle and I've secured it with a pin.

Here is a better look at the stand the Christ candle sits upon - this base was originally brown, which we sprayed gold and we have glued the base in the middle of the board. Under the Christ candle there is a spike that each of the four ribbons have been skewed upon. We are yet to decorate the Christ candle and will do so later this week.

The light again signifies Christ, the Light of the world. Some modern day adaptions include a white candle placed in the middle of the wreath, which represents Christ and is lit on Christmas Eve. We will also use the Christ candle on the feast of The Immaculate Conception, when it will be covered by a beautiful, sheer blue cloth with white hollys on it.

Another close up of the pinecones...

The evergreen peeps out beautifully over the pinecones and have been glued to the gold foam ring. I chose where the end of the spray needed to be pushed into the foam and made the hole, the children took it in turns dipping the end of the spray into the thick glue and then pushing it down into the hole to set firm. There are two different designs of spray - one with a present, gold pinecone, bell, berries and different types of evergreen. The other design with a ball, pear and present with evergreen. Each design in the matching colour of the candle are placed on either side.

The symbolism of the Advent wreath is beautiful. The wreath is made of various evergreens, signifying continuous life. Even these evergreens have a traditional meaning which can be adapted to our faith: The laurel signifies victory over persecution and suffering; pine, holly, and yew, immortality; and cedar, strength and healing.

Holly also has a special Christian symbolism: The prickly leaves remind us of the crown of thorns, and one English legend tells of how the cross was made of holly.

Here are some close ups of the evergreen sprays, you can see the gold foam peeping through the sprays and pinecones, here and there.

Here are the two different designs in purple, side by side. The purple colour in particular symbolize the prayer, penance, and preparatory sacrifices and goods works undertaken at this time.

The final shot looking down at the wreath with the boxes taken out of the centre. Advent cannot come quick enough - we will enjoy lighting this wreath at each nightly dinner.

In family practice, the Advent wreath is most appropriately lit at dinner time after the blessing of the food. A traditional prayer service using the Advent wreath will take place, the prayer depending on the week we are in.

Since Advent is a time to stir-up our faith in the Lord, the wreath and its prayers provide us a way to augment this special preparation for Christmas. Moreover, this good tradition helps us to remain vigilant in our homes and not lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas.

**All the explainations of the wreath itself have come from: The History of the Advent Wreath by Father William Saunders. **

Preparing for Advent - The Making of the Advent Wreath

I have once again taken an extended bloggers break, I have just felt that my mind has been focused on the up-and-coming birth of our baby in January but I really wish to blog regularly, hopefully daily, throughout the Advent/Christmas Season in preparation for the most wonderful birth of all - Christ - the Light of the World.

Three years ago, my last baby was born in the Advent season - on the eve of The Immaculate Conception, then we had the baptism on Gaudete Sunday which was the beautiful feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe that year. It was the best year we ever had for Advent preparation and God willing, I feel this will be the same - I seem to be able to unify my focus and inner preparation for this precious new life, with all that this season holds.

I've just visited Helen's Immaculate Castle and been delighted over her new posting on her Advent preparation, giving links, outlining her Advent plan and giving many links to her own previous Advent posts and many other ladies who have brightened the season with their beautiful preparations, it is a must visit at this time.

This post of mine is focusing on the making of our Advent Wreath.

In previous years we have used a store-bought wreath but I feel greatly impelled to make a 'family heirloom wreath' - rich and opulant, giving great cheer to the heart and captivating the children's imagination during their preparation for the coming of "The Light of the World."

The children and I have spent the last few days collecting pine cones and visiting craft and hardware stores. Here in Australia, Spotlight has supplied most of our craft goodies and Bunnings has given us some of our hardward goods. A Catholic gift shop is where we bought our advent candles and so we are ready and eager to build!

Dh is kindly cutting the MDF board with the jigsaw. The lazy susan usually on our dining room table was the perfect template for the size of it.

Here it is - what a good job daddy has done!

Next the foam ring was cut in 4 places to fit the 50cm thick candles and then the board, foam and the small pinecones (I am using small and medium sized pinecones for the wreath.) and a candle holder (which was lying around the house unused) were all taken outside and sprayed with gold paint. When this had dried, the foam ring was glued to the board.

Here are the lovely, little pinecones, shining gold - such naturally perfect, advent images.

The next post should be the completed wreath!