Sunlit Advent Sunday

Advent is thought of as a journey from darkness to light, but it was lovely to have sunlight streaming into St German's throughout this morning's Mass. There were thirty of us present. After the service, Prince-Farai, who was baptized last Sunday came and reminded me that I'd promised to give him a tour of the statues in church and introduce him to the saints. I think his mum must have been talking to him about them in the meanwhile.

I got home more or less on time afterwards. Traffic was flowing well on the return trip, perhaps because there's two way traffic past the Castle again, and that eases congestion on peripheral roads around the city centre. After lunch I went for a brisk walk in the park for half an hour to wake me up ready to drive back to St German's for the first of the Advent evening services. 

The sun was setting by the time we started, shedding golden light in the nave through the west window. It was just perfect for the blessing and kindling of the evening lights, or would have been, if the device used to light the candles hadn't died on David after he'd lit the one on the Advent wreath. We had a meditative pause while he found a working one and then continued. It was completely dark by the time we finished. The chancel, where we held the Office looked beautiful, was the only part of the church illuminated.

I decided to try the return route along Castle Street instead of my usual one, and that worked well even though there was quite a lot of traffic. It's certainly better in the dark, although the southern route I have been using this past year is better for the outbound journey. I got back at five, just as the Parish Advent Carol service was starting at St Catherine's. It had started raining and I didn't fancy walking there and getting wet. I certainly couldn't have made it back in time to sing in the choir, especially unrehearsed.

After supper we watched two interesting antiques programmes, and then the last episode of 'Show Trial', whose ending was, as Clare remarked "predictable' except there was a dash of ambiguity in the last scene, had the acquitted party got a way with a complex deceit or was she just winding up her lawyer for fun? Which may suggest a series two somewhere in the future