THE O ANTIPHONS ARE ARE AN ANCIENT AND TRADITIONAL ADVENT LITURGY

"The 'O Antiphons,' one of the oldest liturgical rituals in the church, are prayed around the world during the final days of Advent. For the seven days before Christmas, we recall in these prayers a quality of Christ that must be realized before the presence of Christ can consume the world."

The great Advent hymn, O COME, O COME, EMMANUEL is based on the O antiphons.

There is one O antiphon for each day from December 17 to 24. They are all here > http://www.benetvision.org/news_pages/oantiphons.html

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+ It's the Twelfth Day of Chjristmas and it is the Second Sunday after Christmas in the Church Year. 

Here is a verse from the Lectionary for the Second Sunday of Christmas:

With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:8b-10)

Here is a verse from the Daily Lectionary for the Twelfth Day of Christmas:

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:14)

Here is today's Spirituality and Practice Christmas quote for the day, the last one:

 

“From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I melt.” -- Paramahansa Yogananda in Autobiography of a Yogi

Here is today's Gratefulness Word for the Day:

 

"Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint.  -- Henri Nouwen

Since it is still Christmas.  It is a feast day: St. John Neumann for Roman Catholics. In the UK this was the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor, King of England. The rest of Europe celebrated St. Julian the Hospitaller on this day. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas

Finally, here is a link to some information about Twelfth Night traditions

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night_(holiday)

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+ updated at 12:39pm EST on Saturday, January 4, 2014

+ On Facebook, Robert Reich shared: "Several of you thought yesterday's post arguing that Congess's first priority when it convenes next week should be to restore unemployment benefits for the record number of long-term unemployed was a weak palliative for what's really needed. "We don't need unemployment benefits," wrote Burr Hubbell, for example, "We need real jobs." Mr. Hubbell and others raise an important issue. In fighting for measures that alleviate symptoms of a failing system -- whether chronic joblessness, increasing poverty, widening inequality, or ever greater economic insecurity -- are we staving off more fundamental reform? Or are we taking the only humane approach available until such time as fundamental reform is politically feasible?"

+ On Facebook, J. Barrett Lee shared: (DISCLAIMER: This is in response to an anonymous commenter on my blog, not anyone I know in real-life or Facebook)
 
I think I'm going to start responding to the phrase
"Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out."
 
with:
 
"Don't be so close-minded that you blow other peoples' brains out."
History has many more concrete examples of the latter, I'm afraid.

+ Eleventh Day of Christmas
A verse from the Daily Lectionary:

May God grant your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans.”

Psalm 20:4 < http://www.presbyterianmission.org/devotion/daily/2014/1/4/

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas we are informed that today is the feast day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint according to the Roman Catholic Church. In medieval times this was The feast of Saint Simon Stylites.

Here is the Spirituality and Practice Christmas quote for today by the great Sufi poet, Hafiz:

A Suspended Blue Ocean

There is only one rule
On this Wild Playground,

For every sign Hafiz has ever seen
Reads the same.

They all say,

"Have fun, my dear; my dear, have fun,
In the Beloved's Divine
Game,

"O, in the Beloved's
Wonderful
Game."

Hafiz in The Subject Tonight Is Love by Daniel Ladinsky

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+ Updated at 9:55am EST on January 3, 2013

+ Tenth Day of Christmas > I love lists.  I love the Sufi Wisdom Tradition.  And, so, on this tenth day of Christmas I invite you to check out one of my favorite lists, the Ten Principal Sufi Thoughts offered by the greatSufi teacher, Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Here is an excerpt worth pondering: "It is often for no other reason than clinging to the personality of their particular teacher, claiming for him superiority over other teachers, and degrading a teacher held in the same esteem by others, that people have separated themselves from one another, and caused most of the wars and factions and contentions which history records among the children of God."

Read it all > http://sufiorder.org/Sufi_Thoughts.html

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+ Ninth Day of Christmas + How about some Rumi wisdom? >

How will you know the difficulties
of being human, if you're always
flying off to blue perfection?

Where will you plant your grief seeds?
Workers need ground to scrape and hoe,
not the sky of unspecified desire.

Love is the way messengers

from the mystery tell us things.

 

Love is the mother.

We are her children.

 

She shines inside us,

visible-invisible, as we trust

or lose trust, or feel it start to grow again.

Source: THE SOUL OF RUMI: Translations by Coleman Barks, pages 32-33

+ It's a Feast Day (of course) > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Basil_the_Great

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+ Eighth Day of Christmas + First Day of 2014 + "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." + 1 January: The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Before the Second Vatican Council it was also observed as the Circumcision of the Lord. 

+ Breathe deeply. Breathe fully.
Be still. Be silent.
Be centered. Be grounded.
Lighten up. Loosen up.
Let go. Let God.
Celebrate. Enjoy.
Be glad all over!

+ This is provocative. Most of us have lost income and wealth since 2009 including most of the people who voted for Obama.  The system must change.  The wealthy must not be allowed to continue to destroy the middle class. > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcH6kGd3XQs&list=UU1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ&index=7

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+ Seventh Day of Christmas > S & P Christmas Quote > Gift, Sharing, Joy > I think we need a new word — "comjoyment" — as a companion to "compassion" to remind us that our greatest gift to the world may be in sharing what gives us the greatest joy. -- Sam Keen in Learning to Fly

 < http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotes.php?id=20440 | More Advent & Christmas Quotes are at http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/blogs/maps.php?id=20474

+ Seventh Day of Christmas >“I think this is how we are supposed to be in the world--present and in awe.” -- Anne Lamott

+ Seventh Day of Christmas > Day 7, 31 December: Pope St. Sylvester. In Scotland this day is known as Hogmanay. In Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Slovenia, New Years Eve is still referred to as Silvester. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas

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+ Third Day of Christmas + Wikipedia has some great information about all of the Twelve Days of Christmas > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas

 

Spirituality and Practice offers an inspirational quote for each day of Advent and the 12 Days of Christmas > http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/blogs/maps.php?id=20474 

 

Here is the Spirituality and Practice Christmas quote for today > "To find joy in another's joy, that is the secret of happiness." --  Georges Bernanos in Joy by Beverly Elaine Eanes  <

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotes.php?id=20436   

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+ Christmas + Day 2 + God, Panentheism, Joy > Here is the Spirituality and Practice Christmas Quote for today: "The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything." -- Julian of Norwich (Meditations with Julian of Norwich by Brendan Doyle) | See more S&P Advent & Christmas quotes

 

+ Today is the Feast of St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr. Here is an excerpt from The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor blog, Barrett Lee's fantastic blog : "Folks think of deacon’s work as charity, but that was certainly not the case according to Acts.  The office of deacon was created as a ministry of social justice to overcome racial inequality and ensure a just distribution of resources."

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+ updated at 1:22pm EST on Friday, December 14, 2012

+ Robert Reich offers "Why is Washington Obsessing About the Deficit and Not Jobs and Wages?" Excerpt: "The job situation is still horrendous. Twenty-three million Americans can’t find full-time work. Less than 59 percent of the working-age population of the nation is employed, almost the lowest percent in three decades. 4.8 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months. The 40-week average spell of joblessness is almost three times the post-1948 average."

+ Huffingpost offers "Fox News War on Advent" by Diana Butler-Bass. She makes it quite clear that the so-called Fox News and its so-called "war on Christmas" is rather misguided since the first 24 days of December are not Christmas at all but Advent. And Advent for Christians is not about shopping madly and conspicuous consumption.  In many churches Christmas Carols wait until Chritmas Eve and the twelve days of Christmas which follow. So, its not "Mery Christmas" but "Come quickly, Lord Jesus." Tell Fox News. 

STILL WAITING BUT GOD IS HERE AND I AM SEEKING AWARENESS

God is with us. Right here. Right now.

Light overcomes darkness at all times, at this time, all the time.

It doesn't always seem that way. We live life sometimes as if we are separated from God and from each other. Christmas changes that. We become aware of our unity with our creator and all creation.

This awareness is a gift from God. Sometimes it comes as a result of our spiritual practice. But there is no guarantee that any particular method will bring about this awareness. So, there are times when the only thing left to do is wait for God to give us this awareness. It comes in the fulness of time and we have no control over that.

Some people believe that the fullness of time has something to do with the calendar, the clock. On such and such a day Christ will come again. We have waited a long time for that to happen. It was supposed to happen this year according to some of the faithful. I see the fullness of time in a different way. Christ comes, awareness comes, unity comes, whenever the gift of love is given and received. This happens at all times, all the time, at this time. May we experience this amazing love today, tomorrow and all days.

love, john + www.abundancetrek.com + If there is anything I have learned about men and women, it is that there is a deeper spirit of altruism than is ever evident. Just as the rivers we see are minor compared to the underground streams, so, too, the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what people carry in their hearts unreleased or scarcely released. -- Dr. Albert Schweitzer (thanks to www.peterrussell.com - a quote of the moment)

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+ The Sparrow Project offers "The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" and is asking people to "help us raise the funds needed to print & distribute 100,000 copies of the Declaration of the Occupation via Kickstarter. This is definitely worth reading and contemplating, praying and acting.

+ Truthdig offers "Chalk One Up for the 99%" by Andy Kroll.  It begins: "On the evening of November 8th, Occupy Wall Street, the populist uprising built on economic justice and corruption-free politics that’s spread like a lit match hitting a trail of gasoline, notched its first major political victory in the unlikeliest of places: Ohio."

+ Spirituality and Practice is always offering wonderful e-courses.  I have just begun Child of the Light with Beth Richardson led by Beth Richardson, Sharon Conley, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. The Course promo says: "This Advent/Christmas e-course is based on Richardson's book Child of the Light. It is designed to help you find a quiet center, a time out from busyness, to be with God. Daily emails include readings, reflections, and prayers inspired by Advent hymns ..." 

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+ Updated at 4:35pm EST.

+ 4:30pm: The snow continues to fall exceeding expectations of the forecasters. A narrow band of Lake-effect snow is hitting us directly right now. We may have several inches before it's over.

+ I'm working on a sermon for Christmas Eve. I came across
"Christmas: Andy Parks DOES Keep It All The Year!" at a blog called Joy of Christmas: “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” 

I have decided to emphasize joy tomorrow night. Spirituality and Practice offers all kinds of ways to develop the spiritual practice of Joy. There is a page devoted to joy at abundancetrek.com.

+ 1:45pm: For most of the past 3 hours, the band of Lake-effect snow has reached us and perhaps another inch has fallen.

+ Rick Steves, the wonderful Travel guide, offers a Norwegian Christmas page.  Like me, Rick has Norwegian grandparents on one side of his family.  My grandparents, Samuel & Ingeborg, grew up in Mandal, a beautiful coastal town and the southernmost town in Norway.  They immigrated here in 1901 and 1904.  My mother was born in New York City in 1906.

+ As Christmas approaches, The Witherspoon Society offers an insightful poem and a powerful prayer for peace.

+ At 10:25am, patches of blue appear in the sky and the snow comes to an end with most of the grass covered up with the white stuff.

+ The Abundancetrek Blog offers several posts on The Copenhagen Conference on Global Warming which concluded last week with some agreements but not nearly as much as many had hoped for.

+ Inner Frontier offers "Body Sensation: Wholeness" by Joseph Naft. Excerpt: "To come to whole body sensation, it helps to practice partial sensation first: an arm, a leg, both arms and both legs, and then the whole body. The practice of energy breathing, of drawing inner energies from the air around us, strengthens sensation throughout our body. That can be done intermittently throughout the day to refresh our sensation body. The end result: we experience ourselves to be more fully here." 

+ Spirituality and Practice offers "The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2009" by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat.  How many have you seen?  Thanks to the DVD we will see many of those we haven't seen yet as I put these films on my Netflix queue.

+ Blades of grass can still be seen but an inch of snow overnight has made a difference.  We may get a little more today so we will definitely have a White Christmas here.