Unlike the more terror-inducing traditions that happen on and around Halloween in the United States, Día de los Muertos attempts to instead demonstrate the joy that can be found when death isn’t dreaded, but embraced.
Halloween might be a spooky time of year for most, but for Christians it is a time of great joy and rejoicing!
Because we wait so much, we can be tempted to think of Advent as just another time spent waiting for something to happen.
If I were to take a hard look at my day, I would notice a few things: what I often complain about is usually something I want in excess, not a need that isn’t being filled. For example, “I don’t have ANYTHING to wear” basically translates to “I want to buy new clothes because I’m bored by the ones in my closet.”
Ascend is a lectionary-based resource that walks any reader through the Sunday Mass readings (from the first Sunday in Advent all the way through Christ the King). Ascend provides clarity to the readings by overviewing important connections, word definitions, background information, and challenges the reader to reflect on the readings through prayer, journaling, and action. Ascend successfully educates and empowers us to be fully ready to receive the Word of God at Mass on Sunday.
...Heaps of frozen excrement needed to be chopped up with shovels and wheeled away. So next time you have a disgusting chore to take care of, just remember JPII has been there too.
That’s where I was about a year and a half ago. I was still going to Church every Sunday, and I was involved in a youth group, but I wasn’t praying as much. Life slowly became less about loving God and loving the people around me, and more about what I wanted. Sin, and one form of sin in particular, started to make its way back into my life.
What’s the “Jesus way” of dealing with brokenness, sin, and pain? Jesus’ answer to sin and pain is to love the person in front of Him.
I read not just to be entertained, but to grow - to learn from the admirable characteristics of heroines, to avoid the mistakes of villains.
