St. Gabriel and All Angels

by Susan Huggins

Twenty-five years ago on Christmas Eve my husband Peter and I packed up our new baby boy, Evan, and headed to the Barhydt Chapel to attend the St Gabriel's Christmas Eve service. That experience marked the beginning of a life long (since that time) involvement for our family in the Liberal Catholic Church and we have not missed attending the St Gabriel’s Christmas Eve service once since that first time.

Why is that? Is it the physical beauty? I walk into the sanctuary and am overwhelmed by the candlelit beauty. It shimmers with gold and light and I feel myself and everyone else being nurtured by this beauty and light throughout the service.

Or is it the beautiful music? Experiencing the tones and sounds of the congregation singing together the sacramental service (as it is a sung service) as well as the large selection of traditional carols to harold in the coming feast of Christmas? ...read more

For the Christmas Eve services, "Prairie Harmony" will be joined by members of the LCC choir to present a selection of Christmas songs from their shape note repetoire. William Billings' "Shiloh", William Walker's "Star of the East" and Annias Davisson's "Samanthra" provide a distinctive sampler of seasonal songs from this rich tradition of American devotional singing.

Fr. Miller said, "Shape note singing puts mind and body into unmistakable sacredness, overflows honey in the heart, and is make-me-wanna-git-down-on-my-knees-and-pray gorgeous. Angels and humans will be blessed and then some by these singers come Christmas Eve."

Prairie Harmony's newly released CD of shape note favorites will be available for sale. Proceeds from this recording go toward the restoration of an historic Bentonsport church where this live recording was made.

You may read more about shape note singing on the Prairie Harmony CD liner notes at www.fairfolk.org/prairieharmony

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Every Sunday morning we get out of bed, get prepared to come to church and arriving we come through the church doors and choose a seat. Individually, we do all of these things and also hopefully get a moment of prayer , some meditation time and maybe even a chance to read todays Epistle and Gospel before we begin our Holy Eucharist.

As we begin each Eucharist we are encircled by the opening procession, sensing us as ONE, gently connecting us all together. From outside the church our singing voices can be heard, but not as individual voices, rather as one voice singing together. The sign of the cross during the opening invocation now unites us together with the holy Trinity; Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. The celebrating Priest then blesses with holy water the alter, the church space we worship in and all there in. The celebrant then calls on the Angel of the Eucharist to come and help us in building together the spiritual temple. Next we sing the Canticle followed by repeating the Confiteor, In the Confiteor we acknowledge the truth of our being created to be immortal, made to be an image of God's own eternity and the wish of our creator to have us know this fully. ...read more

The Liberal Catholic Church, as part of the larger Christian Church, has a special role to play, and I feel blessed to be able to participate. The heart of the Church as a whole is to be a vehicle for the distribution of Christ’s power and love to all who sincerely desire to know God. Through the sacraments, Christ comes to all, and wakes up His Life within us. As we come more and more awake to that Divine Spark within our heart, we live and breathe the Love of Christ in all we do and live for the greater good of all life, not just for ourselves. ...read more

I just want to express my appreciation of this very profound and moving sermon. It reminds me of how extraordinary St.Gabriel's is and how lucky I have been to be part of it. Ria

• The only way to peace is through love.
• The dynamic of love’s story is this:
  • It starts in the flow of the Divine at the birth of creation and in the continual process of God embedding His spark of life, His spark of pure Love in each and every living form.
  • This love cannot remain stagnant, so it too flows in and through each of us and the whole of our world.
  • As we each gradually come to acknowledge that Love as who we are, as all that we are, we offer it back to its Source, back to God, through every intention and action.
  • Our whole life becomes the flow of Love.

"The Spirit of God blows out from us so that we can love and perform good acts. Then he draws us into ourselves so that we can take rest and find enjoyment in him. This is eternal life: not unlike our breathing the air out of our lungs and breathing in fresh air. What I mean is: we move inwardly in a mystical enjoyment and move outwardly in good works, both in communion with God. Just as we open our eyes, look and then close them again, in such a smooth transition that we hardly notice what we are doing, so we die in God and live out of God, always remaining united to him." ...read more

The fundamental energy of Christ’s church is compassionate love - His love for us, our love for Him, and our love for Him in our neighbors. So it is not surprising to find that prayers for the support of those in need play an important part in virtually all Christian services. But they play an especially significant role in the Eucharist of the apostolic churches. ...read more

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