Weekend Humor on our Current Intolerance

A man at the Mumbai zoo sees a tiger getting loose and attacking a
woman! He fights the tiger and kills it with his knife and it dies!

Newspapers report "LOCAL HERO SAVES LADY FROM TIGER " .

Later the man was interviewed, he says "I'm not an Indian"
.
Report changed "Foreign Hero Saves lady from tiger" .

When further questioned the man says: . "Actually I'm a Pakistani ."

Breaking News: .  "Terrorist killed Innocent tiger which was playing with a Girl.."

Advent 3 C - Gaudate

3rd Advent C from Padir Neylu

Michel de Verteuil
General Comments

On the third Sunday of Advent St Luke gives us a glimpse into the personality of that wonderful person, John the Baptist. In your meditation, let him remind you of great people you have known.

Advent Hope: The fearless nun inside ‘hell on earth’

 Story By: mattersindia.com

For more than 17 years, a Catholic nun named Neyda Rojas has been serving God in a place that many describe as hell on earth – a Venezuelan prison.
For decades, penitentiaries here have been criticised by human rights organisations for allowing serious human rights violations to take place behind their walls.
Although the government has introduced reforms to improve living conditions, some Venezuelan prisons are still among the most violent and overcrowded in Latin America.

Advent 2 C

2nd Advent C from Padir Neylu

Michel de VerteuilGeneral Comments
On the second and third Sundays of Advent, the church gives us John the Baptist as a model of someone who knows how to wait. In this first passage we have Luke’s summary of the mission of John the Baptist. It is none other than the mission of Jesus himself and of all preachers of the gospel.
In verses 1 and 2 St Luke invites us to meditate on God’s word which comes to John in the wilderness, bypassing the powerful ones of the world.
Verse 3 is a concise summary of John’s (and Jesus’) preaching.
There are two aspects to verses 4 and 5: the fact that John lived out the vocation of Isaiah, and then the content of his preaching expressed in poetic language. We are invited to identify with both aspects.

Daily Advent reflections - 1

You need to find the corresponding dates for this year
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2011 Advent Reflections for the Jesse Tree

Sunday, November 27

“But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.”                                                                                                                 Isaiah 11:1

The first Jesse Tree symbol is a dove, reminding us of the peace and harmony of creation as God intended. You can read the full story of Jesse in Isaiah 11:1‐10 and David in 1 Samuel 16:1‐13. Jesse is the father of David, beginning a line of descendants that will lead to Jesus, the Messiah.

Advent - Daily Reflections - 2

Daily Advent Reflections

Longing for Peace

Advent is when peace becomes something visible. All year, of course, we long for peace, but Christians spend these four weeks preparing for the coming of the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. We long not solely for peace on earth, the absence of conflict, but also, more deeply, for the peace of Christ, “peace that surpasses all understanding” (see Phil 4:7). When we celebrate Mass each Sunday, we pray for this peace and even exchange a sign of it before we approach the table of the Eucharist.

Advent - Meaning and Symbols

The Season of Advent
Anticipation and Hope 

The Colors of Advent 
The Spirit of Advent  Evergreens and The Advent Wreath Celebrating Advent An Advent Reflection Music for Advent
 

Advent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). If Christmas Eve is a Sunday, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent, with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown.

The Colors of Advent

Historically, the primary sanctuary color of Advent is Purple. This is the color of penitence and fasting as well as the color of royalty to welcome the Advent of the King.  Purple is still used in some traditions (for example Roman Catholic).  The purple of Advent is also the color of suffering used during Lent and Holy Week.  This points to an important connection between Jesus’ birth and death. The nativity, the Incarnation, cannot be separated from the crucifixion. The purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world, of the "Word made flesh" and dwelling among us, is to reveal God and His grace to the world through Jesus’ life and teaching, but also through his suffering, death, and resurrection. To reflect this emphasis, originally Advent was a time of penitence and fasting, much as the Season of Lent and so shared the color of Lent.

In the four weeks of Advent the third Sunday came to be a time of rejoicing that the fasting was almost over (in some traditions it is called Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin word for "rejoice"). The shift from the purple of the Season to pink or rose for the third Sunday Advent candles reflected this lessening emphasis on penitence as attention turned more to celebration of the season.

In recent times, however, Advent has undergone a shift in emphasis, reflected in a change of colors used in many churches.  Except in the Eastern churches, the penitential aspect of the Season has been almost totally replaced by an emphasis on hope and anticipation.

Advent - Weekday Reflections -3

First Sunday of Advent

Time to wake up

Today’s Gospel calls us to enter into a time of watchful waiting, of preparation or keen awareness. Let us resolve to hold off the holidays for a bit, to tune in to the gospel, to prepare our hearts for the mystery of the Incarnation, the coming of the Prince of Peace.

See! The ruler of the earth shall come; the Lord who will take from us the heavy burden of our exile The Lord will come soon, will not delay. The Lord will make the darkest places bright. We must capture that urgency today in the small flame of our candle. We light the candle because we know that the coming of Christ is tied to our building of the kingdom. Lighting the flame, feeding the hungry, comforting the sick, reconciling the divided, praying for the repentant, greeting the lonely and forgotten – doing all these works hastens His coming. 

Waiting

 We light a candle today, a small dim light against a world that often seems forbidding and dark. But we light it because we are a people of hope, a people whose faith is marked by an expectation that we should always be ready for the coming of the Master. The joy and anticipation of this season is captured beautifully in the antiphons of hope from the monastic liturgies:

Advent 1 C

1st Advent C from Padir Neylu

 
Michel DeVerteuil

Textual Comments
The gospel readings for Advent each year invite us to meditate on the mystery of waiting, and they do it by presenting us with stories of great people who knew how to wait. On the first Sunday, Jesus himself is the model as he taught his followers the spirituality of “waiting in joyful hope”.

Christ the King 2015

Christ the King from Padir Neylu

Introduction: It was Pope Pius XI who brought the Feast of Christ the King into the liturgy in 1925, to bring Christ, his rule and Christian values back into lives of Christians, into society and into politics. The Feast was also a reminder to the totalitarian governments of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin that Jesus Christ is the only Sovereign King. Although Emperors and Kings now exist mostly in history books, we still honor Christ as the King of the Universe by enthroning Him in our hearts and allowing Him to take control of our lives. This feast challenges us to see Christ the King in everyone, especially those whom our society considers the least important, and to treat each person with love, mercy and compassion as Jesus did.