Archive for December, 2006
All Things Christmas: Stories and Poems: Christmas Day in the Morning
Pearl S. Buck won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first American woman to do so. By the time of her death in 1973, Pearl would publish over seventy books: novels, collections of stories, biography and autobiography, poetry, drama, children’s literature, and translations from the Chinese. Here is a short inspirational story:
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Andrew Greeley :: God shows up where we least expect
Fr. Andrew Greely the novelist-sociologist reflects on Christmas and ‘North American Secularism’. He has more hope and optimism than many! Below is a link to full article, and a short excerpt.
Development and Peace | Development and Peace successfully continues its reconstruction work
Development and Peace | Development and Peace successfully continues its reconstruction work: “2 years after the tsunami: Development and Peace successfully continues its reconstruction work”
Ten mega-trends shaping the Catholic church | National Catholic Reporter Conversation Cafe
Ten mega-trends shaping the Catholic church | National Catholic Reporter Conversation Cafe: “Ten mega-trends shaping the Catholic church”
HOPE
Hope
Advent is the season of hope. We count down the weeks and the days until Christmas. We read scriptures that announce the arrival of the Messiah, the one who will be God Among Us. It’s all focused on how the ages have looked forward to – have hoped for – the coming of Christ, the Incarnation.And what do we really have at all, if not hope?Looking around, I can see all the human-ness of drudgery, expectations, duty, routine, weariness, brokenness, healing, triumph and persistence. We go through these things every day, and we keep coming back for more - even when it’s painful, when we are fairly sure we will be disappointed, again. There are times when we feel like giving up, when we just don’t want to try any more, but most people, most of the time, keep on going. And I blame that on hope.
New Archbishop
CECC / CCCB - HomeOn Saturday 16 Decembre 2006, Pope Benedict XVI named Most Reverend Thomas Collins as Archbishop of Toronto. At the time of his appointment, he was Archbishop of Edmonton. The Cardinal retires…..
Read more at the above link.
Third Sunday of Advent
Comic Strip based on this weekend’s Gospel for the third Sunday of Advent . Compliments of http://www.agnusday.org/.
Free Reflection on ‘Deus Caritas’
Ave Maria Press is offering free of charge a new web resource called Exploring Deus Caritas Est. This is a four-part discussion resource written to help small groups and individuals explore the major themes of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, “God is Love.”
Scripture Mini-Course: Prepare for Christmas
Boston College’s C21 Online: “Prepare for Christmas with Scripture study
especially designed for busy people
The Birth of Jesus: Two Gospel Accounts
click here for the self-paced mini-course”
Pope’s Advice to Church in Crisis
ZENIT News Agency–The World Seen from RomeVATICAN CITY, DEC. 7, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The answer to the crisis the Church is facing, especially in the West, consists in proclaiming and rediscovering the grandeur of God’s love, experienced in prayer, says Benedict XVI.
Pope Benedict, second from right, and Istanbul’s …
Pope Benedict, second from right, and Istanbul’s Mufti Mustafa Cagrici, right, pause during their visit inside the Blue Mosque in Istanbul on Thursday. (Salih Zeki Fazlioglu/Associated Press)
