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Second Sunday in Advent
We attended a Christmas party last night, the only one to which we’ll show up this year, except for the upcoming annual gathering with eldest son and his clan, to which will be added a son in late January. The party wasn’t excruciating, and we were well fed. We don’t eat a lot of beef these days because of the high cost, but I made up for it last night. Extremely tender beef tenderloin, a nice herbed chicken, green beans, lumpy mashed potatoes (and that is NOT a complaint), salad, and rolls, and started off with chicken salad, crab rangoon, pimento cheese, and several other finger foods and croo dee…
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First Sunday in Advent
How the winds howled today. We lost power briefly, and the little artificial Christmas tree on the front porch was knocked down, and the leaves hissed across the metal roof and over the beaten grass in their swirling and liquid patterns, but it seems to have calmed down now, after sunset. The weather was relatively warm, about 60F, for which we were grateful. Mrs. Orr finished decorating the interior of the house, so we’ll enjoy the coziness for a month, until Boxing Day, when the itch to pull it all down and store it all away will overtake us. I read some Catholic blogs and I know that traditional…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Photographs, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections
Mourning Becomes Advent
As the Christmas season approaches, I find that I am filled with a low-grade dread. While Christmastime was once a wonderous time for me, the degradation of the world in my lifetime has brought me to a place where I pretty much despise this time of year. I have no new observations to offer; many people already roundly denounce the commercialization of the season in which we celebrate the birth of Christ. It has become a filthy, tawdry, grasping, shoving time, a time in which people stand outside shopping centers and ring a bell for a now-flaccid organization whose focus is hateful and ridiculous to many of the bell-ringers themselves.…
- Bluebelle, Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, Jinx, Lectio Divina, Movies, Photographs, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections, Saints
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
This past week the weather was so warm it felt like May. The spotted dogs and I had the opportunity to take many pleasant walks, and I felt as if my body and soul were being scrubbed by the clean air I drew deeply into my lungs. I spent much of the week pondering my gratitude for my health and that of Mrs. Orr and all of our family. More than ever, I believe it’s important to stay out of the hospital and far from health care facilities if at all possible. Once again, I will refer you to the indefatigable Anne Barnhardt. One of her recent podcasts featuring an…
- Bluebelle, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Prayers, Reflections
The Third Sunday of Advent
I travel these days between the bumpers that make a loud noise and then send me hurtling back across the board to slam into a wall or another bumper, lights flashing and the tote board rolling the digits higher, and I try so hard to keep moving so as not to drop between the flippers, and I know how to bump just enough, how to catch myself in the crook of the flipper and then slap that button and relaunch up to the top of the board. But sometimes I misjudge and I drop through that too-wide space and disappear, and then I have to use up one more of…
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The Second Sunday Of Advent
“Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, his place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world.” — Thomas Merton This is the…
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Deutsche Advents & Weihnachtslieder
On a crispy night, I thought I would share some beautiful Advent and Christmas Carols from Germany. Turn down the electric lamps, light some candles, pull a loved one or beloved animal next to you, close your eyes, and let these songs wash over you. ~ S.K. Orr
- Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Movies, Photographs, Reflections
The First Sunday of Advent
It’s been cold in a raw, bone-grinding way the past week, and we’ve burned a lot of wood in the evenings to keep things cozy. These days, the hostility of the petty and screeching world outside contrasts so dramatically with the peace found within the family walls, and I spend much of my time maintaining the chasm that separates the two Almost a year ago, Mrs. Orr and I watched Terence Malick’s haunting film A Hidden Life, and I was so moved that I wrote a blog post about it. I re-watched the movie yesterday and was affected even more forcefully by the similarity to what happened to the quiet…
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Gratitude
I want to express my thanks to all of you who have reached out to me after my request. Though no clear path has yet been revealed to me, I am strengthened by the show of friendship and concern. Most of all, I am grateful for the prayers. This is no trite statement; my belief in the power and efficacy of prayer is central to all that I am and all that I do, even when I am unfaithful and inconstant. *** Last Sunday was the last Sunday of the Church year, and this coming Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, marks the beginning of the Church year for Anno…
- Bluebelle, Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Movies, Photographs, Prayers, Reflections
Last Sunday After Pentecost
A week from today marks the beginning of Advent. The church calendar once provided the cadence for the march of everyday life, granting to Christians the sense of timing of season, of the low ebb of the Lenten times to the high tide of Easter. Just as farmers and cattlemen feel in their very bones the motion of the earth around the sun, and of this solar system’s wide circle around the universe, watching the changing natures scenes and the predictable habits of animals, so too the average Western man once felt the revolving year in his bones as he observed the Church’s feasts and solemn days. But now nature…