Do you know where your Advent wreath is?

I was recently in a local shop to buy my daughter a birthday present and Jingle Bells was playing as well as other "holiday" songs! It was only November 10th! On that note, I am posting this fun yet poignant piece below which I received in an email. I hope you like it. :)

Twas the Month before Christmas

Twas the month before Christmas

When all through our land,

Not a Christian was praying

Nor taking a stand.

See the PC Police had taken away

The reason for Christmas - no one could say.

The children were told by their schools not to sing

About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.

It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say

December 25th is just a ' Holiday'.

Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit

Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!

CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-Pod

Something was changing, something quite odd!

Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa

In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.

As Targets were hanging their trees upside down

At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.

At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears

You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.

Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty

Are words that were used to intimidate me.

Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen

On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!

At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter

To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.

And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith

Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace

The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded

The reason for the season, stopped before it started.



So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'



Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.

Choose your words carefully, choose what you say

Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS,

not Happy Holiday!

Please, all Christians join together and

wish everyone you meet

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christ is The Reason' for the Christ-mas Season!

If you agree please forward, if not, simply delete.



Get your wreath ready!

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT and even briefly let us know how you will be celebrating the Advent season in your domestic church as well as Christmas. What are some ways you will instill the real reason for the season into your family's hearts as well as to all you come in contact with. I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

A Wondrous Season of Hope and Love

Advent, A Wondrous Season of Hope and Love in which to Discover the Mystery of Our Lord’s Simplicity and Humility Wrapped in Swaddling Clothes

By Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle

Advent is a wondrous season of preparation as we make ready our homes and beautify our churches; decorating for a beautiful upcoming Christmas celebration. It’s not all about the decorations, wrappings, and music, though. It’s easy to get caught up in the exteriors. Yet, we must also take the time to prepare our hearts to receive the Christ Child. We can purge ourselves of some of the clutter that constantly fills our minds and our hearts to make room to allow Jesus in. “O marvelous exchange! Man’s Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity” (Antiphon I of Evening Prayer for January 1st).

We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’” (# 524).

As we renew our “ardent desire” and prepare for the celebration of our Savior’s birth, in this period of waiting and anticipation, let’s take some time out to pray, meditate, and recall that Our Savior, Jesus was born in a simple stable into a poor family. We know that His mother, Mary and stepfather Joseph led a challenging life and were initially shunned because of Mary’s pregnancy and then turned away from a suitable place in which to give birth; being forced to seek shelter in an animal’s home instead.

                    Ironically Simple and Quiet

For centuries, prophets, succeeding one another in Israel, had announced Jesus’ coming. Yet, our Savior’s birth took place very humbly and quietly; hardly what one would expect for a King’s birth—a holy occurrence of extreme magnitude. Humility, simplicity, holiness and silence surrounded the Holy Family in Bethlehem. Baby, Jesus rested His Sacred head on a bed of straw in a simple manger when He was not on his mother’s breast. Common shepherds were the first witnesses to the breathtaking awe-inspiring event of the birth of the Messiah.

Heaven’s glory, so deserving of a posh setting and splendor with trumpets sounding, was made manifest in sheer poverty. Amazing! And as we await our Lord’s birth in this season of quiet and anticipation, most of us are surrounded not with the blessing of simplicity and silence, but instead, with glitz and glitter, noise, bold advertising, and even shoving and fighting for parking spaces at malls in a race for sale items, the latest iPod, or cell phone. Our holy season has been reduced to a preoccupation about whether or not we can manage to get our hands on a Wii Nintendo system or some other “needed” electronic item before it’s sold out, rather than striving to come closer to Our Lord in prayer—such a severe contrast to the reality of Jesus’ birth—of the true meaning of His coming to us in the form of an innocent Child.

                     Focus on the Essential


We do know that to enter the kingdom of Heaven we must become like a child. Jesus did this literally for us. We need to humble ourselves to become little. We absolutely need to make time for prayer. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament will bring us very close to Jesus and give us amazing peace, grace, and strength for our journey. When we cannot get out, prayer within our domestic churches is just fine and pleasing to God. Retreating deep into our hearts, seeking our Lord throughout our busy days of Advent will keep us in communication with Him and help us focus on what is essential during a season of hustle and bustle.

While we take time out during what is meant to be a season of quiet, to pause and contemplate, what will we learn about the mystery of our Lord’s simplicity and humility wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger? What can we do to recapture and rekindle this holy time of year amid the chaotic atmosphere of our time? Let’s begin in our families, slowing down to pause and pray, seeking moments throughout our days to offer our hearts fully to God. Taking the time to give of our time which is really a priceless gift and not something we will find at a shopping mall.

Parents should make the time for prayer within their families no matter how busy they feel they are. Teaching children to take even a moment out each morning to greet our Lord, thanking Him for a new day, offering it all to Him, and asking Him to use them, will help transform an ordinary day into opportunities for grace and redemption. Parents should make use of the dinner table as a time of coming together, lighting the Advent wreath, praying together and enjoying each other’s company away from the busy world outside the doors of the home.

                   Lighting the Way

We can be a light to the world, to all around us, much like the star that drew the Magi to the Christ Child. Let’s think about what can we do or what changes we can make to become a light and lead the way for others. How can our words and actions, by God’s grace, help to convert hearts? Let us pray that we will draw others to Jesus because they see Him living in us. The light within us—Christ’s light—will draw others to the blessedness of our Christianity.

“Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this marvelous exchange,” we learn from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (# 526.) Let us pray that Christmas will be truly fulfilled in us all as we strive to become “little,” allowing Christ to live through us, lighting the way to Heaven.

[this article appreared at Catholic Mom.Com]

An Advent reflection

If we didn’t have hope, what would we do? Without hope many would despair. We don’t have to look very far to realize that so many live without much hope. When I think of hope, I recall the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love which we ask for on our first three Hail Mary beads of our rosaries. Hope becomes ours for the asking. Amazing! We have to remember to ask.

St. Clement of Alexandria wrote, “If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes.” Hope makes me also think about trust and surrender, which go hand and hand with our belief and love of God. When we have hope in our hearts we will be putting our trust in Our Lord and will be able to put one foot in front of the other each day, serving Our Lord in the people He surrounds us with. To do this, we surrender our lives to God through prayer so that we grow closer to Him and deeper in holiness.

As we light our first Advent candle very soon, a flickering flame will represent hope. Let us pray that we can focus on preparing our hearts to open wider for Our Lord this Advent season. Let’s hope that we can do our best to turn to prayer at every opportunity during a great season of hope and promise.

Perhaps the craziness of the advertising frenzy that flashes around us is too distracting, and we feel that we cannot find peace to pray during a season that is meant to be quiet so that we can prepare our hearts for the Christ Child. The Liturgy of Advent emphasizes quiet, penance, prayer, but also hope, light, joy, and surrender. Let’s strive to find those things. Let’s delve deeper than the surface and also realize that God is in control of everything. We can find quiet even amid the hustle and bustle, by lifting our hearts to God with a great hope and faith that He hears us – that He knows our hearts – that He loves us more than we can imagine!

An awful lot can be accomplished if we allow God to work through us to sanctify our actions and prayers when we offer it all to Him in full surrender. Our Lord calls us to surrender our lives to Him – everything! Surrendering can be as simple as accepting our circumstances, whether it be our living conditions, our state in life, both little and big annoyances, sickness and suffering, being misunderstood, being criticized and belittled for our Christianity. God’s hand is mystically in it all. He knows what‘s going on.

Will we surrender to Him and allow Him to work through us and around us? He wants us to surrender our wills to Him and respond in love to all who are in our midst. Yes, even to love the one who has just stolen “your” parking space or the one who is constantly criticizing you. It’s not always going to be easy. Jesus never said it would be. However, they all need our love; a healing love that will give others hope.

Mother Teresa had said that “Calcutta is all over the world for those who have eyes to see.” Let’s open our eyes so we can minister to the needs of the people that because of God’s divine providence are near us in some way – our family, co-workers, friends and parishioners. Is there someone who needs our love?

When we learn to surrender our lives over to Our Lord, we will have lasting and true peace, and joy of heart. This joy and peace will radiate as a healing balm to others around us; offering them hope for their journeys. Let’s be that ray of hope by giving our hearts to God and allowing Him to work through us during this upcoming wonderful hopeful season of Advent and beyond!

[this article previously appeared at Catholic Mom.Com]

Advent wreaths

Go on over to Anne's blog to see how she made this gorgeous Advent wreath as well as read about all its symbolism!