Prayer markers

Ok, I lied about not being inspired to write tonight.

Today (well, technically for me yesterday at this point) was the last day before Advent. This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent.

It signals many things but the one thing that was very obvious tonight was the need to switch and update my prayer books.

The Daily Office books of the Episcopal Church are in two, they go in cycles, one for one year, then alternate to the other. It has to do with the scriptural readings, so that the important readings of the Bible are read over the course of two years.

So tonight I had to put one prayer book away and pick up the one I hadn't used since last November/December. I noticed my marking was still on the last Saturday before Advent for last year.

A marker in time. I looked back to my life at that time last year. Some good, some bad. But the point is, it is a chance to reflect on a moment in time. Not just a moment in time for prayer and my life in the church, but it reminds me of my life at that time last year. A simple ribbon marker being moved in a prayer book tells of a life, a life in transition.

So as I moved my ribbon markers on my Daily Office books and my monastic books, it spoke to me that life continues, it goes on. Bad things happen. Good things happen. But life progresses. The ribbon markers of our lives continue to move