Stories of St. Catherine: the Advent Wreath Incident

Yesterday, January 8, was The Baptism of the Lord, the day we recall Jesus' own Baptism. It marked the last day of the Christmas season. Today, we officially return to Ordinary Time. The church is once again decked in green, and we are called to refocus ourselves on growth through our everyday lives. 

But before we leave Christmas entirely, if anyone happened to be at St. Catherine's on December 18 you may have seen a strange sight. Outside the windows of the Faith Formation office, on the grass by the east parking lot, lay a strange, shapeless, smouldering bundle.   Wrapped in a purple blanket, smoke was curling and wafting skyward, while more smoke poured out of the office windows. What's going on, you might ask?

Every day during the season of Advent, we have been faithfully lighting up our office Advent Wreath, just as we have for many years. You can guess what happened. A couple of the candles burned just a little too low and set fire to the plastic green wreath. Whoosh!  It was burning in a few seconds. Thankfully, the fire was noticied very quickly. Quick as a flash, Jennifer Gamblin, our Liturgy and Adult Faith Assistant, jumped into action. She grabbed either end of the purple blanket lying under the wreath, pulled it on top of the flaming greenery, and threw the whole mess out the window. There it lay, smouldering and smoking outside, while we sat in stunned shock inside!

Coming into the office after the Advent Wreath fire had been put out, Sue, our business manager, just shook her head and said "Please don't burn down this building before I've finished the other one. I can only handle one building project at a time." Terri Moser added her thoughts, saying "It was the SPARK that IGNITED the ABLAZE!"  Good one. 

the Advent Wreath in question

Post burn