Vol XVI. No. 20
Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2019 http://colleagueslist.blogspot/.ca http://colleagueslistii.blogspot.com
GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
ADVENT II
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address: waholst@telus.net
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******
Dear Friends,
My Special Item this week is a personal reflection on Advent, and about how the season speaks to me right now.
The rest of this letter is a selection of worthwhile notes and wisdom which I hope you will find meaningful.
Wayne
PLEASE NOTE- If a link, below seems to be dead, cut and paste it into the address bar at the top of your web page and it should work.
*****SPECIAL ITEM
Advent Reflection 2
"A Season of Waiting in Expectation"
I have two reasons to wait expectantly this Advent Season that help me understand this most important Christian meaning.
In the first place, I am about to receive my second eye cataract surgery on Monday. The first eye was completed several months ago. Now, I wait expectantly for a return to good complementary sight from both eyes once more.
Secondly, I join many of you in anticipation of the vaccine that will hopefully and eventually help the world's population control the virus that has plagued us for almost a year.
I, like many of you, are not waiting to put in time. There is a purpose in our waiting for restored health, just as we await the coming of Jesus at Christmas.
There are many images and moments from ordinary living that can help us to appreciate the Advent coming so important to our faith. I have just shared two of them with you.
Thanks for joining me as we wait together in expectation.
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Bill Way,
Calgary, AB
At the recent Board of Directors meeting of the
Hearts and Hands Foundation, our Executive
Director announced that the next Stoves building
trip for H&H will be October 20, 2021 through
November 3, 2021 Recent floods and mudslides
in the Guatemalan highlands, added to the second
wave of Covid-19 pandemic have made it impossible
for the previously scheduled trips in October 2020
and in March 2021.
At this point, this is a Save-the-Date announcement.
Hearts and Hands is in constant contact with our staff
in Guatemala. All necessary travel restrictions and
health recommendations will be obeyed as the safety
and well-being of our volunteers is paramount.
Final decisions to go, or not-go to Guatemala will be
announced later in 2021.
If you are interested in joining this trip as a Volunteer,
please contact me at the email address below.
With Hope and Joy,
Bill Way
Hearts and Hands Foundation
bway.triathlon@gmail.com
--
Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.
Sermons and Blog,
December 4th, 2020
"We are in the Wilderness"
https://tinyurl.com/y2ee4jcn
--
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site
November 30th, 2020
"Our Wounds, Our Gifts,
and Our Power to Heal Others"
https://tinyurl.com/y47luyst
*****
NET NOTES
TEN GREAT PIECES OF ADVENT MUSIC
BBC Classical Music Magazine,
December, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/y67hmgb9
--
WHY 2020 NEEDS ADVENT
A Reflection on the Season
Christian Week
November 28th, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/y2eau8k4
--
WHAT IS CHRISTMAS WITHOUT SINGING?
Church Choirs Singing Carols in New Ways
Broadview,
November 27th, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/yygo24kl
--
CANADIAN CHURCHES RETURN
LAND TO INDIGENOUS GROUPS
A Repudiation of Doctrine of Discovery
Religion News Service,
November 25th, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/y6jvszxz
--
97% OF CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS
VOTED FOR OUT-GOING PRESIDENT TRUMP
He Got Near Unanimous Support from Them
Christian Post,
December 3rd, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/y3ahxn3x
--
CANADIAN JORDAN PETERSON SOON
PUBLISHING NEW BOOK OF LIFE RULES
His Work is Receiving Mixed Reader Reaction
Religion News Service,
December 3rd, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/y2kpaolz
--
BIBLE GATEWAY SEARCH VERY ACTIVE
DURING YEAR OF PANDEMICS AND POLITICS
Many People Seek "Answers" from Scripture
Religion News Service,
December 2nd, 2020
--
VIRUS KILLS BELOVED SERBIAN
ORTHODOX CHURCH LEADER
He Was Deeply Ecumenical
Christianity Today,
November 25th, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/y6lr8jw7
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
People create social conditions and people can change them.- Dr. Osonye Tess Onwueme
--
You are responsible for the world that you live in. It is not
government’s responsibility. It is not your school’s or your
social club’s or your church’s or your neighbor’s or your
fellow citizen’s. It is yours, utterly and singularly yours.
- August Wilson
--
Often we stumble along, not knowing where we’re going,
but understanding that the journey is worth it because
Jesus took it for us, shared it with us. Because the immortal
God became mortal, we all share in the immortality as well
as the mortality.…To believe that the universe was created
by a purposeful, benign Creator is one thing. To believe that
this Creator took on human vesture, accepted death and
mortality, was tempted, betrayed, broken, and all for love
of us, defies reason.
- Madeleine L’Engle
--
Every year we celebrate the holy season of Advent, O God.
Every year we pray those beautiful prayers of longing and
waiting, and sing those lovely songs of hope and promise.
Every year we roll up all our needs and yearnings and
faithful expectation into one word: “Come!” And yet, what
a strange prayer this is! After all, you have already come
and pitched your tent among us. You have already shared
our life with its little joys, its long days of tedious routine,
its bitter end.
Could we invite you to anything more than this with our
Could we invite you to anything more than this with our
“Come”? Could you approach any nearer to us than you did
when you became the “Son of Man”? In spite of all this we
still pray: “Come.”
- Karl Rahner
--
Celebrating Advent means learning how to wait.…
Not all can wait – certainly not those who are satisfied,
contented, and feel that they live in the best of all possible
worlds! Those who learn to wait are uneasy about their
way of life, but yet have seen a vision of greatness in the
world of the future and are patiently expecting its fulfillment.
The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are
troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and
imperfect, and who look forward to something greater
to come. For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear
until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in
the child in the manager.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
--
When have Christians been promised physical security?
In the early church it is evident that they did not even
expect it! Their security, their true life, was rooted in God;
and neither the daily insecurities of the decaying Roman
Empire, nor the organized persecution which followed later,
could affect their basic confidence. In my judgement, the
description which Christ gave of the days that were to come
before his return is more accurately reproduced in this fear-
ridden age than ever before in human history.…When God
decides that the human experiment has gone on long enough,
yes, even in the midst of what appears to us confusion and
incompleteness, Christ will come again. This is what the New
Testament teaches. This is the message of Advent. It is for
us to be alert, vigilant and industrious, so that his coming will
not be a terror but an overwhelming joy.
- J. B. Philipps
- Karl Rahner
--
Celebrating Advent means learning how to wait.…
Not all can wait – certainly not those who are satisfied,
contented, and feel that they live in the best of all possible
worlds! Those who learn to wait are uneasy about their
way of life, but yet have seen a vision of greatness in the
world of the future and are patiently expecting its fulfillment.
The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are
troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and
imperfect, and who look forward to something greater
to come. For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear
until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in
the child in the manager.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
--
When have Christians been promised physical security?
In the early church it is evident that they did not even
expect it! Their security, their true life, was rooted in God;
and neither the daily insecurities of the decaying Roman
Empire, nor the organized persecution which followed later,
could affect their basic confidence. In my judgement, the
description which Christ gave of the days that were to come
before his return is more accurately reproduced in this fear-
ridden age than ever before in human history.…When God
decides that the human experiment has gone on long enough,
yes, even in the midst of what appears to us confusion and
incompleteness, Christ will come again. This is what the New
Testament teaches. This is the message of Advent. It is for
us to be alert, vigilant and industrious, so that his coming will
not be a terror but an overwhelming joy.
- J. B. Philipps
*****
CLOSING THOUGHT - Flannery O'Connor
The truth does not change according to our ability
to stomach it emotionally.
(end)
to stomach it emotionally.
(end)
*****
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