A Christmas Carol Puzzler

It is Advent, a time to prepare our hearts and homes for the coming of Jesus Christ on Christmas!

To get ready for Christmas, we are teaching our youth Christmas carols, since they no long learn to sing, nor learn Christmas music in public schools (this was a parishioner's request).

So here is a new puzzler for all my youth (successfully complete it and you get a prize for Christmas) and friends on the internet.

The answer is my patron saint, and a clue is my birthday is tomorrow (December 6th), this saint's day of remembrance.

To do the puzzler fill in the blanks for the line from each carol and circle the first letter left blank in each line. Then put these 8 letters in a row, and you have my saint!

The Christmas Carols are in the order in which they occur in my Christmas Pageant (see previous blog) and provide the Episcopal Hymnal number for each one.

Here is the Puzzler: (remember circle the first letter left blank on each line)

1. "O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ra_ som captive Israel." (H56)

2. "O little town of Bethlehem, how st_ _ _ we see the lie!" (H79)

3. "Away in a manager, no _ _ ib for his bed," (H101)

4, "While shepherds watc_ their flocks by night, all seated on the ground." (H94)

5. "Hark the herald angels sing gl_ ry to the newborn king." (H87)

6. "Silent night, holy night, all is ca _ _, all is bright." (H111)

7. "We three Kings of Orient _ re, bearing gifts we traverse afar," (H128)

8. "Joy to the world! the Lord is come; let earth receive her king; let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature _ ing, ..." (H100)

Now put the eight letters in order _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, and e-mail me or leave a comment with the answer, and you will get your prize and know my patron saint!

A Christmas Pageant

This is the picture from last year's Epiphany Pageant at St. Luke's.

I've written a new script for this year integrating ideas from pageants done in Riverside, CA, Whittier, CA, Winslow, AZ, and, of course, Prescott AZ.

All the speaking parts will be done by members of the Youth group, seated in front of the wall to the left in this picture (females) and the males will be seated on the other side, you cannot see, in dark pants and their beige St. Luke's Youth Group T-shirt. We have 2 hand held mikes. Therefore each side will share one. The Narrator is a 6th grader, and will be in the pulpit wearing his best suit.

The music will primarily be performed by the choir and organist, with the youth joining in where indicated. The final carol--"Joy to the World" will be sung by all, put with the congregation remaining seated, so they can see the cast.

To download the script for this pageant go to http://revpammulac.typepad.com/ and click on "download christmas pageant 07 word.doc"

A Sunday School Student "Puzzler"

Today my Sunday School class learned about the promises made by a person when he or she is baptised. The person either makes these promises in response to the celebrant's questions, or they are answered for him or her by a godparent.

The first three are renunciations--things one should not do, like my cats above on the top. You should NOT hit your brother or sister.

The second three are pronouncements of what one should do following Jesus Christ in love, similar to the loving picture of my cats on the bottom. Yes, they can be very kind to each other.

First find pp. 302-303 in the Book of Common Prayer.

Here is the Puzzle. (It might help if you printed this page out first.)

Fill in the word that is missing in each renunciation (First Three), and each pronouncement (second three).

Then circle the first letter of the first two questions' missing words, the second letter of the third, the third letter of the fourth, the first letter of the fifth and the first letter of the sixth.

1. Do you renounce _ _ _ _ _ and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?

2. Do you renounce the evil _ _ _ _ _ _ of this world...?

3. Do you renounce all _ _ _ _ _ _ desires that draw you from the love of God?

4. Do you _ _ _ _ to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior?

5. Do you put your whole trust _ _ his grace and love?

6. Do you promise _ _ follow and obey him as your Lord?

Now that you have filled in all the blanks and circled the appropriate letter in each word. Put the six letters together in the order listed and you will have a gift you receive at your baptism.

Send me this word to me as a comment to the blog, or tell me on Sunday and you will be eligible for a prize just before Christmas! Please give your name as well as the answer in your comment.

Time Shares Work but Take Work

I finally had a 3 on a par 3 hole. Here I am triumphantly holding my purple ball. This is the 17th hole on the Penninsula Jack Nichlaus course.

Yes, Raphael came through and even gave us the $10 difference between what we had paid and should have been able to pay for a round of golf.

Still the impression that we were going to get the cost of our upgrade out of renting units here and other lovely spots in Mexico, is "spin" to pull us in or b.s. according to Harry Frankfurt, an emeritus professor of philosophy at Princeton. In his book On Bullshit, he establishes the premise that "spin" or b.s. is worse than lying for the person doing it, because in time they no longer know what is true or false but believe their made up series of not lies but fantasy versions of reality. Then this is a distorted version of reality for others to make decisions and bad for your soul!

The real helper here at Puerto Penasco, has been Susie Parker, Member Services. She has given us tips on use and potential rentals which I am going to work at. We enjoy our time-shares--and would anyone out there like to rent a suite with a kitchen and separate bedroom (sleeps 4) for a week or two on the ocean at Acapulco, Mazatlan, Cancun, Puerto Penasco, Puerto Vuerto, or Nuevo Vuerto?

For all of you whom I bought Christmas gifts for see picture of Harley Davidson pants at the top of this blog. These beautiful black stretch pants, with "Harley-Davidson" in rinestones across your bottom--could have been yours! Sadly, I did not think they would look quite right swinging down the street on anyone on my list.

Ethics and Time-Shares

This is Rafael (like the Archangel) in the truck. He sold us an upgrade of our Mayan Palace time- share in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, on Saturday with the promise of 1/2 off golf.

The only problem was, when we got to the Jack Nicklaus golf course they charged us a higher rate than promised the night before, and I did not have the $45 coupon from our check-in with us.

But Rafael drove in from the sales area and promised to "comp" our playing yesterday. Will he keep his word? Most people think we are crazy to spend so much of our vacation opportunities on time shares. We did play golf--(see picture above of my great shot on the final par 3 hole). And I found the coupon later. I will let you know tomorrow if they gave us the appropriate discount or even "comp-ed" the round!

Psalm 72:12-13 " For he shall deliver the poor who cries out in distress,

and the oppressed who has no helper.

He shall have pity on the lowly and poor;

he shall preserve the lives of the needy.

My Cat as a Priest

My cat, Hildegard of Bingen, is a Main Coon and basically runs our house.

Hildegard was an abbess who founded 2 convents in the mid-1100's. She was a mystic, visionary, and composer of music.

Her music, made popular by Anonymous Four, is a bit discordant, which is exactly the way our cat "sings."

The original Hildegard (whose saints day is September 17, about when our cat was born), never got to be a priest. So I thought it would be nice to get to see her feline image as a priest!

SS Youth Meet St. Francis

http://revpammulac.typepad.com/rev_pam_mulac/files/improvisational_drama_for_all_saints_day.docHere is an improvisational script I used with our 3rd--8th grade Sunday School class, to learn more about All Saints Day.

We had started the day learning the words and then singing--"I sing a Song of the Saints of God." My purpose was to introduce the youth to the idea that everyone could become a saint (and thus ascribe to this, over their lifetime.)

Then we read through the following script:file://improvisational_drama_for_all_saints_day.doc/

One youth wisely asked: "If you have to be dead to be a saint, how come the song said, 'you can meet them at school, or in lanes, or at sea, etc." Which baffled "St. Francis" and made me think about it. As saints are canonized after their death, but live saintly lives (known to God) while they are alive.

It was a fun skit, and I remember dramas and filmstrips from my youth, much better than lectures!