Vigil Lamp

One of the immediate advantages of relocating our oratory downstairs was that I could keep a votive burning constantly.  I had desired to do this for a long time, but had never acted on it.  Common sense demurred to leave a candle burning all day in a room I seldom entered.  And my desire itself said that a candle alone in an empty room wasn’t what I wanted anyway.

But the move from bedroom to living room meant I could indulge this desire, and so I did.  Himself admitted that he found the constantly burning light comforting.  And I found that having the light burning was a great aid to prayer.  It reminded me of the candle lit before the Presence of Christ in the tabernacle.  It became my own little reminder of the light of Christ in our home and how the family is an icon of the Church.  A candle that burns constantly requires attention throughout the day, and tending to the light was a small act of devotion that I immediately loved.  This attention directed towards our oratory also helped me remember to pray the Divine Office throughout the day.  It is a good devotion, I think, for people who like to do and make things.

Then, the red started flaking off the inside of my votive holder.

I love red.  I especially love red as a candle glass, with the flame burning within.  It’s just right in a way I cannot explain.  And so when it became clear that the color was irreparable, I started looking for a new red votive glass.  And all I could find were replacement glasses for hanging oil lamps.  This led to reading about the role of the vigil lamps in eastern catholic and orthodox homes, which gave a beautiful expression to what I felt about my little candle.

Since beeswax candles are expensive, even when you pour your own, and the only nice red votive glasses I could find were for oil lamps, I decided to give burning an oil lamp a try.  I made a little float by slicing a 1/4″ round off an old wine cork, bored a hole in the center, and attached a wire loop to hold up a bit of cotton kitchen twine for a wick.  Then I filled my old votive glass (now cleaned of the last remnants of flaky red glass paint) up with olive oil and lit it.

And I love it.  It’s a different sort of light than that of a candle, steadier and clearer.  Smokeless.  It burns for a long time before the wick needs trimming or the glass needs filling, and the votive can be refilled without extinguishing the light.  But while it requires less fussing, it still brings the same sense of offering my attention and care to the Lord.

Advent Wreath Prayer Booklet

Advent is here, and once again I wasn’t entirely ready for it… (i.e the house wasn’t perfectly clean. No, this will never actually happen. But I can dream, can’t I?)

This time it wasn’t entirely my fault. I’ve had a miserable cold for the last two weeks and things just don’t get done when you’re curled up on the couch, shivering, sneezing, and watching Babylon 5 in a state of decongestant-induced time dilation.

I did get the wreath set up in time. The trailing rosemary in our front bed really took off this year, so I cut off a big pile of long pieces and braided them into the garland that’s wound twice around the stand. There’s tons more, so I can probably make at least one more fresh one for Christmas. Turns out rosemary wilts pretty quickly. Ah well, one day my holly bushes will be big enough to provide the greenery.

One big project I did get done while I was sick was to compile my various text files of Advent wreath blessings and weekly prayers into a tidy and consistent little page packer booklet. I decided to add short scripture passages as well, and the whole thing ended up mutating into a Liturgy of the Hours inspired prayer. The readings I wanted were too long to fit neatly, and I had the idea to take out the parts that repeated each Sunday and put them together as an Ordinary, with new readings and prayers for each Sunday on separate pages. Then I added a spot for family intercessions and the Lord’s Prayer to help round out the Ordinary, and it just looked done. I’m extremely please with it, and Himself appreciates having everything put together in one place and a logical order so he’s not terribly confused about what to do when.

On weekdays though, we just say that week’s prayer while we light the candles, bless our food if we’re eating dinner, and sing. Dinner during the week is just too busy for anything more. We turn down the lights as well and eat by the light of the wreath, which GeekBaby finds to be a great novelty.

If anyone is interested, I’ve put the pdf (Advent Family Prayers) up on Google Docs, just follow the same folding instructions to turn it into a little booklet.

Update: I have updated the booklet with additional red text instructing us to fold our hands in prayer for the blessing of the Advent Wreath. I don’t think anyone who would be interested in extensive Advent wreath prayers is the type to be confused over the distinction between the priesthood and the laity, but, for propriety’s sake…
I also fussed with the formatting for O Come O Come Emmanuel. The first verse (which everyone probably already knows) is at the end of the first week’s prayer with the refrain. The last page of the booklet now has the remaining six verses, sans refrain, and in the correct order to be sung for the O Antiphons.

Sung Compline Redux

Two months ago, we started singing Compline together as a family at bedtime. We’ve been mostly good about this, with only a few lapses due to either very late or very early nights. It has been a fascinating and fruitful endeavor, but it has also required a sort of special intestinal fortitude.

Himself doesn’t particularly enjoy it, but he is a good husband and humors me in my odd fits and starts. His issue is the chant, not the family Compline Itself. Chant in English doesn’t do anything for him, he tells me. Furthermore, learning chant is hard, and it’s even harder when you are starting essentially from scratch like we did. Our initial fumblings through the music were not at all inspiring. But over the course of two months, we have improved a great deal and so maybe chant doesn’t bother him as much.

As my ability to read and sing have improved, so has his ability to follow me by ear. This is the usual barrier to learning chant, in my opinion. Most people can sing perfectly well by ear, but I have found no good resources for learning chant this way. That makes the learning hard.

I find that chanting Compline serves exactly the purpose I hoped for. Chant, even after I’ve achieved a sort of competence, demands my attention and helps keep my mind from wandering. I also think it is beautiful, it even feels beautiful. So I can’t help but love it, and dearly wish that The Office of Lauds and The Office of Vespers existed to match our copy of The Office of Compline.

And then there’s GeekBaby…

I expected and was prepared for resistance of a magnitude at least as great as that he displayed to our last attempt at family bedtime prayers (a very modest Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be). Or worse, bad behavior previously only ever witnessed during Mass! I was not prepared for him to be enthralled by it instead. Yet he is. After one week, he was excited about family Compline. And after six, he has started trying to sing the Ordinary.

His behavior is not perfect, he usually loses interest about the time the daily psalm starts, and curls up either next to daddy or on our bed and just listens. But he does seem to like it and insists on it’s an essential part of his bedtime routine. Even if Himself and I agreed there was no benefit to continuing, we would continue just for him.

There’s a whole essay about children and liturgy in this observation, but I don’t have time for it today. Soon.

So I think this Great Chant Experiment has been a rousing success. We have more (and better) family prayer, and constancy in one of the Hours seems to help encourage individual effort in praying the other Hours.

The downside is that the barrier of entry was high. High barriers are pretty meaningless to me if I’ve decided on something, but then I’m not normal. At All. Learning just from a book was tough, even though I already knew how to read music. Too often I see people show off a video of grammar school children singing and proclaiming chant ‘so easy a child can do it!’ And I think this is unfair, both to the children for their skill and to the person who wants to learn and is faced with the really monumental task of teaching themselves by book when they lack the opportunity to learn by ear.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

The Lorica of Saint Patrick is my favorite prayer. I embroidered and framed part of it for my goddaughter’s baptism (finishing late, but better than never!) I embroidered it on the breast of our son’s baptismal gown. One day I will expand the pattern I followed for my goddaughter and do the whole piece as a wall hanging.

It’s also, unfortunately, a great example of translational murkiness and how literal translations do not always communicate well. Here is my favorite version. I don’t know how accurate the translation is, but it is very Irish.

I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
through belief in the Threeness,
through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.

I arise today through the strength of Christ’s birth and His baptism,
through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
through the strength of His descent for the judgement of doom.

I arise today through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
in obedience of Angels,
in the service of the Archangels,
in the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
in prayers of Patriarchs,
in predictions of Prophets,
in preachings of Apostles
in faiths of Confessors,
in innocence of Holy Virgins,
in deeds of righteous men.

I arise today through the strength of Heaven:
light of Sun,
brilliance of Moon,
splendor of Fire,
speed of Lightning,
swiftness of Wind,
depth of Sea,
stability of Earth,
firmness of Rock.

I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to secure me:
against snares of devils,
against temptations of vices,
against inclinations of nature,
against everyone who shall wish me ill,
afar and anear,
alone and in a crowd.

I summon today all these powers between me and these evils,
against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
against incantations of false prophets,
against black laws of heathenry,
against false laws of heretics,
against craft of idolatry,
against spells of women and smiths and wizards,
against every knowledge that corrupts my body and soul.

Christ shield me today
against poison,
against burning,
against drowning,
against wounding,
so that there may come abundance of reward.

Christ be with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ below me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye of every man who sees me,
Christ in the ear of every man who hears me.

I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
through belief in the Threeness,
through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.