Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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St. Ann
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Posted: Dec 09 2010 at 2:21pm | IP Logged Quote St. Ann
In another post I mentioned that our family prepared an "Advent Window" for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I promised to explain a little about this tradition in our Parish.

To begin, I wouldn't say this is a german thing, because this is the first Parish(of many I have known here) in which I encountered this custom. It is translatable in every culture. Helpful is being in a geographically close Parish. I would say that our Parish is not larger than 5 square miles. Yes, small town. Our Parish is already consolidated from 4 Parishes to 1. So, we have 4 Church buildings which make up this 5 mile Parish.......Anyhoo...
In November a letter goes out to all the families of first communicants for the coming spring asking who would like to prepare an Advent Window for one day during Advent. Every single evening during Advent (until the 23rd of December) one family prepares /decorates a window and a meditation or prayer or story/songs... for interested parish members. It all takes place outside and lasts no longer than 30minutes. People usually offer a hot drink and cookies afterwards and people chat warmly together. It does create a somewhat intimate atmosphere.
Our family prepared a "Live" window. Two of our daughters portrayed the Blessed Mother and Eve. I got the idea from a picture of the same that was shown on several websites, The Anchoress for one. I believe it was titled "O EVE". My dh loved the idea and found it theologically very helpful to get across the meaning of this feast day. Our Priest greeted everyone at the beginning and we all sang a well known advent song. He then read the Gospel of the day and my dh read some thoughts about the meaning of the Feast introducing the still hidden window. We sang a German version of "O come O come Emmanuel" (different melody) and then we prayed the "Our Father". Father prayed the Oration (adventliche Praefation Marienmesse)

Open window shades.......and voila'!!!

We ended the service? ceremony? with the song "Maria durch ein Dornwald ging".

The whole atmosphere was very warm and the guests were visibly moved. I would bet that our family was the only family present who attended Mass that day. I don't mention this to judge anyone. I am just saying that this Feast day is almost meaningless to many Catholics, because they just don't know anything about it, which is to say they don't realize the beauty of it and the hope it could/should give each one of us. I pray that those present last night could discover a bit more to love about our Catholic Faith.

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MaryM
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Posted: Dec 09 2010 at 2:32pm | IP Logged Quote MaryM
Oh, Stephanie, this is so neat! Thanks for sharing the details. Wish you had pictures. So let me ask something I'm not clear about - this takes at the church or at the individual parishioner's home??

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Mary M. in Denver

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St. Ann
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Posted: Dec 09 2010 at 2:50pm | IP Logged Quote St. Ann
Mary, each family prepares one window in their own home. So, every evening is at another residence.

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Stephanie

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MaryM
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Posted: Dec 09 2010 at 2:58pm | IP Logged Quote MaryM
That is really neat - a little traveling about to visit parishioners in the area.   

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MicheleQ
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Posted: Dec 09 2010 at 4:06pm | IP Logged Quote MicheleQ
St. Ann wrote:
Our family prepared a "Live" window. Two of our daughters portrayed the Blessed Mother and Eve. I got the idea from a picture of the same that was shown on several websites, The Anchoress for one. I believe it was titled "O EVE". My dh loved the idea and found it theologically very helpful to get across the meaning of this feast day.


Oh this sounds lovely!! I know exactly what picture you're talking about because I printed it and we've been looking at it a lot recently.

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Open window shades.......and voila'!!!

The one thing I miss about Germany is those shades. I REALLY wish I had them here!

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I pray that those present last night could discover a bit more to love about our Catholic Faith.


Really Stephanie, what a beautiful witness!

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Michele Quigley
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hylabrook1
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Posted: Dec 09 2010 at 4:43pm | IP Logged Quote hylabrook1
This sounds really cool, Stephanie.

OK, my German is kind of so-so. I get the grammatical gist of the song title, but I'm lost in the vocabulary. Ummm ..what is a Dornwald?

Do you by any chance have pictures? We would love to see them!

Peace,
Nancy
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St. Ann
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Posted: Dec 10 2010 at 2:38am | IP Logged Quote St. Ann
hylabrook1 wrote:
This sounds really cool, Stephanie.

OK, my German is kind of so-so. I get the grammatical gist of the song title, but I'm lost in the vocabulary. Ummm ..what is a Dornwald?

Do you by any chance have pictures? We would love to see them!

Peace,
Nancy


Thanks Nancy! The English title is similar to "Mary went amid the thorns".
I am trying to get a photo mailed to Jenn. I just need to figure out the attachment thingy

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Stephanie

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JennGM
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Posted: Dec 10 2010 at 7:47am | IP Logged Quote JennGM


Here's the picture.
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guitarnan
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Posted: Dec 10 2010 at 8:02am | IP Logged Quote guitarnan
This is just beautiful!

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MicheleQ
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Posted: Dec 10 2010 at 8:08am | IP Logged Quote MicheleQ
Oh my that's beautiful!! Thanks for showing us!

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Michele Quigley
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JennGM
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Posted: Dec 10 2010 at 9:11am | IP Logged Quote JennGM
St. Ann wrote:
hylabrook1 wrote:
This sounds really cool, Stephanie.

OK, my German is kind of so-so. I get the grammatical gist of the song title, but I'm lost in the vocabulary. Ummm ..what is a Dornwald?

Do you by any chance have pictures? We would love to see them!

Peace,
Nancy


Thanks Nancy! The English title is similar to "Mary went amid the thorns".


Maria durch ein Dornwald ging

a few You Tube versions

The music can be found in Around the Year with the Trapp Family and the Trapp Family Book of Christmas Songs. The .pdf on this page includes the sheet music.

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St. Ann
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Posted: Dec 10 2010 at 2:36pm | IP Logged Quote St. Ann
I took the photo yesterday afternoon after the fact. The actual event was the evening before while dark. Eve did not wear pink socks during the real thing .

Jenn, you are the best!

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Stephanie

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Mackfam
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Posted: Dec 10 2010 at 2:40pm | IP Logged Quote Mackfam
Stephanie,
I really enjoyed reading about your Advent window and especially enjoyed the picture you shared! Thank you!!!

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hylabrook1
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Posted: Dec 10 2010 at 3:04pm | IP Logged Quote hylabrook1
Thank you, Stephanie and Jenn.

What a beautiful Advent window; Maria durch ein Dornwald ging is just beautiful.

Peace,
Nancy
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Trinity
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Posted: Dec 13 2010 at 5:37am | IP Logged Quote Trinity
Thank you for sharing more with us, Stephanie. : ) What a lovely photo!

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