Saints and Bishops.....

Saints and Bishops…

Every time there is a feast day on the liturgical calendar, we celebrate it at Christ Chapel! Wednesday was St. Andrew’s day and we rejoiced with a high mass Scottish service using the 1637 Scottish Book of Common Prayer. It was such a magnificent service! I am not sure I have ever been to a mass that “high” and I really appreciated it. The service was filled with old language, incense and bagpipes. St. Andrew’s day was a highlight in my week.

Bishop Parsley is coming to Austin to visit my fellow postulants and me from the Diocese of Alabama. We are thrilled that he is coming to visit. It will be exciting to show off our school to him. This news was another highlight of my week.

Several of my classmates and I have been working on a project to show off the new SSW videos. (If you haven’t checked them out, please do: http://www.ssw.edu/videos.) Every bishop will receive a copy of the video in January. We have been writing our bishops and other bishops we may know, encouraging them to watch the video and share the video with people interested in coming to SSW. This is a really fun project. I love SSW and I want to do all I can to make sure that future seminarians come to visit! If you are a bishop and you are reading this, be on the look out for your videos!

I also want to encourage you all to check out the SSW Advent meditations. I had the honor of writing one myself. You can go online everyday and hear the person that wrote it read their meditation. I really enjoy starting my day off listening to these thoughtful and meaningful meditations. www.ssw.edu/advent2011.

I continue to work on papers and exams and I am making it! I have a full weekend of writing and preparing for a group project that is coming up next week. I ask for your continued prayers as my classmates and I finish out our first semester of seminary.

I continue to whisper your names in Chapel and I celebrate you all in my heart and prayers.

Blessings to you all as the ride continues…Mary Balfour