Third Week of Advent C

3rd Week of Advent

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Start with the Basics (Click here to learn more)

Prayer of the Week

This week we are getting out our Nativity sets. We have several: the delicate one for our living room, the toy sets which the children have had since infancy, a small set from my grandmother, the one my brother rescued from a garage sale, and probably a few more. Our prayer this week is a blessing of the Nativity sets. There are many ways to do this; just take a few minutes alone or as a family and pray over the Nativity set. Here are a few choices for prayers:

Basic prayers (Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and Sign of the Cross)
The Magnificat, found in the Gospel of Luke 1:46-55. (This is the prayer of the Blessed Virgin Mary when she visited her cousin Elizabeth)
The Blessing of the Crèche (Click here to access the blessing from the web site of the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops)

Living Our Faith

We're continuing our review of social justice this week. The seventh theme of Catholic social teaching is: Care for God’s Creation

According to the US Council of Catholic Bishops, "We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored."

This last theme of Catholic social justice is already a regular part of our lives. We compost, recycle, garden organically, etc. We try to use things until they are worn out; if they are not worn out, we donate them to local charities. We remind each other to conserve water, turn off the lights, and not waste food. We were feeling pretty good about our success in this area.

Then we looked at our laundry room. A pair of pants worn to Mass then thrown in the laundry basket. A T-shirt worn an hour then thrown into the wash when it was bested by a sweater for a meeting with friends. Many different pieces of clothing were tossed down the laundry chute simply because the owner could not be bothered to hang them back up again. Obviously we're not doing quite as good a job as we thought in caring for God's creation! There's definitely a need to improve our laundry habits.

Why don't you take a look at your own family this week? Are there ways you could be a better steward of God's creation? How much waste do you produce? Can that apparent waste be reused or recycled? It's a great time to make a stewardship plan for the new year!

Celebrate All Year Long! (Click here to learn more)

Saints to Celebrate

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday use your rose candle for Advent! (Click here to learn more about Advent)
There are no scheduled solemnities, memorials, or feast days this week. Enjoy the building of the Advent excitement!


These lovely candles are available for purchase through Wolfe's Baldwin Brass Center Ordering candles from this link financially supports this site. Thank you!	This is a wonderful movie for family night during the Advent and Christmas seasons. One of our favorites!	This movie is another family night winner. It is the beautiful story of St. Bernadette, the young woman to whom Our Lady appeared in Lourdes, France, and said She was "The Immaculate Conception."

Devotion of the month

We're in the 3rd week of our Jesse tree. We've already read about the patriarchs. Now it's time to read about the prophets. Click here to continue your Jesse Tree

Keep Building that Faith!! (click here to learn more)

Start the Week off Right (prepare for the Sunday Scriptures)

Zep 3:14-18a

Phil 4:4-7

Lk 3:10-18

Zephaniah was a prophet around 640 B.C., just prior to Jeremiah. His book is short, just three chapters, and mostly full of gloom and doom. He protested against the way the the Jews were embracing the common culture and ignoring their own laws and culture, telling them to expect disaster if they did not change their ways. At the end of this book, however, is the reading for this Sunday. It is a lovely, poetic promise of something exciting yet to come -- the utter and complete joy we will experience when we accept God into our hearts and He comes again. The Gospel of Luke shows us the last prophet of the pre-Christian times, John the Baptist. He, too, promises the mighty One to come, who will accept all people who follow His Way. The excitement certainly is mounting this week!

The third Sunday of Advent is also called Gaudete Sunday, Latin for Rejoicing Sunday. That name comes from this reading of the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, as you can probably tell. After all, he uses the word rejoice twice in the first two lines! Then he tells us how to be at peace: be kind, have no anxiety, and pray. Is it possible to have no anxiety? Paul says it is, and he is writing this letter from prison. Yet he knows joy because he has faith. If we start to feel stressed during this holiday season, find joy in faith and prayer. God will provide the peace to our hearts and minds.

Daily Dose of Scripture (our picks of the week)

Sg 2:8-14
We chose this as our Old Testament reading of the week because we rarely read the Song of Songs. It is a parable of perfect love. The description of the relationship between the bride and bridegroom shows the beauty and depth of sacramental marriage as well as the love between Christ and His Church. It is a lesson on the way love should be expressed between all people.

For our family this love is especially inspirational. The last few weeks we have been surrounded by gossip and meanness. We are involved in a non-Church organization in which a few people have been consistently spreading malicious gossip. In the recent past we have been victims of this gossip, and now an important member of the organization has been cruelly hurt by the malice. We are using this reading as an example of love, and the situation in which we have become involved as an example of why gossip is a sin. The lesson has hit home for each of us. God is love; love saves.
Mt 1:18-24
We love this story because it is one of the few which focuses on Joseph. How easy it would have been for Joseph to leave Mary on her own to deal with society and its punishments. Instead, he had true faith in God. He was kind, charitable, and loving. We must imagine, based on the scant history available to us, that Joseph had a profound effect on Jesus. His kindness, charity, and humility helped guide the Boy. This week let's say an extra word of thanks to all the wonderful dads in our midst. It might be easy to walk away; it is heroic to stay and deal with the everyday trials and triumphs of family life. Way to go, Dad!

Open that Catechism

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains what love is NOT. This week is a special week of joy. Make sure you don't unintentionally slip and fail to love someone else. Read paragraphs #2093-2094. A few moments of reading can provoke some wonderful thoughts, soul-searching, and, with any luck, a more loving holiday for all!

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