St. John Damascene (676?-749)

John spent most of his life in the monastery of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem, and all of his life under Muslim rule, indeed, protected by it. He was born in Damascus, received a classical and theological education, and followed his father in a government position under the Arabs. After a few years he resigned and went to the monastery of St. Sabas.

He is famous in three areas. First, he is known for his writings against the iconoclasts, who opposed the veneration of images. Paradoxically, it was the Eastern Christian emperor Leo who forbade the practice, and it was because John lived in Muslim territory that his enemies could not silence him. Second, he is famous for his treatise, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, a summary of the Greek Fathers (of which he became the last). It is said that this book is to Eastern schools what the Summa of Aquinas became to the West. Thirdly, he is known as a poet, one of the two greatest of the Eastern Church, the other being Romanus the Melodist. His devotion to the Blessed Mother and his sermons on her feasts are well known.

LONLINESS

Your loneliness is your Self-wanting to make friends with itself. Your loneliness is your HEART wanting to sing to it. Your loneliness is your BEING wanting to dance with it.

Advent 1 B

e Prepared And Pray - Brennan McGuire

There is nothing so tantalizing as the smell of freshly baked bread. When you walk into a store and you can smell that bread, you immediately want to go and get a loaf of it. I think there is only one thing better than the smell of freshly baked bread in the store and that is having the smell of freshly baked bread in your own home. There is something about it. It waifs through the whole home and fills it up with the smell of freshness of ready-to-eat, ready to gather around for the meal.

But the difference between buying bread at the store and having bread at home is that it takes time and discipline. The ingredients are very straightforward. Bread really has only a handful of main ingredients. You can make it more complex but fundamentally there is a flour, liquid and a rising agent: The flour can be ordinary plain flour or wholewheat flour; the liquid can be either milk, buttermilk or just water, and then the rising agent is either yeast or baking soda. Now you can put an egg in it or you can do without an egg, you can put salt in it or you can do without the salt. You can do lots of other things, but those three main ingredients are fairly common and those are certainly not difficult to find in the store. Yet most of us will not find the time nor have the discipline to do it.

Some of you know this but I love to bake my own Irish brown soda bread. I have my mother's recipe that I have adjusted over the years. Yet I also have a struggle with the time and discipline. However, I find it so important that I make the time and have a routine now. So what I have done is I make my life easier. I have a special shelf and it has all the ingredients right there: a drawer with all the different flours and dry ingredients ready to go. All I need is to get buttermilk and eggs at the store. With all the ingredients already there, it makes it easier. I just uncap all the containers add the flours and boom, boom, boom and within about five minutes, I have all the preparation done.

The reason why I bring that up is because Christmas is always a great time of year but there is only one thing better than regular Christmas is when we are ourselves have prepared really well for it. It's the difference between home baked bread and store bought bread. When we take on the journey of Christmas for ourselves and really use this time we call Advent as a true preparation time. But just like baking bread, it requires discipline. All the ingredients to have a great Christmas are always in place. All the ingredients to have God in our life are always there and all we have to do is put it all together. If you would, the three main ingredients of this time of Christmas is the Trinity: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All we need to do is have the time and the discipline of putting things together so we have a fresh Christmas celebration. So how do find the time and the discipline?

Fundamentally, what we have to understand is Christ is always with us. Just like the ingredients for home baked bread is always there, we need to find the time to prepare it. Advent is the time in which we set aside four full weeks of preparation. We say we are going to set a discipline, we are going to make ourselves be aware of how God is present in our lives and so we commit to making Christmas better. We have the four different candles that represent the four different weeks. And each week, we light a candle as a remembrance of the light of Christ in our life. We emphasize that we are preparing, we spend time and we pray. This is not just going to happen without our effort. Just like we don't get freshly baked bread in the house without making a huge effort. There are things that you can do ahead of time, just like baking bread, which will make it easier. And one of those is the regular prayer time in our life. Now I know you have heard me go on and on about this but yet little success do we have. So few of us seem to have committed to a daily two minutes or four minutes of prayer in our life. Why? Why have we not decided to make this a commitment in our life? Is it that we don't believe God is present in our life? Or are we afraid that God will show us something different from what we are already doing?

I suspect that it's because we do not have a routine or a discipline of prayer. We have to make it a discipline first before it becomes a habit. Christmas is a time when we recognize Christ present in our lives. Once in history and again each year to remind ourselves and we do this by each week lighting the candles, getting a little more excited and having a little more discipline.

So this week as we begin a new year, a new liturgical year, and we may have lost some discipline over this last year but we focus on a new year, a new beginning for us; may we decide to commit to prayer again. May we commit to the time and be aware of that Trinity in our lives, to add the yeast or soda of the Holy spirit, that brings effervescence and rising to our life; to be aware of God the Father, that constant supply of water in our life and to be always present to the flour who is the Christ, there waiting for us to recognize him.

So this Advent, may we prepare for - not bread, but the Lord's coming by preparing our hearts and cutting out some time each and every day for prayer. If we have not started with the two minutes, then maybe we can start with the two minutes. It is the same challenge for students in school, whether it be elementary school, or high school, all the way to seniors. It does not make any difference who we are or where we are at, we need to be in constant communication with our God. So, today, may we be prepared by our time and discipline of prayer. Make ready the way of the Lord and be alert and watch.

Ready to go

A woman in her eighties made the evening news because she was getting married for the fourth time. The following day she was being interviewed by a local TV station, and the commentator asked about what it felt to be married again at that age and would she share part of her previous experiences, since it seem quite unique the fact that her new husband was a ‘funeral director.’ After a short time to think, a smile came to her face and she proudly explained that she had first married a banker when she was in her twenties, in her forties she married a circus ring master, and in her sixties she married a pastor and now in her eighties, a funeral director. The amazed commentator asked her why she had married men with such diverse carriers. With a smile on her face she explained, ‘I married one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go.’

KIDS IN CHURCH 3-year-old Reese : 'Our Father, Who does art in heaven, Harold is His name. Amen.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A little boy was overheard praying: 'Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After the christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, 'That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One particular four-year-old prayed, 'And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service, 'And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?' One bright little girl replied, 'Because people are sleeping.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. 'If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.' Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, 'Ryan, you be Jesus!' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand. 'Daddy, what happened to him?' the son asked. 'He died and went to Heaven,' the Dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, 'Did God throw him back down?' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, 'Would you like to say the blessing?' 'I wouldn't know what to say,' the girl replied. 'Just say what you hear Mommy say,' the wife answered. The daughter bowed her head and said, 'Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And if you don't send this to at least 8 people ----- who cares! Peace, love and happinesss This is a Thomas Kinkade painting. It's rumored to carry a miracle! The water is supposed to be running, so if it's not moving then the picture didn't come through entirely. They say if you pass this on, you will receive a miracle. I am passing this on because I thought it was lovely, and besides, who couldn't use a miracle?!

Blessed John of Vercelli (c. 1205-1283)

John was born near Vercelli in northwest Italy in the early 13th century. Little is known of his early life. He entered the Dominican Order in the 1240s and served in various leadership capacities over the years. Elected sixth master general of the Dominicans in 1264, he served for almost two decades.

Known for his tireless energy and his commitment to simplicity, John made personal visits—typically on foot—to almost all the Dominican houses, urging his fellow friars to strictly observe the rules and constitutions of the Order.

He was tapped by two popes for special tasks. Pope Gregory X enlisted the help of John and his fellow Dominicans in helping to pacify the States of Italy that were quarreling with one another. John was also called upon to draw up a framework for the Second Council of Lyons in 1274. It was at that council that he met Jerome of Ascoli (the man who would later become Pope Nicholas IV), then serving as minister general of the Franciscans. Some time later the two men were sent by Rome to mediate a dispute involving King Philip III of France. Once again, John was able to draw on his negotiating and peacemaking skills.

Following the Second Council of Lyons, Pope Gregory selected John to spread devotion to the name of Jesus. John took the task to heart, requiring that every Dominican church contain an altar of the Holy Name; groups were also formed to combat blasphemy and profanity.

Toward the end of his life John was offered the role of patriarch of Jerusalem, but declined. He remained Dominican master general until his death.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Recently I received a parrot as a gift.

The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary.

Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.

I tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything
else I could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, I was fed up and I yelled at the parrot.

The parrot yelled back.

I shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder.

So, in desperation, I threw up my hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer.

For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed.

Then suddenly there was total quiet.

Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that I'd hurt the parrot, I quickly opened the door to the freezer.

The parrot calmly stepped out onto my outstretched arms and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions.

I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

I was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude.

As I was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued,

"May I ask what the turkey did?"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING