It occurred to me, as I digested this sweet like honey Advent calendar morsel, that FOX and the previous POTUS seek the same outcome: to persuade our citizens that we are victims, and as a result, enrage us.
It occurred to me, as I digested this sweet like honey Advent calendar morsel, that FOX and the previous POTUS seek the same outcome: to persuade our citizens that we are victims, and as a result, enrage us.
Wow! What a powerful depiction of Mary in the art piece by Ben wildflower. That will stay with me today! Diana , I love that you are sharing with us all your ideas of advent. It’s so sad that people on FOX are stirring up people like my folks to make war over Christmas.
Wow, I appreciate the focus you have made regarding the Biblical readings for this time. It reflects back to what we might be waiting for other than a Santa Clause Christmas.
WOW, that surely is a powerful commentary that carries perhaps even more relevance today! The cloud of forgetting how to honor underlying actual sacred meaning is still trying to obscure the truth. Yet to those who are willing to shake off the bonds of oppression, Mary’s words resonate with the deepest knowing we hold with reverence.
A great piece for the time that it was written, but today I think the Fox references distract from the meat of what the season of Advent is. That part I loved.
As always, spot on. I do think you get the point of the false narrative that FOX and others subject people to. The Advent season is one of deep internal reflection that illuminates the Christ in a hurting world. It is a time for gentle, loving, even merry, but deeply thoughtful steps toward the child who lays in a lowly manger. FOX is actually promoting a false narrative of consumerism and worse, exclusion toward those who walk a different path toward Love, including Christians who choose a quiet, simple, and contemplative approach to Love. By the way, I was at breakfast in a restaurant one day with a friend who is a Messianic Jew. She kindly greeted a stranger by saying, “Happy Holiday”. She loves Jesus as her savior, but does not celebrate Christmas. The gentlemen very rudely got in her face for not saying Merry Christmas. Yeah. A shining example of “a Christian” modeling the Love of our Lord. God love him. I hope he had a very merry Christmas!
Forgive my being nitpicky: Please start Your next advent calendar with 1 advent (which was Nov 28th, this year, as You know), not mecanically with Dec 1. It's not a big battle, but a step away from secular society's "december holiday".
Advent is a time of preparation for the Celebration of the birth of Jesus. In my very protestant DOC church we do , do Advent in that preparation. So it is a "universal" across many Christian Churches. And I am grateful for it. The "war" has been the month or more of Black Friday Advertisements that started way before the 25th, Of November. I have made it a point not to buy from the worst of these companies advertising.The family is taken care of mostly. Advent is like so many good Christian Workshps and camps I have been to through out life. I leave with good intentikons to follow through. It doesn't work always. So with Advent this year with the help of this community and others I hope to continue in the Advent spirit. Your post is a reminder to us all.
"Keep Christ in Christmas" is the mantra at all the Catholic parishes in the Diocese where I live. When I observe parishioners from these parishes, the first thing I notice is almost universal commercial consumerism which runs rampant at this time of year. Also, we kill trees wholesale willy nilly at this time of year.Not only for the smell of pine in our homes, but, consider your US Mail at this time of year:
The volume of paper that is delivered to my home each day has been increasing wildly since before Thanksgiving as we all are being primed to SHOP SHOP SHOP until we drop. Killing trees and shopping is not "Keeping Christ in Christmas", it is "doing things the way we have always done them" with no reflection on the consequences or outcomes of our doings which harm other beings.
Change is the hardest thing to do and asking Jesus to help me change the things in myself that the Holy Spirit prompts me to change is my most frequent prayer.
Instead of exhorting people to " Keep Christ in Christmas" (for the sake of discussion this includes Advent and what is referred to as "Christmastide") why not exhort people to KEEP CHRIST IN EVERYDAY?
Are we supposed to keep Christ for a few weeks at the end of every year, or, as Christians, are we not charged with keeping Christ in the every day in every way we can?
Not include episcopalian and Catholicism….people are excited about Jesus’ birth and look at this as a happy time. Why drag Fox News into this? I see what they are saying …. There is a movement to remove “Christmas” from our vocabulary, to remove nativity scenes from public places, a HUGE movement to remove any reference to Christmas in schools that started decades ago …. I saw it with my own children. Do you agree with having us exalt other religions and let them be prevalent in the schools and erase any reference to Christ ? Is that what you are saying in this religious publication ? I think you need a new viewpoint and I hope I have provided that.
It occurred to me, as I digested this sweet like honey Advent calendar morsel, that FOX and the previous POTUS seek the same outcome: to persuade our citizens that we are victims, and as a result, enrage us.
It occurred to me, as I digested this sweet like honey Advent calendar morsel, that FOX and the previous POTUS seek the same outcome: to persuade our citizens that we are victims, and as a result, enrage us.
How can there ever be a celebration of Christmas without Advent? Thank you for this calendar of reflections.
Wow! What a powerful depiction of Mary in the art piece by Ben wildflower. That will stay with me today! Diana , I love that you are sharing with us all your ideas of advent. It’s so sad that people on FOX are stirring up people like my folks to make war over Christmas.
I’m not getting the emails for the Advent series. Did I misunderstand?
Wow, I appreciate the focus you have made regarding the Biblical readings for this time. It reflects back to what we might be waiting for other than a Santa Clause Christmas.
WOW, that surely is a powerful commentary that carries perhaps even more relevance today! The cloud of forgetting how to honor underlying actual sacred meaning is still trying to obscure the truth. Yet to those who are willing to shake off the bonds of oppression, Mary’s words resonate with the deepest knowing we hold with reverence.
A great piece for the time that it was written, but today I think the Fox references distract from the meat of what the season of Advent is. That part I loved.
Great selection of poetry and quotes though.
As always, spot on. I do think you get the point of the false narrative that FOX and others subject people to. The Advent season is one of deep internal reflection that illuminates the Christ in a hurting world. It is a time for gentle, loving, even merry, but deeply thoughtful steps toward the child who lays in a lowly manger. FOX is actually promoting a false narrative of consumerism and worse, exclusion toward those who walk a different path toward Love, including Christians who choose a quiet, simple, and contemplative approach to Love. By the way, I was at breakfast in a restaurant one day with a friend who is a Messianic Jew. She kindly greeted a stranger by saying, “Happy Holiday”. She loves Jesus as her savior, but does not celebrate Christmas. The gentlemen very rudely got in her face for not saying Merry Christmas. Yeah. A shining example of “a Christian” modeling the Love of our Lord. God love him. I hope he had a very merry Christmas!
Forgive my being nitpicky: Please start Your next advent calendar with 1 advent (which was Nov 28th, this year, as You know), not mecanically with Dec 1. It's not a big battle, but a step away from secular society's "december holiday".
Advent is a time of preparation for the Celebration of the birth of Jesus. In my very protestant DOC church we do , do Advent in that preparation. So it is a "universal" across many Christian Churches. And I am grateful for it. The "war" has been the month or more of Black Friday Advertisements that started way before the 25th, Of November. I have made it a point not to buy from the worst of these companies advertising.The family is taken care of mostly. Advent is like so many good Christian Workshps and camps I have been to through out life. I leave with good intentikons to follow through. It doesn't work always. So with Advent this year with the help of this community and others I hope to continue in the Advent spirit. Your post is a reminder to us all.
Thank you
"Keep Christ in Christmas" is the mantra at all the Catholic parishes in the Diocese where I live. When I observe parishioners from these parishes, the first thing I notice is almost universal commercial consumerism which runs rampant at this time of year. Also, we kill trees wholesale willy nilly at this time of year.Not only for the smell of pine in our homes, but, consider your US Mail at this time of year:
The volume of paper that is delivered to my home each day has been increasing wildly since before Thanksgiving as we all are being primed to SHOP SHOP SHOP until we drop. Killing trees and shopping is not "Keeping Christ in Christmas", it is "doing things the way we have always done them" with no reflection on the consequences or outcomes of our doings which harm other beings.
Change is the hardest thing to do and asking Jesus to help me change the things in myself that the Holy Spirit prompts me to change is my most frequent prayer.
Instead of exhorting people to " Keep Christ in Christmas" (for the sake of discussion this includes Advent and what is referred to as "Christmastide") why not exhort people to KEEP CHRIST IN EVERYDAY?
Are we supposed to keep Christ for a few weeks at the end of every year, or, as Christians, are we not charged with keeping Christ in the every day in every way we can?
I think you miss the point of Fox
News. In the Protestant world that does
Not include episcopalian and Catholicism….people are excited about Jesus’ birth and look at this as a happy time. Why drag Fox News into this? I see what they are saying …. There is a movement to remove “Christmas” from our vocabulary, to remove nativity scenes from public places, a HUGE movement to remove any reference to Christmas in schools that started decades ago …. I saw it with my own children. Do you agree with having us exalt other religions and let them be prevalent in the schools and erase any reference to Christ ? Is that what you are saying in this religious publication ? I think you need a new viewpoint and I hope I have provided that.
It is not that I want to throw down the rich and trample them,...I just want them to stop kneeling on my neck!