All Saints' Houghton Regis
  • Home
    • Contact Us
    • News
  • The Parish
    • People
    • All Saints' Parish Church
    • St Thomas'
    • Choir
    • Bells
    • Walsingham Cell
    • Safeguarding
  • Our Faith
    • Homilies (Sermons)
    • Pilgrim Course
  • Worship & Prayer
    • Mass
    • Junior Church
    • Care Homes
    • Rosary
    • Home Blessings
  • Life Events
    • Baptisms (Christenings)
    • Confirmations
    • Weddings
    • Anointing
    • Funerals
  • What's on
    • Coffee Mornings
    • Music Experience
    • Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage
  • Giving
    • Parish Giving Scheme
    • Restoration
    • Memorial Path
    • Lagacies

Advent and Christmas 2018

2 December - First Sunday of Advent
  • 10:00am Parish Mass
  • 6:00pm Advent Carol Service
This is a service carols and readings for the Season of Advent.
Seasonal refreshments available after the service.


16 December - Third Sunday of Advent
  • 10:00am Parish Mass
  • 4:00pm Carols around the Crib
A carol service for children and families organised by our Junior Church team. The Christmas Crib will be set up in anticipation of Christmas Day.
Seasonal refreshments available after the service
.


23 December - Fourth Sunday of Advent
  • 10:00am Parish Mass
  • 6:00pm Carols by Candlelight
A very popular service of Christmas carols and readings conducted by candlelight. Seasonal refreshments after the service.
 
24 December - Christmas Eve
  • 4:00pm Christingle Family Service
Christingle service, especially aimed to families and children. Christingles will be crafted during the service. Seasonal refreshments available.
  • 11:00pm Midnight Mass
A very popular, traditional Midnight Mass with carols, and the Blessing of the Crib.

25 December - Christmas Day
  • 8:30am Said Mass (at St Thomas' Lowry Drive)
  • 10:00am Parish Mass (at All Saints' Church)
Bring your Christmas gifts to the Parish Mass to be blessed!
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Share your Christmas stories on social media with the hashtag #FollowTheStar
The Christmas Octave
Details of the Masses celebrated in the days after Christmas Day.

26 December - St Stephen, the first martyr (Boxing Day)
  • 9:30am Said Mass (at St Thomas' Lowry Drive)
  • 10:15am Christmas Walk
27 December - St John, Apostle and Evangelist
  • 9:30am Said Mass
28 December - The Holy Innocents
  • 9:30am Said Mass
29 December - St Thomas Becket
  • 12:00noon Said Mass
30 December - The Holy Family
  • 8:30am Said Mass
  • 10:00am Parish Mass
31 December - Monday
  • 9:30am Said Mass
1 January - Mary, Mother of God
  • 7:30pm Sung Mass

6 January - The Epiphany of the Lord
  • 8:30am Said Mass
  • 10:00am Parish Mass
Advent
This is a season of expectation, as the Church prepares for fours Sundays to celebrate the coming (Latin “adventus”) of Christ in his incarnation, and also looks ahead to his final advent as judge at the end of time. The readings, hymns, and liturgies not only direct us towards the celebration of Christ’s birth, but they also challenge our reluctance to confront the theme of divine judgement:
Lo! He comes with clouds descending,
Once for favoured sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending
Swell the triumph of His train:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
God appears on earth to reign
.
       - Charles Wesley
 
The characteristic note of Advent is therefore expectation. The anticipation of Christmas under commercial pressure has also made it harder to sustain the appropriate sense of alert watchfulness, but the fundamental Advent prayer remains ‘Maranatha’ – ‘Our Lord, come’ (1 Corinthians 16.22). Church decorations are simple and spare, no flowers are used, and purple is the traditional liturgical colour. The Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete or ‘Rose Sunday’) has been observed since medieval times with a splash of colour in the restrained atmosphere of Advent. The lighting of candles on the Advent Wreath, at Christingle services, and during “Carols by Candlelight” helps to focus on the coming of Jesus as the light of the World.
Christmas
The celebration of Christ’s incarnation at Christmas is one of the two poles of the Christian year. The wonderful mystery of God’s dwelling among us in the fullness of humanity, as Emmanuel (God-with-us), foretold by the prophets and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, provides the material of the feast:
Salvation’s author, call to mind
How, taking form of humankind,
Born of a virgin undefiled,
Thou in man’s flesh becam’st a child.
     - tr. J.M Neale

Christmas is much more then than just a joyful celebration of Jesus’ birth. The task of the Christmas liturgy is to recall us, amid all the joyful customs and celebrations of Christmas, to this central truth of the Word made flesh for our salvation.
In the Church this holy season of Christmas is celebrated for twelve days (“The Twelve Days of Christmas”), beginning to count from 25 December and ending with the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January.
Picture
Picture
Picture

    Stay in touch!

Submit
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • Home
    • Contact Us
    • News
  • The Parish
    • People
    • All Saints' Parish Church
    • St Thomas'
    • Choir
    • Bells
    • Walsingham Cell
    • Safeguarding
  • Our Faith
    • Homilies (Sermons)
    • Pilgrim Course
  • Worship & Prayer
    • Mass
    • Junior Church
    • Care Homes
    • Rosary
    • Home Blessings
  • Life Events
    • Baptisms (Christenings)
    • Confirmations
    • Weddings
    • Anointing
    • Funerals
  • What's on
    • Coffee Mornings
    • Music Experience
    • Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage
  • Giving
    • Parish Giving Scheme
    • Restoration
    • Memorial Path
    • Lagacies