Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for
Advent, by Richard Rohr.
Franciscan Media, 2012.
It's still not too
late to introduce some Advent reflections to your spiritual reading. ________
"Advent is not about a sentimental waiting
for the Baby Jesus," Richard Rohr asserts. Advent is a time to focus our expectations and anticipation on “the adult Christ, the Cosmic Christ,” who challenges us to empty ourselves, to lose ourselves, to surrender.
Richard Rohr’s Scriptural reflections for Advent are the perfect preparation for the Christmas season. This beautiful redesign provides daily reflections for the Advent season, along with each day's Scripture readings and questions for reflection.
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Saint of the Week
Our Lady of Guadalupe: December 12.
The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story.
A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was
baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower, and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady.
Juan was walking by a
hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared, and within it stood an Indian maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the lady appeared.
Eventually the bishop told Juan to have the lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Juan to try to avoid the lady. Nevertheless the lady found Juan, assured him that his uncle would recover, and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or
tilma.
On December 12, when Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to the ground, and the bishop sank to his knees. On the tilma where the roses had been appeared an image of Mary exactly as she had appeared at the
hill of Tepeyac.
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A set of accepted beliefs held by a group. In religion, it is the set of beliefs that
define the parameters of that belief system. Hence, there is true doctrine and false doctrine relative to each belief set. In Christianity, for example, a true biblical doctrine is that there is only one God (Isaiah 43:10; 44:6,8). A false doctrine is that there is more than one.
A prisoner in jail receives
a letter from his wife: "Dear Husband, I have decided to plant some lettuce in the back garden. When is the best time to plant them?"
The prisoner, knowing that the prison guards read all mail, replied in a letter: "Dear Wife, whatever you do,
do not touch the back garden. That is where I hid all the money."
A week or so later, he received another letter from his wife: "Dear Husband, You wouldn't believe what happened, some men came with shovels to the house, and dug up all the back
garden."
The prisoner wrote another letter back: "Dear wife, now is the best time to plant the lettuce."
