Barre Congregational Church

30 Park Street
Barre, Massachusetts
This Month's Message From Pastor Margaret - continued
(continued from home page)

 ... and the aromas of cinnamon, chocolate, ginger, and myrrh permeate the air, bringing us a warm 
sensation within.

Here at church the Women’s Fellowship will be working hard to get the wreaths ready for all who wish 
to beautify their homes, and everywhere in and outside our church there will be signs of Christmas, 
the precious day of our Lord. Our deacons have prepared every Advent Sunday service in a special 
way with Advent readers and candle lighting bringing messages of hope, love, peace and joy. 
Everyone is invited to come and be in the presence of our Lord. We will have a wonderful service 
at 7 p.m. on the 24th to ensure our children and adults have their special time together, and we will have our traditional eleven o’ clock Christmas Eve service, which will be a wonderful gathering for our congregation and friends in the community!

My husband and I will be traveling to South Africa on December 6th to be with my 94-year-old mother and family members, but I will be following the wonderful celebrations from a distance, and on December 22nd , the deacons and I will be planning a Zoom service from South Africa. I will bring you greetings from my home church, and we will worship together and experience the presence of the Christ Child across the ocean. 

During this Advent season we celebrate the greatest Love we have been given to cherish, to embrace and to make it part of our lives here on earth. Our Savior Jesus Christ came to show us how to live, to love and respect one another. We as people of faith must take this opportunity to be renewed and filled with the Spirit of God, of Christ to bring light into this world. As we do this, we are reminded of a world that is not always so joyful and peaceful. Some of us have experienced the personal pain of illness and loss of a loved one. There is enormous suffering from social ills plaguing our society and our communities, and then there is the enormous human suffering brought about by the wars that are raging in the Middle East. This challenging time we are living through must call for the Peace of God to permeate this advent period. Where there is pain, we must seek God’s comfort and healing presence; where there is violence and aggression, we must cry before God for peace in our world. And in our own places we can bring comfort, joy and peace to each other. We can sing together and offer ourselves to others, visiting the lonely, the sick, the elderly. Together, we can make this Christmas time a joyful experience, filled with joy because God is with us to help us. Have a blessed Advent season! 

Pastor Margaret Keyser