Dancing and Drinks at Sub-Level 03

It's hard for me to say why, but a lot of people are surprised when I tell them how much I enjoy rave music. I mean I am probably way too inhibited (and too hold) to ever actually go to one, but the family knows that "Ravey Gravy" is one of my go-to playlists on the weekend, especially in the kitchen.

So yeah, my musical tastes are pretty eclectic and there is plenty of room for EDM in my wheelhouse. 

Glory is similarly oriented and was gratified to be able to take her bestie to a proper dance club in Texas when they visited Tara there last November - a place with great sounds, good lights and a dedicated dance floor. She almost had me convinced that the two of us should go to a rave at the Aviation museum called "Bangers in the Hangar" but they sold out before I could be put to the test (save us from the time of trial).

Conversely, when she went out with her friends from nursing school on Friday they started out at Cook County and ended up at Daisy's, with her lamenting the next morning, "why does Edmonton need two country dance bars when they don't have a single other dance club?" [Note: she concedes there are places one can dance, but categorizes them as bars with dance floors, not dance clubs where one can drink.]

This triggered an ancient memory in my discocampus and I looked up from my bowl of Honeycombs saying, "hey, what if we won the lotto - would you be interested in building and running a proper dance club with a retro/future industrial theme with me?"

"Ohmigawd yes," she said, "what would we call it?"

"Sub-Level 3," I replied. "But look, here's the thing, this has been a dream in the back of my mind for like three decades."

When she nodded, I continued: "So the look is super industrial and technological - treadplate and stuff that looks like treadplate everywhere. Exposed conduit and piping, perforated metal partitioning, yellow gumball lights from the ceiling, metal cages around the naked red bulbs by the exits, OSHA stripes wherever there is an elevation change, the whole thing. Oh, and as much fog as I can reasonably afford."

She nodded, "okay, so where is this all coming from?"

"It's a fair question," I replied. "It is largely from Ripley's rescue of Newt in the movie Aliens."

There was a brief pause while her fandom confronted both her artistic and commercial appeal centres, and then she nodded, "okay, I love it. Playlists only, right, no deejay?"

"Sure," I agreed.

"What about lights?" she queried.

"Well, that and the sound system should be the big expense, since the decor should be cheap and low maintenance. And the gumballs are just for ambience, and might only be in the entryway and corridor." (in my mind, there would be a dedicated perimeter within the building for an indoor lineup, given how cold it gets in this city for much of the year.)

"And I mean a full suite of theatrical, computer controlled lights - lasers, strobes, gels, video display backgrounds, the whole nine yards. And some of them synced to immense knife switches on the wall, like in Frankenstein's lab."

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "you mean like those big..." and the mimed pulling a switch like one sees for an electric chair.

"Exactly!" I confirmed. 

Her eyes rolled, "okay, that would be awesome, where I could be on stage waiting for the drop, and just when it hits - BAM I throw the switch and CHAOS."

"You get it," I smiled.

Later that day I was driving when I was hit with sudden inspiration and texted her from a red light: "animatronic ROBOT DJ." 

And I don't mean some friendly android puppet either, I am talking about some serious Kubota industrial stuff where a three-fingered robot arm occasionally holds up a platter for a screaming audience, spinning it dramatically before dropping it with binary precision onto a turntable - just for show of course, with all the actual sounds being digital, but such a show!

Samples from classic sci-fi sliding in between tracks, a cyberpunk night at least once a month, green lasers producing the Matrix effect on a sea of dancers, and a stage large enough to accommodate live acts when needed.  A lounge/bar close enough to hear the music but subdued enough to talk, with the same industrial decor, recessed lighting and a backlit bar. Something that wouldn't look out of place on the set of Blade Runner. Love of dance is a human constant, and if they can do it elsewhere around the world, why not here in Edmonton?

I am unlikely to ever win the lottery (for one thing, I only rarely buy tickets...), but if I ever should, I will have a grand time building the businesses I would have appreciated when I was younger, whether or not they ever turn a profit! I mean, what else are they going to do with the Rossdale power plant?

And hey, look: someone else has already got a t-shirt ready:

(Well Past) Midnight Suns - Reviewed

I am looking forward to getting more painting and reading done now that I have finally finished playing Midnight Suns on the PlayStation.

Even though I am still using a past-generation console, I still dislike getting my video games upon release and prefer to pick them up on sale later...often much later. This is why I only finished 2018's Red Dead Redemption 2 last fall, and I also tend to play them kind of exhaustively (all the side missions and anything story-related) whichh is why it took me 11 months to finish.

Midnight Suns is not an open world adventure game like RDR2 though, it is more of a...well, let's just say that to call it a comic-book inspired, turn-based, tactical card RPG wrapped around a dating simulator would not be inaccurate.

Set in the Marvel Comics universe (the original MCU!), the titular Midnight Suns are a group of established, supernaturally oriented characters from a variety of titles: Blade (the vampire hunter), Nico Minoru (the blood witch of The Runaways), Robbie Reyes (the most recent Ghost Rider), and Illyana Rasputin (Magik from the X-Men).

Facing an unprecedented assault from Lilith, the Mother of Demons and her new Hydra allies, they resurrect the last person to defeat her three centuries earlier - her child, known only as The Hunter, which is the character you will play. Such is the level of threat that Avengers Doctor Strange, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel have joined you as well, and the two groups' differing approaches will lead to friction between them at times.

I love turn based games, and having been wanting to play this ever since I found it it was developed by the same crew who made XCOM, and it has been almost exclusively awesome time.

Typical combat encounters feature three characters (some you choose, some chosen for you to fit the story), each of whom as their own deck of 8 cards. On each turn, you can play three, and the order you play them in can be very critical. You can also redraw two cards per turns, franticaly trying to trade your heal card for something more damaging early in the fight, or vice versa later on.

You can also move your characters around the battlefield, which helps you align certain attacks that can hit everything in a straight line, or knock enemies back into obstacles or hazards for addtional damage.

In between missions, you can turn captured 'gamma coils' into random new cards. In addition to newer, different abitlies or attacks, you can also combine two of the same card into an improved version. Eventually you even get the ability to build your own copies of cards or modifying them in other ways.

The role-play aspects occur as you explore the mystical grounds of the Transian abbey that is the headquarters of the Suns, finding various artifacts and eventually the spell ingredients used to create still more resources and items that can be combined in seemingly limited ways. Special challenges enable Hunter to use words of power from the Elder gods, which open up even more of the grounds for exploring.

If I am being honest though, as much as I enjoy the tactical challenges of the combat, what made me love the game is the way it handles downtime. After missions, you are often given the opportunity to 'hangout' with another character, your talk guided by familiar but well-written dialogue trees. You may also have the opportunity to share a gift with them, and finding the right gift for the right individual becomes almost a game unto itself, as does choosing an appropriate activity for the hangout. Glory mocked me mercilessly for taking Wolverine on a picnic later in the game, but it turns out the dude loves some quiet time and chow away from the crowd.

Between these activities, other dialogue opportunities and sparring sessions, you can eventually 'level up' your friendship. Doing this unlocks a few ornamental gewgaws (like wardobe choices for both Hunter and the other hero), but more importantly friendship enables aboslutely brutal hero combo cards that allows two heroes in a fight to combine their attacks. The higher the team;s friendship level, the more of these combos present themselves to you.

Generally good writing and excellent voice acting (Matt Mercer and Laura Bailey from Critical Role as the male voice of Hunter (who can also be female) and Illyana Rasputin), Michael Jai White as Blade) made the story elements most compelling for me - which is why I found the abrupt ending I experienced at 2 am Friday night to be a bit disappointing.

The final fight is a protracted, multi stage affair, without the additional selection and equipping stage I had becoem used to. I also encountered a number of bugs that appear to be kind of commonplace (where the Counter I selected (to aoutomatically attack those who attack me) didn't work on two different occasions) and which at one point told me I had lost the encounter without explaining why. Thankfully the latter only happened once, and online chatter suggests reloading a saved game can mitigate the other glitch, but it still soured me a bit.

Before heading into the final fight, you are given the opportunity to converse with any other character you wish, and knowing it to be the final fight, I of course spoke to all of them. This probably took me twenty minutes, given how large the roster is by game's end, so perhaps this is meant to take the place of an epilogue anyways.Maybe they need some appendices like Lord of The Rings, and I know there's some DLC I will want to try at some point.

Despite these shortcomings, there is an awful lot to like about Midnight Suns: creative, turn-based combat, room for creative combinations and a tremendous variety of things to do, even between missions.

Most critically for me though, is seeing such a well-established universe from such a different perspective. It was touching watching Hunter discover Magik's tragic origin story, a true loss of childhood, as well as seeing him help develop the confidence of Ghost Rider and Spider-Man. Discovering Blade started the Abbey's book club as a means of interacting with his crush, Captain Marvel was fun, as was listening to an embittered Tony Stark refer to the Midnight Suns as the 'spooky teens club.' And the in-game chat board that let's characters converse with each other is worth the price of admission.

And sadly, the game's critical successes but commercial failure works in our favour as it can nowbe found for less than $20 on many platforms; consider checking it out!

As It Stands

Typing while standing feels weird, I'm not gonna lie. But having legs of unequal length does too, and I think that should be given priority.

Wait, that's a terrible start - let me respool a bit.

I had back issues through a big chunk of December. Sciatica, a pulled muscle, I don't know. It started after a bad night's sleep following the dog clambering into bed with Adurey and I in the dead of night. The pre-sleep cuddles with her are great, but unconsciously adapting to her presences while trying to sleep has a really deleterious impact on our sleep quality. And to be clear, this is not her laying against someone's legs, but wedging herself in between us somewhere north of our glutes!

Anyhow, I ended up at the chiropractor twice, because those adjustments have seemed to help in the past, and because there was something I wanted to follow up from a visit earlier in the year.

"Do you remember," I inquired at my appointment, "making an observation of my legs being different lengths, and both of us expressing surprise at not having noticed before?"

"I do!" he said, checking his notes. There was about a quarter-inch difference."

"I'll tell you why I ask," I said. " We went to a performance of Handel's Messiah in December, and everyone famously stands for the Hallelujah chorus. Normally, I stand at kind of a parade rest stance, with my feet a little wider than shoulder width, but seating at the Winspear doesn't really permit that."

"With my feet close together," I continued, "and with my back still hurting, I became keenly aware of my body geometry, especially the fact that while I was standing 'straight', one knee was locked, but my other leg was bent."

My chiropractor furrowed his brows and shifted his own weight from one foot to the other and then nodded. "Yeah, that would be a little offputting for certain. Hop up on the table face down and let's take a look."

A moment later he had visually confirmed that one leg was now almost half an inch longer than the other. Following some shaking, cracking and various vigorous adjustments (and Sean is a fit guy but come on, I am like twice his size so it is kind of a workout for both of us), he got the difference down  to within an eighth of an inch. 

He gave me some heel inserts for my shoes to help level things out in the interim, but I will probably need to look at some proper orthotics as well. 

We also discussed the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, and I committed to getting a sit/stand workstation that he gladly work me a letter for.

It turns out my workplace doesn't even require a doctor's note once you complete an ergonomic assessment with the nice people in Facilities. They ordered the desk for me and it arrived last Tuesday. 

Today was my first opportunity to assemble it, which first meant unloading my old desk and doing a lot of cleaning, since it hasn't moved since we moved in nearly two decades ago. 

WIth both my work and personal computers on there, it also meant wading into a tangled knot of cables reminiscent of the Well of Souls from Raiders. The collection of material exhumed from the desk was Spielbergian as well, hearkening back to the shark autopsy in Jaws - three headsets, four different USB cables, two Starcraft strategy guides, a Thrustmaster joystick and nearly full spindle of CDs.

Thankfully the clear instructions and lack of mirror-imaged components meant that constructing the sit/stand desk was pretty straightforward, but my apprehension meant it still took me a couple of hours to get the frame constructed, build the three-part desktop and affix one to the other.

Resetting all the cabling (two computers with webcams, two external hard drives, speakers and a router) was a bit tedious, but everything fits and no ill effects raising the desk from the sitting position of 73 cm to standing at 94. Standing while typing is still very new and a little awkward, but I am certainly looking forward to having a bit of variety in my posture during the day.

(Objects may be more cluttery IRL)

Sole Mates

Back in June, while running errands and shopping, I found myself in the parking lot of The Shoe Company on Mayfield Road and popped in to check out their clearance section, as I am known to do. I needed a new pair of everyday shows to replace my existing black sneakers and hate paying full retail for such things.

I found two potential pairs that were a bit more than I would normally pay but still significantly discounted, so I texted pictures of them to Audrey. I outlined the situation and told her I had the option of a sturdy, hiker-like shoe in a boring colour, or a pair of outrageously yellow Saucony sneakers with orange detailing.

When she didn't respond right away I put both pairs back and returned to my vehicle so I could drive to Costco. Audrey texted me enroute, encouraging me to get the more colourful ones, which I said I would do once I'd finished shopping.

But when I got to Costco, they had much less exciting running shoes, on coupon, for much, much less money. My practicality wrestled my whimsy into submission while I stood there whiteknuckling the cart handle before eventually relenting, sighing and grabbing a box of grey sneakers in my size.

Audrey seemed to share my disappointment when I got home, and commiserated with me when I lamented about how long it had been since I had "fun" footwear, signature of mine in college. On a whim in second year, I had purchased a pair of bright blue and yellow Nike high tops, perhaps similar to these.

As a Resident Assistant and member of Student Council, I was kind of in the public eye, and the shoes seemed to really amuse some people. Or maybe it was the fact that they were being worn by a straight-laced guy sometimes prone to shyness. When those shoes wore out I replaced them with a less bright but still unconventional pair of Airwalk-looking shoes, and at one point claimed an award at our RA recognition event as "the Shoe Guy" or something of that nature.

I told Audrey that I was grateful to have found a pair of decent sneakers in my size at such a good price, but was still sad because part of me had looked forward to having standout footwear again, and the understanding look on her face was truly gratifying.

So when I opened a large box from Audrey at Christmas and found those bright yellow Kinvara 13s, needless to say, I was pretty touched.

Audrey had not only gone out and purchased the shoes shortly after we discussed them, she realized they were the wrong size because she had bought the only remaining pair from the wrong location. She ended up having to return them, put the last pair in my size on hold at the other location and then drive out to the west end of the city to get them.

So now I have them and wear them pretty regularly as an alternative pair of indoor shoes. There is a slight chance I will actually wear them outside when the summer comes, but I want to keep that bright yellow pristine for as long as possible. 

That way, when people comment on them, I can share what a lucky guy I am to have such a thoughtful wife.

Racer Pen

I am a notororious clutterbug, and with an impending remote ergonomic assessment coming tomorrow (in anticipation of perhap getting a sit/stand workstation), I was finally galvanized to clean up my desk area. 

In the course of doing so I came across many interesting tidbitrs and ephemera, including this pen, which had accompanied me to the office and returned home with me in 2020.

To be quite honest, it is not wholly satisfying as either a toy car or a working pen. The wheels are now a bit sticky, but were always too smooth to grip most workplace surfaces. The ballpoint pen itself is only fair to middling and it is difficult to grip properly due to both size and protuberances.

But I am still hanging onto it for - you guessed it - sentimental reasons.

When Fenya's class (I want to say this would have been 2nd grade?) went to visit the Reynolds-Alberta Museum, she asked to bring along some of her own money. Being a big fan of museum gift shops myself, I was happy to agree, but I silently wondered how much of it would go to candy.

Imagine my surprise when she came back with gifts for the three of us; I remember someone else getting car-shaped chocolates, but I am not sure what the third item was, and I believe she did procure some swets for herself.

I was legitimately touched though, because I was pretty sure that 2nd grade Stephen would not have been so thoughtful, and so delighted that Fenya had been so gracious and thoughtful.

There is also a nostalgia component, as the vehicle design reminds me just a little of the one-time land speed record holder, the Blue Flame, the first real-world named car I ever recognized, courtesy of a book about vehicles in my own second grade classroom at Willow Park Elementary in Leduc.

So until the ink runs out, the racer pen will stay on my desk, along with other assorted tchotchkes and knickknackery.

...even if it occasionally rolls out of sight.

Pulpitations: An Age for All Times

I only preached once in 2024, and it was on the last Sunday of the year. I had lots of warning and time to prepare, and as I was doing so, I asked Glory if she would come to hear me. 

"Probably," she said, "what are you preaching on?"

"Second chapter of Luke," I replied, "where 12-year-old Jesus wanders off for the better part of a week and they find him talking with the scholars in a temple."

She narrowed her eyes and said, "That sounds kind of familiar; did you preach on that once before?"

So I checked, and sure enough, I had... 5 years earlier.

"Hmm," I said to my daughter. "I guess I need a new angle."

It took me a while to come up with that alternate angle, and I was mostly happy with it, but not really sure how my sermon would land with people. (Clicking the title below should take you to that part of our recorded service.)

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REFLECTION: AN AGE FOR ALL TIMES

And so we prepare to draw the curtain on 2024. A new year is right around the corner, and while it is full of uncertainty, remember - it wasn’t all that different last year. Or the year before!

There is no questioning that the world could be in better shape, right? War still rages in Ukraine and Gaza, there’s a trade war brewing with our closest neighbour, inequity and anger seem to grow daily, I am certain there is another smoky dry summer coming our way…

I’m gonna level with you - I am indulging myself in a lot of what some folks would consider age-inappropriate behaviours of late: reading superhero comics, playing Dungeons & Dragons, enjoying videogames… Midnight Suns lets me combine all three, in a way, so it is a wonder I even made it to church today, to be honest. Escapism has become my primary preoccupation the past few months.

“But Stephen!” I hear you say, “haven’t you always done that kind of stuff?” And you’re right; I totally have!

But when I did it before, it felt like a pastime - now it feels…therapeutic.

Years ago, I worked with a fellow who told me something so sublime when we were talking about a similar topic, it has stuck with me nearly four decades later. Gaston was his name, and we worked at the airport together as pre-board screening officers. This was at a time when the gates at Edmonton International Airport would close periodically between flights (if you can imagine!), and you would have some time to while away playing cards or just chatting in the office.

We were discussing something about childish things, and Gaston shook his head and said, “Most people have maturity all wrong; maturity doesn’t mean acting like an adult, it’s knowing when it is appropriate to act like a child."

This profound principle of ‘contextual maturity’ really, really stuck with me, a fact which I am confident comes as no surprise whatsoever to many of you in attendance, or watching at home. And yes, Howard, I am thinking of you specifically! And hi, Joan.

Finding time for those other aspects of yourself is a tremendous benefit for your mental health.

And so, yeah, my interest in comic books featuring tights 'n' fights waxes and wanes like the moon, but I have always gone back, and now that I do it from a subscription on my iPad it is unlikely to ever stop. If you like hunting and fishing, good on ya, but getting together with my friends or family in a pretend dungeon with make-believe monsters to roll a few dice and have a few laughs - just like we did in junior high - is my idea of a great time. Heck, I got to do it in-person four different times this December!

But maybe that’s not your thing, and that’s okay. Maybe it’s collecting dolls or action figures, or scouring used bookstores for that out-of-print classic you got at book club and can’t find any more. Or maybe it is something even simpler…

Every time you laugh, an earnest, joyful laugh, that is probably your inner child expressing itself. Even when it is the driest, most erudite or even political humor, there is a snort coming from your inner schoolkid.

And you should keep in touch with that inner kid, because they understand a lot of stuff that us adults tend to forget. I’m willing to bet the last time you actively looked for a four-leaf clover, the grass wasn’t nearly as far away as it seems now!

My point is, we can relate to the holy in a multitude of ways. Very commonly, when we approach God the creator we do so as children, as supplicants. But there have been times in prayer where I have spoken to Jesus in my heart as a brother, someone else who’s been a kid.

And like I told the younger folk earlier, I firmly believe everyone has some of that holy spirit in them; in some folks it’s a candle, and others it’s a bonfire, but for some people it is a single spark that struggles - not to stay alive, in my mind but a struggle to be seen. The spark is God’s, but we can create a space and oxygen and fuel for it - nurturing it, as it were.

In our Gospel story, I continue to be amazed at how chill everyone is when Mary and Joseph find their child in a temple who has been missing for three whole days. I mean, okay, Jesus, sure, he gets a weird kind of pass because he is part of the Infinite Divine that we can’t possibly understand AND also is a kid, but the teachers? Maybe there wasn’t enough space to write, “And one of those present said unto Jesus, ‘truly, this is not cool - thou art twelve’...”, but most likely Luke was trying to keep the emphasis on the startling response of Jesus to his parents.

When Jesus replies to Mary, expressing surprise at her concern, does he sound more like a child, or a parent? How much of what he is saying, this calm reassurance, is God the parent speaking through him?

I hear Jesus the child in his incredulity, his bewilderment that his mother and father didn’t automatically think to look for him in the temple. Again, this contextual maturity, this dynamic relationship that feels so relatable to me.

Likewise the teachers, spellbound by a child’s understanding and wisdom; is the connection between them strictly cerebral, or is this bridge between them a product of the holy spirit? Like the bridge to the Hebrew scriptures that verse 52 gives us: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years[l] and in divine and human favor.” If you go back to the first book of Samuel, another special youth, verse 26 of chapter 2 tells us that “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people.”

These relationships, these bona fides, the callbacks and prophecy - what we might call ‘foreshadowing’ in fiction - they help us to shift our perspective and find different ways to approach this spiritual knowledge that we don’t just know, we feel.

Our adult selves give us the maturity and insight we need to understand in our heads, but our inner children let us experience God with our hearts. This notion of contextual maturity is not just good for our mental health, but for our relationship with the divine.

And when you experience that fully, it becomes easier to be grateful, and to offer praise in gratitude, in spite of the current challenges and contexts!

Once again, we can take our cues from the young dolls in our lives here, because when it comes to praise, it is difficult to equal the honesty, enthusiasm and energy of children.

The first four lines of today’s psalm end in exclamation points - how’s that for enthusiasm? And there is no room for spectators; everyone is encouraged to participate:

Praise God from the earth, great sea creatures and ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and frost, gales that obey God’s decree,
all mountains and hills, all fruit trees and cedars,
wild animals and cattle, creatures winged and earth-bound
sovereigns who rule earth and its people,
all who govern and judge the world,
young men and women alike, old people and children together!

As we close the door on 2024, the new year either looms or beacons, depending on your perspective. There are probably some adversarial ties ahead for our neighbours to the south, but don’t feel too smug about it, because an election is headed our way too, maybe sooner than some people want!

I still have a few more days at home before I return to work, and I am giving my inner child as much room to play as I can. My family is around and there are games to play, meals to share, and company to enjoy. Soon enough it will be time to shoulder the responsibility of adulthood again, and that’s okay too. In addition to nurturing my own holy spirit, maybe I will have the privilege of helping someone else re-discover their own?

God exists within each one of us and we can relate to the Holy from an endless variety of perspectives, including child, peer and adult. Being infinite, this is easier for God than it is for us sometimes, but it is worth the effort.

Talk to parent God about your most complex thoughts. Share your innermost feelings with your sibling, Jesus. And never forget that spark of the divine that is all God and yet uniquely yours, the Holy Spirit.

Leave room in your life for contextual immaturity, especially in your relationship with the holy. Let that Spirit remind you to experience joy, to savour simple pleasures and to express gratitude and praise earnestly and enthusiastically!

Let the whole creation cry,
“Glory be to God on high”

Amen

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After the service, an unfamiliar gentleman introduced himself to me and asked what I did for a living. When I told him I work In pensions administration, he smiled and shook his head. "I would have bet money that you had some sort of theological background," he said.

"Gosh, no," I confessed, "I like to read and I like to ask questions, and we had a tremendous lay worship leadership training program here a few ministers ago we've tried to keep going. Rev. James and Rev. Mervin outlined a ton of resources like The Text This Week and I try to get a few other perspectives or insights before traipsing off on my own, but no formal training. I'm flattered you thought so, though!"

"Listen," he said, "I preached 28 years in the same church and I have heard and read a lot sermons in my time, and that is one of the most interesting takes on Luke 2:41 I've ever heard."

Well!

Let me tell you, I am grateful when anyone at all tells me they found something useful in one of my reflections, but a genuine compliment from a professional preacher that I don't even know was not something I was prepared for.  

I thanked him profusely and told him I hoped to see him back at some point; it never occurred to me to ask if he was visiting or to get his name or anything. When I told Audrey what he had said to me as we drove home and how gratifying it was, she positively beamed at me, which felt pretty good as well.

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Luke 2:41–52 (Lexham English Bible): Jesus in the Temple at Twelve Years Old

And his parents went every year to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the feast. And after the days were completed, while they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. And his parents did not know it, but believing him to be in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. And they began searching for him among their relatives and their acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.

And it happened that after three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting in the midst of the teachers and listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his insight and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astounded and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have been searching for you anxiously!” And he said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that it was necessary for me to be in the house of my Father?” And they did not understand the statement that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was submitting to them. And his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with people.

Psalm 148 (Responsive)

Refrain

Let the whole creation cry,

“Glory be to God on high”

Praise God from the heavens; give praise in the heights!

Give Praise, all you angels; praise God, all you hosts!

Praise God, sun and moon; give praise, stars and lights!

Praise God, farthest heavens, and all waters beyond heaven!  R

Let all things praise the Holy One at whose command they were created, who established them for all time, setting bounds, which cannot be passed.

Praise God from the earth, great sea creatures and ocean depths,

lightning and hail, snow and frost, gales that obey God’s decree,

all mountains and hills, all fruit trees and cedars,

wild animals and cattle, creatures winged and earth-bound

sovereigns who rule earth and its people,

all who govern and judge the world,

young men and women alike, old people and children together! R

Let all things praise the name of God,

the name above every other, whose splendour covers heaven and earth.

You give strength to your people,

songs of praise to your faithful,

to Israel, the people dear to your heart.  R