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That incredible shrinking Advent-Christmas season Twenty-one years in Washington, D.C., should have rendered me impervious to the bizarre. But I confess to having been taken aback in mid-October when, inside a grocery where I was vainly searching for some decent Peccorino Romano, I saw an enormous Christmas display with ersatz snow and all the trimmings. It was bad enough when stores started putting out the Christmas decorations (or, as they now say, “holiday decorations”) a nanosecond after sweeping their shelves of leftover candy corn and other Halloween goodies beloved of dentists with medical school bills to pay. But Santa and...

November 30, 2005Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle Psalm: Wednesday 51 Reading IRom 10:9-18 Brothers and sisters:If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lordand believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,you will be saved.For one believes with the heart and so is justified,and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.The Scripture says,No one who believes in him will be put to shame.There is no distinction between Jew and Greek;the same Lord is Lord of all,enriching all who call upon him.For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But...

Advent How special that time must have been, that time of waiting, where you lay nestled in our Lady's womb, seranaded by the beating of her heart, each beat proclaiming her love for you, and in the comforting waters you lay secure, safe in your mother's love, safe under your Father's care, safe under Joseph's watchful eye. O Lord, in this day where we seem to think that special time, that advent awaiting the unborn is a signal to remove the inconvenience, be with all mothers who faced with difficult choices may, like Mary, say yes to life. Amen.

A look at the time of Advent Heather Renwick ACCORDING to the Orthodox Christian Church calendar, we are in the midst of the Nativity season. Nativity, also known as Advent or Winter Lent, signifies a period of fasting for many Orthodox Christians around the world, including Bulgarian Orthodox Christians. The Orthodox Church has the most extensive fasting calendar of any religious group. If fasting principles are strictly followed, an Orthodox Christian spends half of his or her year fasting on some level. Fasting was adopted by Christians according to the teachings of the Bible. By depriving the body of certain...

O Child of promise, given to us by the word of the father, whose coming we contemplate with joy, perhaps, with trepidation, perhaps, Emmanuel, God with us, you who leaving the father to make yourself nothing, a servant obedient even unto death, you whom we call wonderful, counsellor, God almighty, Prince of peace, teach us to realize the wonder of your incarnation as we contemplate what it means to have God with us, to walk with us, weep with us, die for us, save us. Amen.

November 29, 2005Tuesday of the First Week of Advent Psalm: Tuesday 51 Reading IIs 11:1-10 On that day,A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,and from his roots a bud shall blossom.The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,A Spirit of counsel and of strength,a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.Not by appearance shall he judge,nor by hearsay shall he decide,But he shall judge the poor with justice,and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.He shall strike the ruthless with the...

Meditation on Isaiah 11:10   On that daythe Root of Jesseshall stand as a sign, a banner, a signalto the nations,and the Gentiles shall seek him, inquiring,for his place of rest shall be glorious. What sign did he give us? A babe so poor that he sleeps in a stable, laid to rest in a feeding trough for lack of a bed, A babe so special that the heavens could not contain their joy, for Love had wrought what only Love can do, Giving all in the name of Love, no matter what the cost. What sign did he give...

Every soul that meets death in a state of mortal sin will be damned for eternity Father Joseph Pfeiffer's sermon recorded on the first Sunday of Advent at St. Michael the Archangel's Roman Catholic Church in Farmingville, NY. LISTEN HERE

November 28, 2005Monday of the First Week of Advent Psalm: Monday 51 Reading IIs 2:1-5 This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come,The mountain of the LORD’s houseshall be established as the highest mountainand raised above the hills.All nations shall stream toward it;many peoples shall come and say:“Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,to the house of the God of Jacob,That he may instruct us in his ways,and we may walk in his paths.”For from Zion shall go forth instruction,and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.He shall judge between the nations,and impose...

In days to come, The mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” O Light, O Word, O Hope of Mankind, O Joy long desired, O Bread  of Life O Living Water Emmanuel, God with us, You whose very name declares the reason you walked this earth, the...

The Christian season of Advent (Latin, adventus, “Coming”) runs from the fourth Sunday before Christmas until the eve of Christmas. It is also the beginning of the Christian Year. One way of thinking about its purpose and meaning is to take each letter of the word, a-d-v-e-n-t, and let it represent a theme or aspect of this season. So let us try this method. A – Arrival During the season of Advent the Church of Christ joins the remnant of Israel (such as Simeon & Anna) through liturgy in preparing for the Arrival of the Messiah, the Son of David...

If you are looking for Advent-related materials and readings, Karen B. of "Lent and Beyond" has posted an Advent Devotionals category. I would definitely recommend checking this out from time to time during this Advent season!

Pope Begins Liturgical Year With Call to HolinessGives Spontaneous Homily on First Sunday of Advent VATICAN CITY, NOV. 27, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Presiding over vespers of the First Sunday of Advent, Benedict XVI began the new liturgical year with an appeal to holiness. In a spontaneous homily in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday, the Pope commented on 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24. In the text, St. Paul says to his faithful: "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who...

An Absolute Mystery    REV. KENNETH BAKER, S.J. The Incarnation (God became man in Jesus Christ) is the central mystery of Christianity. Involved are both the meaning of man himself and the revealed reality of the Holy Trinity, for when we say that "God became man", we mean that the Word of God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, united to himself a human nature. So God became in Jesus as we are. It is the defined, official teaching of the Church that the Incarnation, as a term of the divine action, is the mysterious union of the divine...

Advent – He Comes!  The King of GloryDaily Meditations Advent  is the sacred season of anticipation and expectation in which we come to terms with the deepest yearning of our soul – a yearning fulfilled only in Jesus Christ.  As we wait in longing for the coming of the Christ child at Christmas, we turn over to him all the false satisfactions – the compromises – of our life.  To live Advent is to live in the awareness of a Presence that changes us.  Our Advent preparation is marked by vigilance – custody of the heart in which we keep our...

November 27, 2005First Sunday of Advent Psalm: Sunday 51 Reading IIs 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7 You, LORD, are our father,our redeemer you are named forever.Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?Return for the sake of your servants,the tribes of your heritage.Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,with the mountains quaking before you,while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,such as they had not heard of from of old.No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but youdoing such deeds for...

Saturday November 11am Live Saturday November 3:30pm Encore 

Hallo again to all.Whether we like it or not, it's a fact that 'round the Anglican Communion our various provinces and national churches use different lectionaries. We are not all on the same page, so to speak, each Sunday. So we can't usefully refer, in these front-page scribbles, to a specific Gospel that 'we all heard' — because we didn't all hear it.But wherever we are in the Communion, this Sunday is the last in the church's year. Whether it's called the Sunday of Christ the King, the last Sunday after Pentecost, or the Sunday Next Before Advent, this...

For those who missed it, this is the first time the Holy Father has celebrated First Vespers with a worldwide broadcast. It's becoming evident (IMHO) that he is using the media to draw in an audience to witness the Cathoic liturgy as he believes it should be celebrated. And what a magnificent and beautiful celebration we witnessed today. The announcer reminded listeners that Pope Benedict XVI has enacted norms to ensure the Basilica of St. Peter's provides respectful silence at all times. The Holy Father processed in wearing a magnificent new cope, more evidence of his intention to restore the...

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