December 2024: Thought for the Day
Thought for the Day
December 2024/ January 2025
First Sunday of Advent
1 December 2024
There are ways families can celebrate the season of Advent:
An Advent wreath consists of a frame holding four candles placed inside a circle of evergreens. The greenery in the wreath symbolises the promised new life in Jesus. The four candles denote the four Sundays of Advent. There are three purple candles and one rose candle. Purple is a sign of penance and rose is the color denoting the anticipation of joy. Light a candle on each Sunday evening of Advent, saying a short prayer or singing a verse of ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel.’ The light of the candles represents the light coming into the world as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
Amen
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Second Sunday of Advent
8 December 2024
Salvation is for all people. You don’t have to be part of a particular ethnic group or nation. You can be a homeless person or a corporate CEO. Kings and queens, peasants and paupers, are all welcome in God’s Kingdom.People of every race, generation, and tribe are all welcome. God’s love is shown to all people. There is no entrance exam or need to perform certain good deeds. All people will see God’s salvation and can enter in. Christmas is about the birth of a baby, but it is so much more. It is the birth of a Kingdom that is above every Kingdom, an opportunity for all people to be friends of God.
ewlifenarrabri.wordpress.com
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Third Sunday of Advent
15 December 2024 • Gaudate Sunday
Joy is not passive. It is active, current and we have agency to create it ourselves. We don’t have to wait for it to tap us on the shoulder. Some practical advice I share is:
• If suffering is ‘like velcro’. Negative experiences are apparently 2.5 times as impactful as positive experiences. Perhaps the key, then, is to actively look at joyful experiences 2.5 times more than negative ones?
• Scientists have tested bloods and found that acts of kindness have a demonstrable positive effect on health.
• Desmond Tutu tells us that living from compassion and gratitude is the start.
• Joy is spontaneous and natural. Find the spark of joy in every situation. We can take ourselves too seriously.
Sula Bruce
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Fourth Sunday of Advent
22 December 2024
There is a wall of flesh before the eyes
Of John, who yet perceives and hails his King.
It is Our Lady’s painful bliss to bring
Before mankind the Glory of the skies.
Her cousin feels her womb’s sweet burden rise
And leap with joy, and she comes forth to sing,
With trembling mouth, her words of welcoming.
She knows her hidden God, and prophesies.
Saint John, pray for us, weary souls that tarry
Where life is withered by sin’s deadly breath.
Pray for us, whom the dogs of Satan harry,
Saint John, Saint Anne, and Saint Elizabeth.
And, Mother Mary, give us Christ to carry
Within our hearts, that we may conquer death.
Joyce Kilmer (1886-1916)
The Visitation
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
29 December 2024
‘Having somewhere to go is home. Having someone to love is family. Having both is a blessing.’ – Unknown
‘Family is not defined by our genes, it is built and maintained through love.’ – Amalia G.
‘The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.’ – Richard Bach
‘Family is a life jacket in the stormy sea of life.’ – J.K. Rowling
‘A family doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to be united.’ – Unknown
‘Families are like branches on a tree, we grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.’ – Unknown
Second Sunday of Christmas
5 January 2025
New Year’s Prayer
May God make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people and their causes need you most,
and by making you anxious to be there to help.
God’s love, peace, hope and joy to you for the year ahead.
The Baptism of the Lord
12 January 2025
God alone can give faith, but you can offer witness.
God alone can give hope, but you can give confidence to others.
God alone can give love, but you can pass it on to others.
God alone can give peace, but you can work for unity.
God alone can give power, but you can sustain somebody who is feeling low.
God alone is the light, but you can make it shine for others.
God alone is life, but you can give others a taste for living.
God alone can do the impossible, but through you it becomes possible.
God alone is self-sufficient … but amazingly, God prefers to count on you.
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
19 January 2024 • Catholic Schools Week begins today
Winter is a time of gray, velvet weather drifting towards us. It arrives
on ‘little cat feet’ and curls itself around us like the fog in Sandburg’s poem.
The weather is a friend if you make it one. I look forward to the gray,
quiet time for solitude, contemplation, reading, long conversations with
friends. Colors are softer, sounds have more depth, the pace is gentler.
Instead of resentment at the lack of sun, snuggle into the gray velvet
quilt and make yourself a cup of tea.
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
26 January 2025 • Sunday of the Word of God
The branches of growing trees not only reach higher, but their roots grow deeper. It’s impossible for a strong tree to have high branches without having deep roots. It would become top-heavy and topple over in the wind.’ The same is true with Christians. It’s impossible for us to grow in the Lord without entwining our roots around His Word and deepening our life in His commands.’ – Joni Eraeckson Tada
I’ve experienced His presence in the deepest hell that man can create. … I have tested the promises of the Bible, and believe me, you can count on them. — Corrie ten Boom