Canticles, charisma and chat (Religion thread number 2)

[BaroqueAroundTheClock]

the first one is nearly full.

Anyone welcome, it's basically a "what happened in church/spiritual life/anything else you want to chat about that's vaguely related (or not) to churchy stuff.

go on.........you know you want to

actually \link{\this one is even better}

Have to counter that 'Omazing Grace' one with a lovely cos it's lovely

That reminds me Baroque, Just fabulous :)

Amazing Grace, with or without Chris Tomlin, has me reaching (or should that be retching) for the Graham Kendrick antidote! :o

that's bloody brilliant!
how wonderful to be sitting over tea and that all start!

i didn't click on yours because i thought it was GK, B - i just did by mistake and found an Hallelujah, so phew

wow that's so cool

(yes it's an Hallelujah........but not just any Hallelujah )

ha! i didn't listen to it all, because i was so relieved at the lack of GK!

shocking - wasn't you, was it???

no it was not me!! (said most indignantly) - it's been floating around online for a couple of years

i might have to play that to DH. shame, he's just left.

I know, it is brilliant, would love to have been there :)

Morning all
Having a slightly tricky day here with ds telling me he feels ill one minute & that he's just pretending the next. Then he says h's just pretending to pretend, for a joke. If it weren't for the fact that he was up for an hour or so at midnight, I'd just get him off to sch, but I'm not sure what to do now.
1st day of lent today. Does anyone know where the the trad of lent originated? Did Jesus do anything with ashes or is that something that the church has come up with? I know JC did 40 days of fasting in the desert & that's linked to lent, but that's about all I know.
Anyone else?
Have you given or taken anything up for lent? I'm doing a lent study each day, or that's the plan!

dunno about your DS.
keep him off today and see how it goes?

Lent - Jesus fasted as part of the Jewish Passover.
then he went to the desert and was tested by satan (i'm pretty sure the 40 days included the fasting, but he was tempted once he was starving iyswim)

i don't know about the ashes - i know that they are supposed to signify the death ritual, and that the ashes are supposed to be made from the burning of the last year's palm crosses.

i found this on the BBC website:
Ash Wednesday services

The service draws on the ancient Biblical traditions of covering one's head with ashes, wearing sackcloth, and fasting.
The mark of ashes

In Ash Wednesday services churchgoers are marked on the forehead with a cross of ashes as a sign of penitence and mortality.

The use of ashes, made by burning palm crosses from the previous Palm Sunday, is very symbolic.

God our Father, you create us from the dust of the earth.

Grant that these ashes may be for us a sign of our penitence, and a symbol of our mortality.

Traditional Ash Wednesday prayer

Priest anointing a member of the congregation with ashes from a large bowl Anointing with ashes ©

The minister or priest marks each worshipper on the forehead, and says remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return, or a similar phrase based on God's sentence on Adam in Genesis 3:19.

The modern practice in Roman Catholic churches nowadays, as the ashes are being administered, is for the priest to say something like Turn away from sin and believe the gospel.
Keeping the mark

At some churches the worshippers leave with the mark still on their forehead so that they carry the sign of the cross out into the world.

At other churches the service ends with the ashes being washed off as a sign that the participants have been cleansed of their sins.
Symbolism of the ashes

The marking of their forehead with a cross made of ashes reminds each churchgoer that:

* Death comes to everyone
* They should be sad for their sins
* They must change themselves for the better
* God made the first human being by breathing life into dust, and without God, human beings are nothing more than dust and ashes

The shape of the mark and the words used are symbolic in other ways:

* The cross is a reminder of the mark of the cross made at baptism
* The phrase often used when the ashes are administered reminds Christians of the doctrine of original sin
* The cross of ashes may symbolise the way Christ's sacrifice on the cross as atonement for sin replaces the Old Testament tradition of making burnt offerings to atone for sin

god, that's long! sorry

oh don't talk to me about Ash Wednesday services - I thought I'd arranged for my friends DD to babysit as she often does - but discovered on Monday that I hadn't - and she can't do it tonight, and I've not found anyone else so I'm going to have to take my boys arghh

it's probably a good idea to take them!
give them an idea of what it's all really about.

Could you make up some activity sheets they can do in a corner while you do the rest?

ours is at St Mary's this year, so we won't be going.
I don't like it done in a modern way, so that's okay - there's something about ash wednesday, maundy thursday and good friday that have to be done in an old fashioned way.

oh no it's not really a good idea to take them honest!!

DS1 and 2 are ok now - they're old enough to know that they sit down and shut up and leave me alone

They were ok when I took them on Sunday night for the Praise Service - but that's a MUCH more relaxed and informal service (and shorter).

Part of the problem is that we spend so much time in the church either for services, photocopying, practices for Leapfrog etc that they really do feel VERY at home there and have no qualms about behaving as such .

I'm hoping that DS2 and 3 will go into the choir vestry/creche like they did on Sunday evening and play nicely............but I'm not holding my breath.

they'll be fine - it's much better to feel at home in church than to grow up thinking it's an unwelcoming place.

we used to spend time (in the school holidays) in our church when my mum cleaned there. It meant that we saw the church as our place!

and spending so much time in our church now, means that I didn't feel nervous at all when i got married (and i wasn't expecting that!)

disclaimer - i said fine, i did not say well-behaved. i take no responsibility for that.

I love all the lent services but they don't do them here We used to have a really lovely Maundy Thursday service at our church in London with a meal and the service interspersed through it. It was really powerful. We didn't even have pancakes last night because it's been cold and no-one can sell me any eggs and I needed all the ones I had for DD1s b'day cake (tomorrow is the big day).

That sounded miserable didn't it! I'm not, I'm just tired from running a hotel having visitors

well, i'm sure God won't hate you if you postpone Shrove Tuesday for a Sunday in Lent. :)

Have been at church all morning, setting up for Ash Wed, putting up the Stations of the Cross posters, preparing service sheets, etc. I'm taking a 12 noon service, but won't be ashing, as there'll be a Eucharist tonight. Slightly peeved, as someone has YET AGAIN chucked away tidied up my crib sheet for the Eucharist by extension ! Will have to print off another copy!

My kids tend to play happily at the back of church when I'm doing stuff in church. Although, occasionally DS will throw a strop and demand to be comforted midservice

We always have an Agape Meal/Service on Maundy Thursday - it's really lovely