Sunday's Psalm--Feast of the Holy Family

 

Red and Green

Tom gave us the theme of Red and Green for our Headbanger's Challenge. I will be away for Christmas day and not sure when we will return. I will put this poinsettia up when I return for the header, but here it is in case the voting starts before it goes up.

There isn't a lot of green, but it's there.

This poinsettia is not from this year's crop. This was a bad year for poinsettias.

When we were growing up, Dad was the agricultural inspector in North San Diego County. At that time, it was where nearly all commercial poinsettias were grown, and he got to inspect them. You could go down towards Encinitas and see acres and acres of them.

Now many are grown in greenhouses in various parts of the country.

Sunday's Psalm--Fourth Sunday of Advent

Lord, make us turn to you;

let us see your face and we shall be saved.

O shepherd of Israel, hearken,

from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.

Rouse your power,

and come to save us.

Lord, make us turn to you; l

et us see your face and we shall be saved.

Once again, O LORD of hosts,

look down from heaven, and see;

take care of this vine,

and protect what your right hand has planted

the son of man whom you yourself made strong.

 Lord, make us turn to you;

let us see your face and we shall be saved.

May your help be with the man of your right hand,

with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.

Then we will no more withdraw from you;

give us new life, and we will call upon your  

         name.    

Lord, make us turn to you;

let us see your face and we shall be saved.

It's ALMOST Christmas

The idea of the theme came to me because it IS almost Christmas. I thought I would find something else that was "almost"--almost tall enough, almost finished, almost anything but Christmas. But the best shot I could come up with was Christmas--Almost Christmas.

In case you didn't figure out how it shows almost Christmas, look again carefully. The creche before the altar at the church is up and ready for Christmas. And since it is almost Christmas instead of already Christmas, the baby Jesus is not present. The figure will be added at the Children's Mass on Christmas Eve.
 



I wonder if the other headbangers will find some other "Almost" or will also find that it is Almost Christmas. You can check from the links in my sidebar any time in the afternoon on Wednesday.

Here are some more shots I almost got:

Third Sunday of Advent--Isaiah instead of a Psalm

Cry out with joy and gladness:

for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

God indeed is my savior;

I am confident and unafraid.

My strength and my courage is the LORD,

and he has been my savior.

With joy you will draw water

at the fountain of salvation.

 Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

 

 

 

 

Give thanks

 to the LORD,

acclaim his name;

 

 

among the nations

make known his deeds,

 

proclaim how exalted is his name.

Cry out with joy and gladness:

for among you

is the great

and Holy One

of Israel.

 

 

 

Sing praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement;

let this be known throughout all the earth.

Shout with exultation, O city of Zion,

for great in your midst

is the Holy One of Israel!

 

 Cry out with joy and gladness:

for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

Headbangers are looking for Holiday Images in the Square

Lew gave us this theme as his first turn at choosing. I really like this theme, but I gave it a bit of a twist. If Lew was thinking of squares like Times Square or Trafalgar Square, I went back to my brief tenure as a math major and thought of the shape. I like my headers to be fitted to a long rectangle, though, so I added one single letter to the theme. Holiday Images in the Squares.

Oh, the rulebreaker in me has escaped.
 

 

My turn to choose next week. What shall we do?

 

BTW, check the other headbangers out on Wednesday afternoon and see how they have interpreted the Holiday Images in the Square.



Sunday's Psalm--Second Sunday of Advent

Headbangers' Theme Straight and curved lines in a Church

Stewart knew I would have something saved up for his Headbanger's Theme of Straight and Curved Lines within a Church or House as we had spent a lovely afternoon exploring Lincoln Cathedral together a couple of years ago. He probably thought I sould use something like this:

or a Lincoln Cathedral view looking out through the portico:

or maybe the vaulted Gothic ceilings.

He might have thought that I would use something from other churches from that trip, such as this simple scene from St. Margaret's Chapel at Edinburgh Castle,

or this shot of the  dome of St. Paul's in London.

 

 And knowing that we had traveled to other more distant lands as well, he might not have been surprised if I had chosen the simple altar at one of the convents of Mother Teresa's sisters in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India,

or a window shot of some of the Kremlin's onion shaped domes (there are five churches on the grounds of the Kremlin, so this was taken from inside one of the outside of another.)

 

I stayed home for my Straight and Curved lines within a Church to take this shot of the Advent Wreath in our local parish church.

 

 

See where the other headbangers found their straight and curved lines from the links on my sidebar.

Sunday's Psalm--First Sunday of Advent