Our Mount Carmel Chapel Cross has been a source of inspiration to all of us since it was first created in 1986 and placed in the Miller Chapel. With its four intersecting crosses, it has helped us understand what it means to "take up your cross and follow me" (Luke 9:23). These four crosses in one help us realize we cannot carry our cross alone. Others help us carry our cross and we help others carry their's. For we know that as members of the Body of Christ we are called to "bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). This is the ministry of Christian community and this is the ministry that Mount Carmel helps us discover and practice.

This year you can take your Mount Carmel Chapel Cross off the wall and let it become your Advent wreath. You can do this by adding votive candles to a cross you already own or you can buy one of ours where holes for each of the four candles for the Advent Sundays are drilled in the back of the cross. We have also added an extra block of wood in the center of the cross for the Christ candle at Christmas.

During the year, your cross can hang in your home as a reminder of what it means to take up our cross daily in the body of Christ. Then during Advent you can surround the cross with your family and friends as you light the Advent candles during your weekly devotional times.

There are two sizes to choose from and candles are not included. With each cross we mail, there will be a simple devotional reflecting on the special meaning of the cross as it relates to Advent. You may want to share this meaningful reminder of our life in Christ with someone as gift during Advent.