I thought that I take the opportunity to tell you what the main blog picture refers to.
There is always a message behind every photograph and this is the case with mine.
The picture was taken in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki , Finland where
also a very dear friend of mine from the past has found her resting place.
Most people find cemeteries sad places and I can understand that . Having visited Hietatiemi myself I find that it is a beautiful resting place amongst nature, numerous pinetrees , squirles around the lanes. Interesting graves from many
favous Finnish people. I saw the grave of former Finnish President Urho Kekkonen for instance.
The most wonderful thing is happening at Christmas when people put little lights
on the graves of their loved ones.
In Advent we pray that we may move from darkness into light, i.e. shed the works of evil and walk in the light of honesty , love and rightenousness.
The First Sunday in Advent
The Collect.
ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and [the]* dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.Above is that wonderful and inspiring collect for Advent One from the Book of Common Prayer.
Now we come to the second meaning of the symbol of the lights: death is darkness, life in Christ is light. When Christ shall come again in His glorious Majesty , both
the living and the dead, we may rise immortal.
The picture that I am showing everyday , the weeping angel , but all the lights
surrounding it, will remind us that there is life in Jesus Christ. It will also remind us
that we to cast away all works of darkness.
I wish you God's speed.
Father Ed Bakker
