This Month's Holy & Feast Days
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6-Second Sunday of Advent
8-Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary
13-Third Sunday of Advent
20-Fourth Sunday of Advent
25-Christmas
27-The Holy Family
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Purchase an Autographed Copy for a Christmas "Stocking Stuffer"
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The Best Christmas Ever
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Made From the Heart
The economic times have caused many to re-think their
Christmas giving practices, both financially and personally. And that's a good
thing. Many of us are re-initiating an older practice of craftily creating a
gift that matches the loved one we are targeting. As always, we support gifts
of nature available from the great outdoors. Here are a few selections:
PINECONE POTPOURRI
Anything
goes in this creation. Of course small pine cones, dried fruit, whole nuts,
cinnamon sticks and even rosehips to name a few. Pick up a Christmas scent from
your favorite craft store to sprinkle the creation with, place it in a lovely
glass container (a large mason jar works wonderfully) and then tie with a
ribbon. Voila! A gift that pleases
all!
PHOTOGRAPHIC GARDEN
ART
Have you taken pictures of your flower garden or vegetable garden?
Why not take a few of your favorite shots and print them off your computer or
at a kiosk in a store and then frame them, even mat them, placing them in a
picture frame from the dollar store. These type of photos go well in kitchens,
bedrooms and dens.
DON'T FORGET THE
BIRDS
Roll peanut butter into a small smooth ball. Then roll the ball
into bird seed. Run a small twig through the ball, attaching string to the
stick and hand from a tree. The birds will "thank you" with their songs.
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Botanical Glories
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At Christmas time our homes and churches are filled with the beauty of the
starry Poinsetta. What a magnificent plant to represent this most holy time of
year. No where can you experience a more magical natural setting in the
Christmas season than at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Each Christmas time
they feature their famous Gardenland Express, a train that runs through
botanical glory. The Missouri Botanical Gardens is the oldest botanical garden
in the United States and has passed along 150 years of botanical
knowledge.
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Don't We Love Our Christmas/Winter Birds?
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One of the most prolific Christmas/Winter birds East of the Mississippi is the
beautiful warbling Purple Finch. A raspberry-colored little bird that spends
most of its summer days in the Northeast corridor of the United States and parts of Canada, is
taken to other parts of the country as part of its migratory pattern. Leave
this gentle and beautiful bird some treats in the back yard to help it through
the winter. It loves black-oil sunflower seeds.
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Story Time Goes to the Dogs
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The family dogs wait anxiously to
hear the Christmas story from "Daddy." This has become a family tradition in our home except this
year we add our two new sons.
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 Peace Be With You This Holy Christmas Season!
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Greetings!
I would like to thank all of you who have supported us since our debut
September 1st, as our fledgling mission took flight to renew the earth with
concerned, responsible and loving stewards of creation! It is in your honor that
I will have Mass said for all of you during this Christmas Season, asking the
Creator of us ALL to love you immensely and bless you abundantly.
Merry Christmas and may Jesus, Mary and Joseph
find your homes filled with the warmth of family love and the hearths of
your souls a fit dwelling to place the miracle of Christmas!
In Joy and Peace,
Susi Pittman |
A Moment with Father Ron
 Advent of Peace
In the beginning was
the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the
beginning with God.
All things came to be
through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be
through him was life,
and
this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
Beloved, without Advent
there is no reality of Christ-Mass. Christmas is celebrated only because the LAMB of GOD was
slaughtered on Good Friday after the Passover. The Passover commemorates how
the Hebrew people escaped the horrible conditions of slavery in Egypt four
hundred years after they were in harmony with the Pharaoh and the Egyptian
people.
Moses was
instructed by God to tell the people that if they wished to survive the death
of their first born and enter into freedom (in the perilous desert), they first
had to slaughter a lamb and smear the blood on their front doorposts the night
of the seventh moon of the Jewish New Year (Yom Kippur). Remember, Jews must drain the blood of animals
before eating them. Blood was sacred not only for humans, but animals as well.
The "blood" line of Jesus can be traced all
the
way back to Adam and  Eve. In her book, Animals in Heaven? Catholics Want to Know!, Susi
Pittman is clear and concise in showing the fall and the ultimate Restoration
of the soul of human beings. Our hope is to be in Heaven with our
Creator and Beloved for all eternity. Susi raises the question of whether
animals are in Heaven also. Advent is Latin for "to come".
Advent is a time for us to hope for the coming of Heaven. Jesus, the Lamb of
God, is coming for you, me, and all of His Creation. Susi shares her
love of her husband, pets, wild animals and parts of our environment that have
died. Her hope is in what the Sacred Scriptures exude of love, joy, peace and
hope in Heaven.
In the Song of
Songs, chapter 2, written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, the prophet cries
out with the words of Our Beloved coming for us. Jesus is in love with us and
all creation. Allow ourselves to cry out this most beautiful Canticle about how
Jesus' love is stronger than death. Yes! Yes! Advent is about falling in love
with our Beloved, Jesus. Christmas is about the formal engagement to our
Beloved, Jesus. January 10,
2010 is the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus in which is the last day
of Christmas and the first day of Ordinary Time leading up to the Passover and
the Wedding Feast of Easter. It is beyond our comprehension that we will be
married to God forever.
According to Saint
Luke, "After all the people had
been  baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened
and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice
came from heaven, "You are my beloved
Son; with you I am well pleased."
Let us hope like
Noah waiting for the dove to return with an olive branch as a sign that the
flood waters have receded.
Isaac asked his
father, "Father, here is the wood on my back, and you carry the fire and knife.
Where is the sacrifice?" Abraham, with tears hidden in his soul, simply said,
"My son, God will provide." God is coming for us as Abraham holds the knife he
is about to plunge into his son whom he loves more than himself. "Abraham!
Abraham! Don't kill your beloved son. I know you love me. I will provide for
you everything I have. I will promise you my Son, the Lamb. As a sign of this
promise, see the ram caught in the bushes. One day, My Son will come to the
earth and be caught with a crown of thorns."
Our hope is that
God will fulfill His promise. But that promise means that the Blood of the Lamb
will be smeared on our doorposts, our lips. And we will eat the flesh of God in
the form of a gentle lamb who says, "Father! I have the wood of the cross on my
shoulders and back. The fire of sin is in your beloved people. And the sword of
the evil one is in their hands. I have fallen in love with these people even
though they insist on slaughtering me and pasting my body on a bloody cross
like the Passover almost 2000 years ago. Father, forgive them; they do not know
what they are doing. My birth, life, suffering, death, and resurrection is your
one and only Christmas Gift for them. I love them, my chosen spouse, soul mate,
and Beloved for all eternity. I can hardly wait to present my beloved people
to you. I will even give them my most Blessed Mother Mary to them so that my
mother will be their mother and we will be united as ONE for all eternity."
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,and the leopard shall lie down with the kid:
The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra's den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.
(Isaiah 11:1-10)
This Advent let us
hope for peace. Let us hope that the animals in the preceding passage from the
prophet Isaiah will indeed be replaced with people of the world. Then sinners
shall be a guest of The Lamb. Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and Christian will
browse together. Republicans and Democrats shall browse together with a little
child to guide them. The people of Iraq
and Iran, Afghanistan and the World, The South and The
North, China and Russia, Cuba
and the United States, Israel and Palestine,
North and South Korea,
shall all be neighbors. How would you place the Sunni and Shiites in this passage?
Where would you put the insurrectionists and religious extremists? And where
would you place yourself and your most terrifying enemy?
When we forgive
those who have hurt and abused us, then the Beloved will come searching for His
Beloved, YOU and ME!
Hark! my lover-here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a
gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind
our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
My lover speaks; he says
to me,
"Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one,
and come!
For see, the winter is
past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on
the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the dove is heard in our
land.
The fig tree puts
forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth
fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my
beautiful one,
and come!
"O my dove in the
clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is
sweet,
and you are lovely." (Song of Songs 2:8-14)
O Holy Night must
come! May you find your Beloved, The Best Gift Ever, this Christmas. I pray
that you nurture the lamb born among wolves. May we all hope to be the guest of
the Lamb. Joy to the World! The Beloved is coming!
Love, joy, peace and hope,
Father Ron Moses +
www.tearinthedesert.com
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A Mother's Blessing
Since I was a child, this season has always been my favorite time of year. Memories of decorating the home, cooking meals and family gatherings always fill my heart with warmth and fondness. But as I have grown, Christmas time has taken on a whole new meaning. This Christmas season will be the third year that my husband and I have been blessed with the presence of little bundle of joy on the way. There is something truly special about being pregnant during this Holy season. The most poignant moment for me occurred shortly after the birth of our first son, Aidan. I was asked if he could play the part of the "live Jesus" in our local parish Nativity play. Honored, yet humbled, I excitedly agreed. While sitting in the audience watching this young teenage girl hold my infant son, a very surreal reflection came over me. What must have been going through Mary's mind as she cradled our infant Savior in her arms and gazed into his eyes? What wonder and awe she must have felt. Yet what an incredible sense of responsibility must have been within her heart to know that this child, given to her by our Heavenly Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, was to bring redemption and salvation for all the world. Most new mother's are overwhelmed with the onset of the responsibility of raising a child. But can you imagine having Our Blessed Mother's responsibility of caring for, protecting and raising Jesus? Yet, she took this responsibility on with such love, trust, humility, grace and peace...a calling only she could fulfill. Although I have always had a great devotion to Our Blessed Mother, it has been in becoming a mother that I have found an even deeper connection to her. This Christmas season as Aidan is now 2, Gregory, now 1, and little Kaleigh due in January, I feel so blessed for the lives the Lord has bestowed upon our family. I am also thankful for the example our mother, Mary, has set for all women. For it was through her "yes" to God, that the redemptive Christ was brought forth into the world. During this Christmas season, I invite all of you to not only count your blessings in your own lives, but to also be thankful for the eternal life brought forth to all of creation through the birth of Christ. He is, after all, "the reason for the season!"
Wishing you and your families a very blessed Christmas,
Seana Hutchinson
Vice-President / Director of Communications
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