As if in a state of disbelief, I told everyone of this milestone stopping short in asking for a gift - as someone suggested!

I have a broken handled mug by the kitchen landline that holds biro's, pencils etc that reads: - life begins at 40.

I have another broken-handled mug by the landline extension that reads 50 years - bigger and better.

Thank goodness no one bought me a 70th mug since I don't need reminding that the years are ticking by!

Like reaching significant life stages, Advent sends us deep within our soul to look at our lives more critically. To wonder deeply the purpose and meaning of my life and where I'm going.

These 40 days point way beyond planning for Christmas Day and Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, to bringing us to His coming again.

No use guessing when this will happen, because Jesus didn't give us that information, just that we need to be found primed.

"He will come like a burglar in the night", Jesus says in Matthew 24:43-44, "because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect".

The fact of the matter is, if we did know an intruder was preying our neighbourhood, we certainly wouldn't leave the front door wide open or the security latches on the windows unhinged.

This scripture alerts us to attend to those areas of the self that need integration so we are found ready with no regrets to welcome Jesus.

Let's use this time to our advantage and to revive our awareness that in actual fact, God hasn't only come into the world, but my life as well. Waiting doesn't have to be a waste of time.

What does that mean to me? What does that look like for you?

Perhaps we need to stop edging God out of our lives by our obsession for self-determination, or finally deal with issues that we've swept under the carpet, or open a genuine pathway to restore a fractured friendship, or confront another where you are being disrespected or a relationship that needs to become honest.

James 5:8 encourages us not to lose heart and to be patient.

He uses the beautiful natural image of the farmer.

Think of the farmer; how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains.

Christmas is more than God becoming a baby boy.

But the paradox is that in rejoicing in His birth, we know that in the prime of His life, Jesus will agonizingly die from His barbaric injuries, and rise again opening the door of eternal life.

But Jesus' entry into human history in that barn and that He would suffer greatly, wasn't a complete surprise.

In the first book of the Bible, we're told when first man and woman were evicted from the Garden of Eden, God's unfolding plan of redemption got underway.

That original intimate relationship between God and we, God's people was to be restored in the promise of the Saviour Jesus.

In the last sentence in the last book of the Bible we read "I shall indeed be with you soon. Come, Lord Jesus."

As New Testament people waiting for Jesus to come again - or as Jesuit priest and theologian Karl Rahner suggests "that the world will come to Jesus rather than Jesus to the world" - we can rightly identify with that exact same pining experienced by the Old Testament people, when they waited seemingly forever, for the coming of Emmanual.

The lyrics of Prepare a way for the Lord by Michael Herry fms is a song that can be sung by all peoples and at all times.

So listen again to the voice heard within,
to the challenging call of your God!
Turn away from sin and renew your lives,
through the saving power of Christ - the power of Christ.

• Sue Seconi is a writer and a parishioner from the Catholic Parish of Whanganui - te Parihi katorika ki Whanganui.

We are all dealing with Covid—no one is excluded from this experience.

We know the grief of these times; those with secure incomes have had greater security, while those without this have suffered more.

Grief can emerge as feelings of hopelessness, resignation and anger.

However, now is a time for honesty and resilience.

When we can't see the path ahead, and our goals are frustrated, it is easy to lose hope in the future and in ourselves.

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.

It is the ability to spring back into shape.

It is a courageous virtue we see in those living and dealing with layer-upon-layer of grief.

We have choices about how we encounter these times; we have a choice to be hope-filled or not.

Hope provides a positive vision for the day and for the future.

Hope is a motivational desire to keep moving forwards. It is an optimistic state of mind. Hope can help us emerge from distressing and even tragic situations with a sense of purpose.

Hope builds resilience

Without hope, our mental and physical health can deteriorate.

Exercise, sensible eating, limited booze and good friends are all part of the jigsaw of hope-filled living.

People with high levels of hope have better physical and mental health, and are a tonic for those who are struggling.

Without hope, life becomes a lonely, isolated experience.

Hope gives a sense of personal meaning—particularly now—more extensive than what we own, where we work, what we think politically, what we have lost.

In fact, too much emphasis on these passing things can create social isolation.

On the other hand, Advent is a time to look at what gives value and brings life.

Goals

Advent is a time to review or modify your goals.

We all need realistic goals that fit the "new normal", and we need to consider the pathway and the required changes to achieve them.

For example, you might want a big overseas family holiday, but now you'll have to settle for a holiday in a nearby caravan park.

Embrace it!

Let go of the expectations that bind and bring anxiety and enjoy the simple.

It is time to let go of 2021.

Essential values

As if we need reminding now is a time to pivot in a way that focuses on our essential values, such as family, friendship and community.

It's a time to step out of ourselves; to recall and care for the needs of others.

It is a time to find new expressions that open up a world of hope and possibilities because they are new, different and challenging; a self-centred view of the world serves no one.

Sharing hope; being grateful

Hope is an invitation to step out of yourself and your own concerns and consider the needs of the bigger world in which you participate as a Christian-Catholic citizen.

Here is a thought.

It might be worthwhile driving up onto a high hill or mountain, getting out of your car and looking around at the vast, wonderful world you are living in and giving thanks.

And when there, look down from your mountain height and see the smallness of the city or town you live in and the smallness of the place where you work.

Then look at the infinite sky and the horizon and be grateful.

Gratitude is the heart of the Christian Eucharist.

Thanksgiving is central to our faith and at the heart of all our sacraments and liturgy.

As we stand with Christ before the Father, we stand as a community of grateful people, people called from darkness, anxiety and fear into God's life-giving light.

Gratitude mixes with hope to strengthen faith and increase charity. These are theological virtues, not sentimental ideas.

Without a robust theology of life a Christian community becomes just another social agency that will eventually fail.

Being a person of hope is the call of the Christian today.

Our ability to hope is not dependent on our vaccination status—we go much deeper than that.

Hope centred in Christ

Fear has the capacity to undo us and confuse our thinking reducing it to a mind-numbing daily sameness.

The Hebrew People believed and held their hope through the experiences of betrayal, warfare, exile, seemingly pointless meandering in the desert and oppression.

They waited, in hope, for times of joy, peace and well-being.

Christ, who stands before the Father, is the source of our strength, our spirit, our hope and our resilience.

Advent hope helps us navigate life's uncertainty with some clarity.

• Dr Joe Grayland is a theologian and a priest of the Diocese of Palmerston North. His latest book is titled: Catholics. Prayer, Belief and Diversity in a Secular Context (Te Hepara Pai, 2020).

In prayer, we are now with Mary and the angel.

Gabriel does not appear to us like something from a medieval painting, but we are aware of a presence that nudges our heart.

Male and female alike, we are called to become pregnant with God.

And like Mary, we say, "How can this be?"

It is only when we add, "Let it be done to me," that we realise we have the Holy Presence in us.

By saying "yes" to call, we are allowing it to grow.

How do we know that the call to the heart is from God?

It is positive. It is always a call to newness, a call to a larger pace.

Sometimes the call can be to a vocation or some other major change.

For me, the nudge of the angel is not about an earth-changing event. It's usually about the small things that inhibit spiritual growth.

I have failed to forgive. Prayer has lapsed. I have not valued all people equally. I have been unkind.

I know we're told not to sweat the small stuff, but on the spiritual journey, it's the small stuff that is big.

I've found that if I miss or ignore a call, it will come again and again. That angel is persistent. God will keep sending it back.

When we open our hearts as Mary did, we hear her song within us. "My soul glorifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my saviour."

Advent happens in us all year.

For many, a favourite Advent reflection comes from "Wellsprings" by Jesuit Anthony de Mello.

The book is no longer in print, but here is the Advent text.

"The events of history were controlled for my coming into the world no less than for the coming of the Saviour.

"The time had to be ripe, the place just right, the circumstances ready, before I could be born.

"God chose the parents of his Son and endowed them with the personality they needed for the Child to be born.

"I speak to God about the man and woman he chose to be my parents until I see that they had to be the kind of human beings they were if I was to be what God meant me to be.

"The Christ-child came like every other child, to give the world a message.

"What message have I come to give?

"I seek guidance from the Lord to express it in a word or an image.

"Christ came into the world to walk a certain path, fulfil a certain destiny. He consciously fulfilled what was "written" for him.

"As I look back, I see in wonder what has been "written" for me and has thus far been fulfilled in my own life, and for each part of that script, I say "Thanks," to make it holy with my gratitude.

"I look with expectation and surrender on all that is to come, and like the Christ, I say, "Yes, let it be done…"

"Finally, I recall the song the angels sang when Christ was born. They sang of the peace and the joy that gives God glory.

"Have I ever heard the song the angels sang when I was born?"

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

We all know of Lent, but what is Advent? What is its history? Here are seven facts you might have known on the subject. Read more

The child is waiting for her birthday.

The young man waits for his exam results while the girl who sits next to him, waits for him to notice her.

The family sit around an injured cyclist, waiting for him to regain consciousness.

A couple wonder if the bank will give them a loan for the house they want to buy..

This waiting is not simply about leaning towards something. Expectation may be in the head, but in the heart there is something much deeper - hope.

Hope is not a thought. It's a feelimg.

When we follow the Advent path of that feeling no matter how long it is, or what time of year, we end up in a stable where a woman holds a baby.

The days before Christmas can get cluttered with decoration and busyness, but underneath that, in the stillness, is where hope leads us.

The experience is not something out of a book.

It is actual.

We recognise Joseph, a man of honour, still confused. Although he loves this woman and her special baby, he wishes someone would explain what it's all about.

He is a practical man. He knows the grain of different woods and how to shape olive and cedar. Trees are not complicated. He doesn't understand why God should bring new life into the world this way.

We are with Mary, the girl child now a woman but she has no questions. She is radiant.

She doesn't realise she has presaged the Eucharist by surrendering body and blood to give Christ to the world.

That is beyond her.

All she knows is that she is in love with this little baby. The way he fills her life seems as big as the sky.

She holds him to her breast, lost in the wonder she calls God.

Now we come to the newborn infant. We know him. We have always known him. He is the Word made flesh and through him all things, including us, are made.

His name is Jesus. God -is-with-us.

This is the destination of the hope-filled path of Advent. It is where waiting leads us.

And the stable? What is the stable?

We know that, too.

It is the beautiful heart in each one of us.

In an interview with Crux, O'Malley offers his take on how Catholics should seize the many opportunities for the renewal of faith presented during the season of Advent, particularly during a time when many Catholics are returning to the pews after some time away.

"If Advent is about anything," O'Malley says, "it's an annual season that forms us in the art of desiring God."

Crux: You write in your book that some boredom at mass is okay and even healthy. How so?

O'Malley: I write about two types of boredom in the Mass: good and bad boredom.

Bad boredom is the result of impoverished preaching, terrible liturgical music, sloppy presiding, and an inadequate life of prayer outside of the Mass.

This kind of boredom should be fixed through more careful attention to preaching, liturgical aesthetics, and spiritual formation.

On the other hand, there is also a good boredom that calls us more deeply into the life of prayer. Too often American religion is characterized by a sense that we have to experience immediate affections if our common prayer is to be efficacious.

In the case of the Mass, this often means the undergraduates describe being "bored" at Mass when what they're actually experiencing is an invitation to enter more deeply into the act of prayer.

Good boredom is the way that God moves us from the delight in immediate affections to a deeper offering of ourselves.

This kind of good boredom is akin to moving beyond the honeymoon stage of a marriage to the day-to-day art of living together.

The problem is that in an age of the smartphone, where there's always an experience that can elicit immediate affections, we don't stay in the period of good boredom long enough.

We look to escape from this boredom rather than learn the art of prayer that it calls us toward. Continue reading

Sources

• Crux article by Christopher White
• Image: Franciscan Friars, Tor

Many Catholic churches appear almost stark in comparison with almost everywhere else in the lead up to Christmas.

That is, apart from for Advent wreaths and maybe some greenery or white lights.

"The chance for us to be a little out of sync or a little countercultural is not a bad thing," said Paulist Father Larry Rice.

Rice is the director of the University Catholic Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Read more

Now, I'm not usually one for women's devotionals (or devotionals of any sort, for that matter). But my sister knows this, so when she suggested Rooted in Hope, I thought it was worth a look.

Ladies, this Scripture study is an actual Scripture study!

It trains the reader in lectio divina, an ancient practice of prayerfully reading Scripture, then leads you through that practice with different Scripture passages each day of Advent.

But more than that, it gives you background and context for each Scriptural passage, followed by a reflection on each passage.

The reflections deal with all different kinds of life experiences, with different women reflecting on the different ways they've learned to love God.

But the heart of the devotional is God's Word-both excerpts in the book and additional passages that the authors point you to. It's impossible to use this devotional well without having your Bible open alongside it, which is exactly how devotionals ought to work.

Reading through Rooted in Hope, I found myself flipping to different passages, wanting to chew through the Word of God and enter more deeply into it.

And on days when you might not want to take time to ruminate on the Scriptures, the text holds you accountable by inviting you to take notes on your lectio each day.

It's a gentle invitation (the editor explicitly tells you to be gentle with yourself, not to make this yet another task to accomplish, another reason to become discouraged when we fail), but one that beckons, if for no other reason than that it's supremely unsatisfying to leave these pages blank. Continue reading

• Meg Hunter-Kilmer is a cradle Catholic and a revert, brought back to the fold by a grace-filled confession and the supreme logic of Catholic doctrine.

Christians across the world are being invited to celebrate the season of Advent through an interactive, multi-lingual online calendar.

The website adventword.org goes live on Advent Sunday (27 November) in nine languages including, for the first time, Arabic.

It allows people around the globe to create together an advent calendar with images shared by their mobile phones. Read more

And then, successful science fair experience behind them, the family curls up together to watch a movie. Apparently expensive tvs are good at bringing families together as well as facilitating academic success. In another Christmas commercial, this one for some luxury car, a young, handsome man shows his wife her present—a fancy SUV with a big red bow. She smiles, only to have her face immediately fall because she wanted adifferent expensive car.

Judge American society based on television commercials and you might get the idea that we're a pretty frivolous bunch. Ads constantly scream, "Your child/spouse/parent/pet will only love you if you buy them the best!"

Meanwhile, Syrian refugees are fleeing for their lives and being turned away from nations' borders with nowhere to go.

In Chennai, India, hundreds of people are dead and thousands have been displaced because of flooding.

The terrorist attacks in Paris last month killed 129 people. It all makes all of my own problems seem pretty trivial.

That might explain why I'm having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. It doesn't seem quite right to sit around a decorated tree in my warm apartment, drinking hot cocoa and listening to lyrics like, "O tidings of comfort and joy" or "Joy to the world."

Advent is supposed to be a time of preparation, of anticipation and excitement for the coming of Christ. It feels more like the end times than the beginning of something special. Continue reading

• Emily Sanna is an associate editor at U.S. Catholic.

From the drug cartel war in Mexico, to the civil war in South Sudan, to the Islamic State war, armed conflict has spread like an infectious deadly disease - which of course it is.

But nowhere is war more ironic than in the Holy Land; the land on which the feet of the God of peace (1 Thess 5:23) walked.

Matt McGarry Catholic Relief Services' Country Representative for Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza explained to me in an email interview that the situation there is extremely tense.

From Jerusalem McGarry wrote, "Knife and vehicular attacks on Israeli civilians and security personnel, extrajudicial executions of Palestinian suspects, near daily protests and clashes, regular closures and roadblocks have combined to create a very unstable situation," in this part of the world.

McGarry explained that Palestinians in Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Gaza face numerous serious challenges, many of which are becoming more pronounced by the day. High rates of unemployment in the region - Gaza's astronomical 44 percent unemployment rate - home demolitions, extensive restrictions on movement, separation of families, and constant conflict are all major difficulties.

Similar to the confined townships in former apartheid South Africa, the Bethlehem area - nearly strangled by the Israeli separation barrier - is an example of an apartheid-like township where freedom of movement is seriously limited.

According to a commentary taken from the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns' Middle East Notes (http://bit.ly/1OGStPn), there are no realistic prospects for a viable two-state solution in the foreseeable future. "The on-going and permanent occupation of the West Bank, the ‘imprisonment' of the Gaza people, and the increasing restrictions of Jerusalem Palestinians, give evidence that Israel is moving toward complete annexation of all the ‘occupied territories.'

"The focus held by Israeli, Palestinian and world-wide advocates for justice and peace, is toward pressuring the Israel government to guarantee and promote basic human rights of all the people under its control - Israelis and Palestinians."

An excellent way to greatly help accomplish the establishment of basic human rights is to actively promote the "Holy Land Principles" (www.holylandprinciples.org).

These principles in summary call on U.S. companies operating in Israel and Palestine to adhere to equal and fair employment practices in all areas without discrimination, to actively recruit underrepresented employee groups, and to work with governmental and community authorities to eliminate ethnic, racial and religious disparities in government spending on education, training, access to health care and housing.

Another excellent organization dedicated to justice and peace in the Holy Land is Churches for Middle East Peace (www.cmep.org).

An additional way to help ease the suffering in the Holy Land is to support Catholic Relief Services' fair trade initiatives. One of the projects CRS supported this year helped fund the complete renovation of six unsafe, unhealthy olive wood workshops in the Bethlehem region, benefitting 225 workers and their communities.

Kindly consider making an early Christmas gift to help Caritas Aotearoa NZ's efforts to improve living conditions in the Holy Land by going to this link http://www.caritas.org.nz.

Easing the hardships of our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land will assist our preparation for a rebirth of the Prince of Peace in our hearts this Christmas.

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist.

It celebrates plenty of major feasts with lots of customs, traditions, and even special foods during the month of December.

St. Nicholas

Early in the Advent season, Dec. 6, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Nicholas, a 4th-century bishop from the region of modern-day Turkey well known for his generosity. The day has customs similar to Christmas, but with variations: Instead of gifts placed in stockings or under the tree, they are placed in children's shoes left outside their bedroom door the previous night.

The day is celebrated differently around the world and particularly emphasized in Eastern Europe, but in the United States, it is primarily focused on the shoe custom with an added emphasis on doing good things for others.

The St. Nicholas Center in Holland, Michigan, sponsors a traveling St. Nicholas exhibit and also has lots of information on its website on the history of the feast day, ways to celebrate, and the distinction between Santa Claus and St. Nicholas.

Immaculate Conception

Two days after the feast of St. Nicholas, the Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of the United States. The feast is a holy day of obligation celebrating the belief that Mary was without sin from the moment she was conceived.

The day itself does not have anything to do with Advent, but was chosen as the date nine months from the date the Church celebrates Mary's birth, Sept. 8.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

The other Marian feast in December is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Dec. 12, which commemorates Mary's appearance to St. Juan Diego in 1531 at Tepayac, a hill northwest of modern-day Mexico City. Continue reading

Source and Image

• Crux, from an article by Carol Zimmermann.

A week ago, a young Jewish boy from a town near mine, who was studying and volunteering in Israel, was killed by a Palestinian gunman in the West Bank after he had brought food to Israeli soldiers. I wrote a note to a friend in that community, assuming he may have known the family.

"They are our closest friends," he responded. "It is heartbreaking."

How little has changed in 2,000 years. Piety and good works don't save us from violence. Quite the opposite it seems, these days.

As I climb into my attic and poke around for the purple and pink candles to make my Advent wreath, I can't help but recall a more innocent time in my own home not so very long ago. Advent was the time for concocting ornaments and playing carols while we worked.

It was the season of the "Jesus Box;" each day we'd put into it a piece of paper on which we'd written a small deed of kindness we'd done for another. We made peanut butter pine cones for the birds, drank cocoa late in the long afternoons, read books, and strung popcorn.

All of these gestures were designed to bring a slower, more mindful pace to our days, so that when Christmas came, we would greet it with a renewed understanding of the incarnational message, "Christ is born" - the kingdom of God come among us.

"Resetting" the ordinary and seeing the holy in this season isn't as easy as it once was. Saturated by news clips and tweets of divisiveness, how are we to find the quiet in which we might discover our own navigational stars of hope?

The shelter of mere tranquility has collapsed for many of us. If we are totally honest, we are wandering in a dark as deep as that of Mary, Joseph, and the Magi, harried by the same environment of conflict and uncertainty. Continue reading

• Kathleen Hirsch is an adjunct professor at Boston College, spiritual director at Bethany House of Prayer in Arlington, Massachusetts, and a retreat leader.

The modern Advent wreath, created in 19th-century Germany by Johann Hinrich Wichern, featured red and white candles. While these colors may be more in keeping with traditional Christmas décor, they were most likely used because they were just what was available.

A Lutheran pastor, Wichern was actively involved in the Inner Mission movement, which promoted the development of social service organizations for the poor. In 1839 students at a school Wichern established for poor boys in Hamburg kept asking him when Christmas would arrive.

Using an old cart wheel, Wichern crafted a wreath of four large white candles, with small red candles between them. The children would light a new candle each day, and a new white candle on each of the four Sundays of Advent. When all the candles had been lit, it was time to celebrate Christmas.

Subsequent generations of German Christians simplified Wichern's original design, making wreaths with only four red candles. Other Christian churches soon adapted the wreath for their own needs and understandings of the season.

To reinforce the symbolism of the liturgical vestments worn by priests, Catholics swapped the red candles for three purple candles—the color typically associated with penance—and one pink, the color of rejoicing worn on the third Sunday of Advent.

In Orthodox Christian churches, where the observance of Advent lasts 40 days, the wreath has six candles that are green (faith), blue (hope), gold (love), white (peace), purple (penance), and red (communion).

Members of the Moravian Church use four plain beeswax candles that can be made at home, reflecting a faith tradition that values simplicity and domestic work. Continue reading

Sources

• U.S. Catholic, from an article by Kathleen Manning, who teaches history at Loyola University Chicago.
• Image: Austral Candles

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph...

Arguments about the virgin birth have no place in spiritual journey. We all have a virgin space in our lives. It is a restless space, a hunger in the heart that only God can fill. Men and women alike, we are made to become pregnant with God. That is our destiny.

And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you!"

First there comes the nudge of a greeting, a tug of love at the heart, so gentle that we wonder if we are imagining it. We may feel vulnerable and confused. What does this mean?

The angel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus…"

The movement in the heart is stronger. It is a call of some kind and we are expected to respond. Our feeling of vulnerability increases. Our head is saying, "No! This is a lot of nonsense!" But our heart has tasted sweetness, and it clamours, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Mary said to the angel, "How can this be since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most High will overshadow you…"

Our yes has turned into a presence that is beyond our limited sensate system. It is both within us and outside us, filling and guiding, and always it is love. But our celebration is tinged with timidity. "How can I? I'm not qualified to do this? People will laugh or criticise."

Love, always patient, says, "Trust me and see," and we find ourselves growing into that trust.

Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.

This is not to say the path will be easy. We may still object. "This is too difficult." But the call will keep coming back, each time stronger, until we say, "Okay, let it be done to me."

… Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

Faith nurtures faith. We do not walk alone. When we meet another pregnant with God, the love within us leaps in recognition, light sensing light, truth acknowledging truth.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The call is about being real, knowing who we are.

The birthing of Christ is not in an inn but a stable. It's not about silken robes but bands of cloth. Not a royal cradle but a manger. While we have honoured the birthing story with cathedrals, jewels and fine vestments, the reality of it in our lives is always very simple.

It is in this utter simplicity, that we know God.

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

In 2015, AdventWord will be released in English, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Tamil, French, Portuguese and German.

Brother Jim Woodram, a monk, explains, "When I was a kid I loved Advent because of Advent Calendars. Each day you pull back one of the little windows and there would be a picture to help you to pray and lead you towards Christmas, when Christ is born.

"Now you can sign up on AdventWord.org for your own Advent Calendar online. Continue reading

And yet most of us would admit that, despite the frenetic pull towards consumerism, there is also an underlying ‘good will' effect at this time of year which is mindful of those less well-off and puts a human face on poverty.

There will be media pieces about the homeless and special collections for the needy. Is this just cheap sentimentalism?

And yet our world needs something more substantial. The Great Recession has added considerably to the ranks of the poor, and, in our own parts of the world, to those who struggle under the yoke of so-called austerity.

Growing inequality, a culture of entitlement among top executives, environmental strain and a ‘financialisation' of economies are just some of the symptoms of a deep malaise at the heart of the present phase of global capitalism.

Commenting on the latter in the context of the fifth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, economic journalist Dan O'Brien notes that there is much evidence to suggest that the financial system has not been sufficiently restructured and re-regulated to avoid a repetition of the recent catastrophe.

Why is this so? Partly due to vested interests and inertia, but, more worryingly, O'Brien argues that ‘complexity has also worked against change. The truth is that nobody fully understands how the system works, making change more difficult'.

In similar vein cultural commentator Michael Cronin observes how ‘the Market has come to function as a kind of dark version of transcendence … a parody of a pagan deity, irascible, touchy, and only to be appeased with pledges of sacrifices and the burnt offerings of public services'.

The readings for the First Sunday of Advent speak to this situation. Continue reading.

Gerry O'Hanlon SJ is based at Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in Dublin.

Source: ThinkingFaith

Image: Telecom Foundation

The Lord has come; the Lord has redeemed us on the Cross; so why do we begin again this annual cycle of reading the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Messiah?

Are we play-acting, pretending to wait for that which is already here? Of course not. We are doing two important things.

First, we are entering into liturgical anamnesis — a remembrance which is more than a mere recalling of events. Continue reading.

Sr Catherine Wybourne is a Benedictine nun of Benedictine nun from Holy Trinity Monastery, Howton Grove Priory, U.K.

Source: iBenedictines

Image: @DigitalNun

Each day a giant lever will open individual doors to the 12m-high calendar at Silo Park to reveal a Kiwi Christmas scene. Local businesses, artists such as Dick Frizzell and school children are contributing to the project.

The Advent calendar will sit beside the base for the Auckland City Mission Christmas campaign. The organisation will pull the last lever on December 25 and plans to host children at the park for fun activities before the annual dinner for 2500.

Waterfront Auckland is co-ordinating the project.

Chairman Bob Harvey said the calendar would be part of a Christmas trail that moves up through a lit-up Beaumont St, crosses over to the Telecom Christmas Tree in Victoria Park and winds its way up the decorated homes of Franklin Rd.

"It's a gift from Auckland to Aucklanders and I encourage everyone to come down to see what will be a magnificent artistic creation and to pause and reflect on what Christmas means to them and how they can give back to the less fortunate."

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Campbell Live