On December 10, 1925, the Most Holy Virgin Herself appeared, and beside Her, borne by a luminous cloud, the Child Jesus. The Most Holy Virgin put Her hand on her shoulder and showed her, at the same time, a Heart surrounded by thorns which She held in the other hand. At that same moment, the Child said to her:
‘Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.’
One hears a lot of talk (or at least I do in the things I listen to) about making frequent spiritual Communions. Below is a link to what I think is the most common prayer that one can pray in order to accomplish this.  It is easy to memorize. One could precede this with acts of faith, hope, and charity, and should always follow it up with a prayer of Thanksgiving. 
A few years ago, one of my sisters shared with me an idea that she had seen somewhere online to a simple (and I mean truly simple) project as a way to celebrate Advent. If you saw yesterday’s post, you know I’ve already got Christmas trees up. However, our main Christmas tree, though strung with lights, will remain undecorated until Christmas Eve. That’s something I started a few years ago and I really like the sentiment – it represents Christmas so it gets prettied up for Christmas. I am practical so many other decorations are in place. That’s more because we want our home to be ready for all those who may stop by in the name of Christ (and also to save my wife and I some stress).
But back to this project…
In case it wasn’t obvious, it’s an Advent candle for our lawn. Forgive the odd angle of the picture. I’m not trying to give too much away about the exterior of my house. And yes, there are three others. Originally, I had them arranged in a circle on my front lawn, but that proved to be impractical without adding lots and lots of greens. Now, they are lined up in what would otherwise be an empty garden bed.
Each candle is simply a 4’ tall piece of 4” diameter PVC pipe. At the top reach pipe rests a PVC coupler in which sits two thing. The first is a wind guard which is nothing more than a two liter plastic bottle cut in half and turned upside down. Inside of the that sits a solar powered landscaping light. I lucked out when I found lights that have a setting for “flicker“. Each pipe is spray painted purple and/or pink. The final touch was to spray on a foaming agent called Great Stuff which is widely available at any Home Depot or Lowes. Spraying around the top of the pipe, th foam slowly drips down and hardens to look like melted candle wax.
This was a very fun project tha I worked on one afternoon with my kids. It is perfect as a homeschooling project or just for the kids and dad to have an hour to spend working on something together.
It’s definitely not too late to make a set for yourself. Then simply add a new light each Sunday.
Hopefully, your neighbors will notice as did mine and ask the significance.
Folks, I got off all that social media nonsense a while ago. Sorry but I'm not on Twitbook, Facepalm, YouHu, WingWang or any of the others. Maybe an event will happen to make me change my mind like Peter and Paul coming down with flaming swords and commanding it be so. Until then, read the blog and if you feel a comment is in order or you feel like sharing a tip or suggestion for a topic, email me at harvey@harveymillican.com.
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 