2017 Lent links menu will be posted tomorrow

I expect to have an updated 2017 Lent links post tomorrow (March 1) for Ash Wednesday…
Stay tuned.

Apologies for the prolonged blog silence. Computer crash in December and poor internet connections in recent months have made blogging something quite difficult.

ADVENT 2016 – Handy Links

Note: this entry is “sticky” and will remain at the top of the blog throughout Advent. Look for new entries below.

Advent has started!!! We wish all our readers a Blessed Advent!

I (Karen) hope to do at least a little bit of Advent blogging this year.  I may also be posting some Advent tweets, so keep an eye on our Lent & Beyond Twitter Account (@AnglicanPrayer)

Here are some links to help you find your way around the wealth of Advent resources at Lent & Beyond:

Any new Advent posts for 2016 can be found with our Advent 2016 tag.

For all Advent entries past & present, use our Advent category.

Our Advent Subcategories include: Advent Devotionals, Advent Prayers, Advent Poems, Advent Music, Advent Quotes, Advent Resources, Advent: Family & Children.

Here’s the “Best of Advent at Lent & Beyond” entry – compiled in 2014, with links to many of our Advent favorites from the past 10 years. Here’s our Advent Favorites category.

Here’s last year’s (2015)  list of links to excellent sites for Advent devotionals & prayers for Advent 2015. (I will do my best to update this soon, but I expect many or most of the links will still work.)

Here’s the link for all our posts containing Advent worship music.

Here’s the  Index of all our Advent entries for 2014, (the last year I was able to do substantial Advent blogging).  Blogging in Advent 2015 was very light, but I’ll try to create an index of those posts soon

May the Lord prepare all of our hearts for celebrating the miracle of His birth and may He draw us near to Him in worship this Advent.

Rest in peace, Jean

Several years ago, I had the great privilege of visiting my fellow prayer blogger, Torre Bissell, in his home. He and his wife Jean were so grounded in the presence of God, a beautiful witness of the “one flesh” of marriage.
For years, we have all been edified by the “word received” by Torre. God would quicken his spirit while he studied scripture. Torre would share this word with his helpmate Jean to verify it was truly of the Lord before posting it. Torre and Jean were like a light on a hill. Torre continues to rest in God’s presence in his grief.

Below is the death notice from the Diocese of Albany.–JW

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)

It is with sadness that we report the death of Jean Bissell, who passed away on Tuesday, August 25th, 2015. Jean was a long-time lay spiritual leader in the diocese and had served as a missionary in Pakistan, Liberia, and the Diocese of Albany. Funeral services will be at Christ Church, 970 State Street, Schenectady, NY 12307 on Saturday, September 5th at 11:00 a.m. Clergy who wish to vest and process are asked to be in the underground by 10:30 a.m. Either cassock and surplice or cassock-alb is appropriate. Stole color is white.

Back from traveling… hope to begin posting again in the next few days

Apologies for the blog silence here for the past 5 – 6 weeks.   I was traveling in Europe for work (conference & various meetings) for the past 3 1/2 weeks, and the 2 to 3 weeks prior to my trip in early – mid May were extremely hectic.

Now that I’m back from my travels, I hope to begin blogging again soon.

Just updated our Easter Music Index

We posted 6 new songs in our Easter music series this past week:

CCM Classics

Contemporary CCM

Great worship songs

Hymns & Classical anthems – including some Byzantine chant!

Go check out our updated Easter Music index and enjoy discovering all the new songs.  There should be lots more Easter music posts to come throughout the coming month.  I’m working on a playlist of about 30 Easter hymns… plus I plan to post lots more worship songs, classic CCM, and modern CCM too…., and some more world music, including 2 or 3 French hymns worship songs, and some African music too.  So much music… so little time to blog! 🙂

HELP WANTED: Searching for a hymn…. Welcome Happy Morning

Hi all,

I’m working on a post for L&B which will feature a playlist of about 30 traditional Easter hymns, something I’ve wanted to do for several years, but just hadn’t found the time to work on.  This year I’ve had a bit more time to pull this together.

There’s one Easter hymn I grew up singing, and which I’d love to add to my playlist, but which is proving VERY hard to find.

The hymn in question is Welcome Happy Morning (I’m specifically wanting a version to the tune Fortunatus).

I’ve searched iTunes, Amazon, and YouTube, etc. and can’t find a very good recording or audio of this.

There’s a YouTube video of an Easter Service at St. Barts in NYC from 2011. And also several YouTubes from St. John’s Detroit. Those are enjoyable to watch and I’m glad to find them, but the audio quality is not very good… one can hardly understand the words, and there’s lots of background noise.

I’d really like to find a professional  recording of this hymn for purchase (preferably as an mp3 download, but I’m open to buying a CD if there are other good hymns included!).   I’d love any leads or suggestions our readers might be able to offer.  iTunes and Amazon in the U.S. only have instrumental recordings, no choral version.

Thanks in advance for any help!  Leave info in the comments.  I would have a way to buy recordings in the UK through some of my work colleagues…

Easter 2015 – menu of links and resources

UPDATED: 19 April 2015

This post will remain sticky during Easter. Look for new entries below.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!!

All of us at Lent & Beyond wish our readers a glorious Easter celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! We’ve posted a lot of good Easter devotional resources over the years:

• Here’s our Easter Category.

See also: Easter Devotionals, Easter Music, Easter Prayers, Easter Quotes, Easter Resources

• NEW (April 19) – DON’T MISS THIS:  A Compilation of 70 Favorite Easter and Eastertide Hymns.  Note, there is now a separate Easter Hymns category, since we plan to post a lot more Easter hymns in coming days!

• NEW (April 15): I’ve just discovered a great blog and an new Eastertide devotional resource Practice Resurrection 2015.  This post also includes a short list of some of the links in our Eastertide compilation (specifically links to reflections on practicing resurrection / celebrating Eastertide)

• A Compilation of Eastertide links and resources – celebrating the full 50 days Easter  (More than 50 links to help us stay Easter-focused until Pentecost!)

• A Compilation of all our Easter Quote entries since 2009

A few featured posts:

• Updated Easter Music Series Index (2014 – 2015)
• Easter Around the Blogosphere 2015
• Here is a compilation of links to Easter prayers
• Here is a compilation of Easter poems
• Here is a compilation of links to Easter resources.
• Links for recommended websites for Easter devotional reading
• There is also our list of Easter resource links at the top of our right hand sidebar

Remember, Easter is a 50 day season! I hope to be able to post often throughout Easter – prayers, music, quotes, devotionals – to help me, and all of us, to live in the joy and reality of the resurrection each day. So stay tuned…

Hallelujah, He is Risen!

art credit

Rejoice with us! We reached the 1 million page views milestone!

On Good Friday, we often get our highest blog traffic of the year. (Ash Wednesday and the first Sunday of Advent are also very high traffice days for Lent & Beyond.)   This year was no exception…  All the visitors during Holy Week and Good Friday pushed us over the 1 million page view mark!  Thanks to all who read L&B and have encouraged Jill, me, and Torre in this ministry.  We hope and pray it has been and continues to be a blessing to many!

 

Lent Links on our Sidebar

With Lent looming, I’ve moved our sidebar list of Lent links & resources to the top category of all the links on our sidebar (i.e. just below the calendar, the twitter feed, the list of “most viewed” posts, and the category box).

I verified and updated most of those links last year in 2014.  I’ll try to do some additional verification and updating of the links this weekend as well.  But in the meantime, I hope they will be a helpful resource.

Please let us know in the comments if you find any broken links, have any recommendations, or if there’s some Lent resource you’re trying to find which we may be able to help you with!

Back to Advent blogging shortly!

It’s Advent week 3!

Travel and illness have kept the Lent & Beyond Advent bloggier-in-chief off the computer for a few days… but I’ll be back at it shortly.   We expect to feature a bunch of new Advent entries today and throughout the entire week.

 

New update to our Advent 2014 Index

We’ve updated our index of all the Advent entries posted here at Lent & Beyond so far this year.

Here’s the link to all the devotionals, prayers, music, quotes and resources we’ve posted.

 

Apologies for the unplanned Advent blogging pause

Apologies for the 4 day pause in Advent blogging.   I’ve been battling a stomach bug combined with a sinus infection and decided a few days of rest away from the computer would be a good idea!  Feeling somewhat better today, and will try to line up a few Advent posts for the rest of the week…

Advent 2014 – An Index of all our Posts

Here is a listing of all our Advent 2014 blog entries.  Entries are organized in chronological order (most recent first) in each category.  There is some duplication among categories.

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KEY POSTS:

Advent 2014 at Lent & Beyond (a brief “menu” of links to navigate among all our various Advent subcategories)

Best of Advent at Lent & Beyond – An Index of our Advent Favorites from the past 10 years

Links to Favorite Advent Devotional Sites for 2014

Advent 2014 – An Index of all our Posts

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Advent Devotionals:

• Jesus: A Light to the Gentiles
• An Advent Devotional – Waiting for Christ, Witnessing, Working…
• Jesus, the Long-Awaited Perfect King
• An 8th c. Advent Hymn (Creator of the Stars of Night)
• Advent: “Christ comes into our worst world” bringing hope in the deepest darkness
• Advent: Expectation rather than Penitence
• Advent Poems: The Advent Moon Shines Cold and Clear – Christina Rossetti
• Times of Refreshing from the Lord – a good Advent reflection from Bishop Steve Breedlove
• Patrick Comerford Matthew 25, Christ the King Sunday and preparing for Advent
• Advent Favorites: A-D-V-E-N-T Acrostic – An Advent Classic from the late Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon

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Advent Family & Children:

• Anglican Heritage / Advent traditions: Christingle Services
• Great Blog focused on Celebrating the Church Year
• Idea for Jesse Tree ornaments (Wood burning)
• More Good Advent 2014 Resources for Children and Families
• Advent wreath prayers and activities for children
• Good list of Advent resources / ideas for preschool & primary age children
• Great list of Advent books for children
• “My Jesse Tree – the Ultimate Guide” and “Bible Characters for Advent” storybook
• Excellent roundup of Advent activities for Families and Children
• “Celebrate Advent” – a good resources page from Focus on the Family
• Another Advent Family Devotional book: Prepare Him Room, Celebrating the Birth of Jesus with Your Family
• New Advent Resource for 2014: Ann Voskamp’s “Unwrapping the Greatest Gift”
• Free Kindle eBook: Celebrating Advent & Christmas with Children

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Advent Music:

• Ginny Owens: When the Time is Right
• Excellent Resources related to the “O Antiphons”
• An Unconventional Advent song: Michael W. Smith – I’ll Wait For You
• Andrew Peterson and Jill Phillips “A Labor of Love” (included in this post)
• Fantastic Advent song: All Things New by Red Mountain Music
• A good Advent hymn for a family sing-a-long: Long Ago Prophets Knew
• An 8th c. Advent Hymn (Creator of the Stars of Night)
• A Wonderful Advent Song – Graham Kendrick – The Candle Song
• Music for Advent – a great 15 song playlist

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Advent Poems:

• Advent Poems: William Cowper – The Shining Light
• An Advent Poem – The Curse Undone, by Teresa Roberts Johnson
• An Advent Poem: The Advent of Grace by Teresa Roberts Johnson
• Advent Poems: The Advent Moon Shines Cold and Clear – Christina Rossetti

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Advent Prayers:

• St Symeon – Come O Eternal Joy
• An Advent prayer by Christine Sine

• Scotty Smith’s series of Advent prayers
• An Advent Prayer – We bear the need of a savior on our hearts…
• Advent wreath prayers and activities for children
• A Responsive Advent Wreath Prayer and an Advent Kyrie
• Advent Wreath Blessing and Lighting Prayers
• A beautiful daily prayer from Mother Teresa: Flood my soul with Thy Spirit

 ***

Advent Quotes:

• Advent quotes: Each of us is an innkeeper…
• Advent quotes: Keeping a holy advent in a culture of commercialization
• Advent quotes: Christ’s incarnation is the beginning of redemption… (Glenn Packiam)

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Advent Resources:

• Excellent Resources related to the “O Antiphons”
• A good short video message on Advent: Canon Phil Ashey
• A reminder: Advent Bible Study Series by ACNA Bishop Julian Dobbs

• Anglican Heritage / Advent traditions: Christingle Services
• Excellent list of Advent resources – via Anglican Mainstream
• Great Blog focused on Celebrating the Church Year
• Resources for Advent – Jesse Tree audio devotions (Redeemer Radio)
• More Good Advent 2014 Resources for Children and Families
• The Advent Project from Biola University – Fantastic Online Advent Calendar
• Music for Advent – a great 15 song playlist
• A wonderful list of worship links and sermons for Advent Sunday
• Advent wreath prayers and activities for children
• Advent Wreath Blessing and Lighting Prayers
• Good list of Advent resources / ideas for preschool & primary age children
• A Potpourri of Advent links & Resources: Books, Music, Calendars, Devotionals and more…
• Celtic Advent: 40 days of love, joy and gratitude
• Best of Advent at Lent & Beyond – An Index of our Advent Favorites from the past 10 years
• Updated Advent 2013 Index
• Great list of Advent books for children
• BOOKMARK THIS!! Bishop Julian Dobbs – Advent Bible Study Video Series on the 2nd Coming
• Seeking God’s Face – Free ADVENT Devotional from Faith Alive
• Advent for the 21st Century – Good Advent Apps?!?!
• An Invitation to Celebrate Advent 2014… Please share your favorite ideas and resources!
• “My Jesse Tree – the Ultimate Guide” and “Bible Characters for Advent” storybook
• Excellent roundup of Advent activities for Families and Children
• Oh… a VERY cool Advent idea: A Facebook Advent Calendar
• Daily Scripture Reading Table for Advent 2014 (Year 1)
• “Celebrate Advent” – a good resources page from Focus on the Family
• Advent books – links and recommendations
• Most popular Advent posts at Lent and Beyond
• Another Advent Family Devotional book: Prepare Him Room, Celebrating the Birth of Jesus with Your Family
• New Advent Resource for 2014: Ann Voskamp’s “Unwrapping the Greatest Gift”
• Free Kindle eBook: Celebrating Advent & Christmas with Children
• Advent & Christmas Index 2009 – 2012
• Advent Index: 2008
• 10 years of Advent compilations and indexes!!

***

If you’d like to browse. through our Advent posts… you can find all our Advent 2014 entries here.

Here’s our Advent 2013 INDEX , or use this link to browse all Advent 2013 entries

Here’s our popular post from 2013 with Anglican Advent Resources. (We’ll be updating that soon for 2014)

An Invitation to Celebrate Advent 2014… Please share your favorite ideas and resources!

This post is sticky. Look below for new entries.

Hello friends!  As regular readers will have noticed, we’ve been gearing up for Advent here a little early this year.  Partly that’s to give people time to *PREPARE* for Advent in terms of ordering and obtaining necessary devotional books and resources, but it’s also due to the fact that I (Karen, the Advent-blogger-in-chief here) will be traveling in late November.

We’ll continue posting good Advent resources in the next 10 days and doing all we can to help you and your family prepare for a blessed and Christ-centered Advent. We’ll have an index of all our newly-posted Advent resources soon, but we’d like to invite all our readers and visitors to share your own favorite Advent & Christmas celebration ideas in the comments:

• a favorite devotional book, or children’s craft book
• a great Advent calendar
• a delicious recipe
• an inspiring hymn or song
• a link to a helpful Advent resource website
• a picture of a family Jesse tree, or a favorite ornament
• a meaningful quote or devotional excerpt
• Scripture readings that have encouraged you and drawn you closer to Christ during Advent

This year we hope Lent & Beyond can truly be an Advent COMMUNITY with all of our readers participating!

You’ll find all our NEW Advent posts for 2014 here.  

All our Advent entries past & present are here.

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Art credit: Swissworld.org  (I love this picture of a Swiss town (Lucerne, which I’ve had the joy of visiting – but only in summer) turning its houses into a giant Advent calendar!  It seemed the perfect illustration for this post inviting our online community to share Advent resources!)

Advent & Christmas Index 2009 – 2012

These were years with little special Advent blogging here, so I’m creating one combined index.  Almost all these entries were posted by Jill Woodliff, and the focus was on Christmas hymns & poetry.

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Advent Devotionals:

The stones on the road to Bethlehem, an Advent poem by Jill Woodliff

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Advent Resources:

• Advent 1 (2012) – MORE Great Links!
• Advent 1 (2012) – Recommended Links around the Blogosphere
• Newly Discovered Advent Resources for Children (great for Sunday School)
• Hubble space telescope Advent calendar

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Christmas Posts (Prayers, Hymns & Poems):

• Christmas carol, for Syria 2013
• Peace By Henry Vaughan (1622-1695)
• Good King Wenceslas
• New Prince, New Pomp By Robert Southwell
• A Christmas Carol–Christina Rosetti
• While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night
• The Burning Babe–Robert Southwell
• I Sing of A Maiden (15th c)
• Miracles at the Birth of Christ Isaac Watts’s poem
• Christmas Day by John Byrom
• Christmas Day. The Family Sitting By John Meade Falkner
• A Lullaby, By Janet Lewis
• Nativity, By John Donne
  
• A Hymn for Christmas Day By John Byrom
• On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity By John Milton
  
• This Endris Night, Anonymous, 15th century
• Oh, Perfect Love (Prayer by Jill Woodliff)
• Oh, vulnerable love (Prayer by Jill Woodliff)
• Christmas feet (Prayer by Jill Woodliff)