Amy Boucher Pye

Category: High Days and Holidays

  • Celebrating the fifth day of Christmas: Remembering Thomas Becket

    A winter scene with blue in the foreground and hints of red. Stark winter trees in the snow.
    I love this painting by my dad, Leo Boucher. He painted it onto wood, which explains some of the interesting texture. Stark but colorful and beautiful. (Used with permission; all rights reserved.)

    The paradox of feasting while calling to mind the martyrs of days past continues as we celebrate the life of Thomas Becket on the fifth day of Christmas. He was named Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162 by King Henry II, to whom he was a chief minister. Henry hoped that by appointing Thomas as archbishop he would gain control of the church, but Thomas was as zealous for the church as he had been for the state. The king became increasingly incensed over his exclusion from church affairs, so only two years after his appointment, Thomas escaped to France for safety.

    Thomas returned to England in 1170, and shortly after, the row intensified even more, with King Henry saying,

    “Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?”

    With that utterance, four of his knights decided that they’d heard an order to kill Thomas. They did so as Thomas was taking the service of vespers at Canterbury Cathedral.

    Thomas was said to be unafraid in the face of death, echoing Jesus’ words to his disciples from Matthew’s gospel:

    Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:28–31).

    Here Jesus instructs the twelve as he sends them out to preach the kingdom of God, heal diseases, and drive out demons. We may lose our bodies in this world, he says, but we need to guard against the one who can kill the body and the soul.

    Today, let’s join together to pray for those around the world who endure false accusations or bodily harm because of their faith. Lord, have mercy.

  • Celebrating the fourth day of Christmas: Marking Holy Innocents day

    A stark black, white and grey scene of a winter tree in the snow, void of color.
    A stark picture fitting for today’s topic. By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    The Christmas season is for celebrating, but it doesn’t shy away from the horrors of this world, such as the slaughter of “holy innocents.” The day marks the killing of all the boys in Bethlehem under two by Herod, a jealous and volatile king:

    …an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him’… When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under (Matthew 2:13; 16a).

    This massacre of around thirty boys (for Bethlehem was a small village) wasn’t outside of Herod’s character, for Herod also had his wife and her mother killed, as well as three of his sons. And when he was dying, he ordered that all the notable men of Jerusalem be killed in the hippodrome.

    Herod may have been a powerful king, but his plans to eliminate Jesus were foiled. For Joseph again was warned in a dream, and he obeyed the angel’s direction, trekking into safe territory in Egypt.

    But why did those sweet little boys have to die? Why all those mothers weeping for their slain children? We just don’t know, for it is wrapped up in the fall of humanity and the problem of evil. But we can stand on God’s promises that he will comfort the comfortless and bring hope to the hopeless. And we know that he too grieves at the loss of children so young.

    Heavenly Father, we don’t understand why you sometimes allow innocent people to die. Strengthen our faith and help us to know more about your character, and comfort all those who mourn today.

  • Celebrating the third day of Christmas: The wonder of lights and ornaments

    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    This morning, one of the participants in the Woman Alive book club Facebook group posted this comment:

    “If people want to mark the 12 days of Christmas how do they keep the spirit alive when other people think it’s over? I’m back to work this morning and I’ve already seen one post of Facebook about getting the decorations down!”

    Celebrating the full twelve days of Christmas is something I’ve become more keen about doing in recent years. I confess I don’t observe the season of Advent properly – for I put up the Christmas tree far earlier than I should (my excuse is that putting up the tree and decorations takes a long time). But I do love celebrating the twelve days, marking the full season and not “getting back to normal” as seems to be the tradition these days shortly after Christmas day.

    One simple thing we do for the twelve days of Christmas in our family is eating our dinner in the dining room, table laden with candles, including the Advent wreath fully ablaze. We can see the Christmas tree in the living room as we eat, and it feels festive and fun.

    Another idea is to pray along with the #FollowtheStar prayers produced by the Church of England, which you can find here.

    Do you mark the twelve days of Christmas? Why or why not?

  • Celebrating the second day of Christmas: Around the Christmas tree

    Christmas tree by a fireplace.
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    Happy second day of Christmas!

    I love this painting by my dad, for it evokes Christmases in the family home growing up in Minnesota, where my parents still live, and where they celebrated on Christmas Eve with all the family (except us).

    That “except us” is the poignant bit, isn’t it. Christmas is a wonderful holiday for family celebrations, but often not everyone is gathered around the tree, for whatever reason. Maybe they’ve moved far away, like I did, or a rift between siblings turned into a war that now fractures the family, or someone has to work in healthcare or in the church, or maybe they have died, and we miss them achingly… Christmas will never be picture perfect, because life this side of heaven isn’t picture perfect.

    But we can have glimpses of wonder and joy, those moments of unity and fun that drop deeply into our memories and make us long for unbroken moments of sweet communion. May you experience more than a handful of these today and during this Christmas season.

  • Welcoming the Light: Happy Christmas!

    In a matter of hours we enter the Christmas season! I love these twelve days when the baking is done, the presents all wrapped and distributed, and we can enjoy time as a family relaxing in front of the tree – or the telly (Call the Midwife, anyone?). We’ve made it through the shortest day, and now journey to the light as we embrace the Light of the world, who has come to distill our darkness.

    May you know joy and peace during the Christmas season; may you be renewed in body and spirit as you stop to wonder and marvel at the God who became Man and lived among us.

    Happy Christmas!

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Here’s the church and there’s the steeple…

    A church in blue and white surrounded by trees and sitting in a bed of snow.
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    We’re in the third week of Advent, but soon and very soon we’ll have the fourth week and then boom, in quick succession, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The twelve days of Christmas will commence. And many of us will go to church to celebrate. I love this picture of a sweet little church framed by trees and cushioned by snow, painted by my father. It’s an idyllic picture of what we imagine church should be like – all soft edges, coziness, and safety.

    But, of course, life doesn’t always follow art. Church can be an experience of disappointment, weariness, hurt, anger, criticism, and pain. If you’re human and you’ve gone to church for a length of time, I’m guessing you can relate to that list of feelings and experiences, and add your own.

    But church can be joy and communion; peace and fellowship; wonder and relating. Jesus came to earth as a baby to usher in a new kingdom, where we are filled with his presence and can find union not only with him but others – and we can find this in church, of all places.

    As we wait for his coming again, may we glimpse what church can be here on earth. Even if for a slender moment. 

    Father God, you sent your Son to earth as a baby, that he might live as one of us. How you must ache for the pain you see your children wrapped in. Thank you that you want to relieve us from this heartache. Help us to turn to you for comfort and help. And please bring unity and peace to our places of worship, bringing healing and release where there has been hurt and betrayal. May we sense your calming presence in our lives this day. Amen. 

  • Tasty Frosty Pumpkin Pie – A Recipe

    Happy Thanksgiving week! I love the holiday of US Thanksgiving, not least because the holiday itself is probably the least commercialized celebration (not, of course, the day after though…). We usually go to the service at St. Paul’s Cathedral (for anyone interested, it’s at 11am and I do recommend it) on the day itself, and sometimes have our big feast that day too. But as it’s just another Thursday in November here in Britain, with people working and at school, we often celebrate at the weekend. And usually that’s the weekend after the holiday, but this year we’re marking the day today, as I’m speaking next Saturday. And unlike most years, when we gather many around our table, we’re only hosting family this year because I’ve been traveling so much. Which means I even have time to go to the gym this morning and to post this recipe for you!

    One of my favorites about turkey day is this frosty pumpkin pie, which has become a regular at our table. I’ve found that most guests who haven’t grown up eating pumpkin-flavored this and that don’t always care for the taste of pumpkin, so adding the ice cream softens the flavor and makes it more palatable. And it’s just good!

    I give you our Frosty Pumpkin Pie, with love from our table to yours. Enjoy!

    The frosty pumpkin pie, just created, pre freezing and without whipped cream on top…

    This recipe and others, such as my cranberry stuffing, appear in Finding Myself in Britain. You can also read about my and Nicholas’ experience at the US Ambassador’s residence one year! Available in the UK from Christian bookshops, or online from Eden and Amazon. Available Stateside from Amazon.

  • Relinquishing Independence – Happy Fourth of July!

    By CutiePyeGirl from a few years ago – perfect for Watercolor Wednesday!

    Happy Independence Day! The day has a multitude of meanings for me, not least as the day I felt called away from my county of birth, as I wrote in Finding Myself in Britain:

    When Nicholas and I contemplated marriage, we each went on a quiet retreat to pray and seek God’s guidance about the potential union. I finished my time away on the Fourth of July, later joining the throngs celebrating Independence Day with fireworks, food, and friends on the Mall in Washington, DC. But that morning I was in rural Maryland, reading about Abraham, the stranger who lived in a foreign country. The text of Hebrews 11 came alive in an amazing yet disconcerting way, for I felt that I, too, was being called to a new land.

    As Nicholas was studying to be a Church of England vicar, I knew that in melding our lives together, I would need to be the one to leave behind my life in the States. But until that retreat, I hadn’t considered the deeper implications of what such a move might entail. I hadn’t noticed before that Abraham was obedient in going to this new place: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). In the flush of the first stages of romantic love, it didn’t seem a hardship to be obedient to a move to a foreign land – especially such an exciting and olde worlde place dripping with history as Britain. I was blissfully unaware of the costs involved, and that my obedience would need to come later in accepting, with grace and without bitterness or complaining, what I had signed up to.

    Like Abraham, I didn’t know where we were going; Cambridge was the first stop, but that would be for only a short time while Nicholas finished up his studies before ordination. I didn’t know then that I would be moving four times in five years, and thus would be a wanderer like Abraham. This moving brought upheavals and uprootedness, but over time God answered my pleas for belonging, a few friends, and even a fabulous job.

    But on that Independence Day what struck me deeply was that I was leaving my earthly citizenship behind – instead I’d be a foreigner and stranger and would need to claim my heavenly citizenship. Like the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11, I would be looking for a country of my own; a “better one – a heavenly one.” I would have my American passport, and eventually a British one too, but my heavenly passport would denote my defining identity.

    From Finding Myself in Britain (Authentic Media, 2015). Available in the UK from Christian bookshops, or online from Eden and Amazon. Available Stateside from Amazon.

  • Christmas Greetings!

    By Leo Boucher.

    On this Christmas Eve, we wait and watch and wonder. Pondering the gift of Jesus, the Son of God, born a baby. If you are rushed with a long list of tasks to prepare and feeling hassled; if you’re sad because this Christmas feels different because of people not with you; if you feel quiet and grateful and joyful; may the God of wonders, who became Man and lived as one of us, fill you with his presence today and always.

    Note on my dad’s watercolor – I asked him (Leo Boucher) to put into paint one of my favorite Christmas decorations in their house, which Dad made some decades ago. It’s a wooden base with the figures of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus cut from a darker wood. I love the simplicity, and how the story comes all back to this.

    Happy Christmas!

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Advent wreaths – or not

    By Leo Boucher

    We’ve had a different sort of Advent in our home this year, as I didn’t realize I had none of our Advent candles stashed away like I usually do. Getting them (we go for three purples, a pink, and a white one) meant a jaunt to the next High Street where parking is a nightmare, and it just didn’t happen. So here we are days before Christmas with the candles only recently purchased, but now the kitchen table needs to be cleared of the cookie-making mess before we can assemble and light the Advent wreath.

    We’ve failed our own customs this year, but I imagine God doesn’t much mind, not wanting us to get our knickers in a twist, as it were. Life is messy – which is why Jesus came as a baby in the first place.

    How’s your Advent going?