Saints' Discussion Forums

Let's make this Advent a very holy time of preparation for our Lord's coming.  There are very good Advent meditations to be found on this website under "Saints' Books" I think it is.  The more we prepare this Advent, the more special will be our Christmas--believe me!  I have yet to light the first candle on my Advent wreath.  I'll do it before I eat my supper and then will eat by its candlelight.  I've been out all day so I've been unable to look to my Advent wreath; thankfully, before Mass this morning we lighted our church Advent wreath with a very lovely ceremony together as a community.  

O come, o come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel!  

I recommend that you bookmark the Advent meditations.  That's what I do anyway.  God bless you!

What a pity!  The website that used to have Advent music does not have Advent music this year--not yet anyway!  Now I'll have to seek another website for my Advent music.  I'll have to buy an Advent CD for next year.  I know of a good place to buy it from.

Great!  I just found a list of Catholic Advent hymns on-line!  Too bad there are ads in between the hymns.

O come, o come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel! 

It is starting to feel like Christmas is coming..

:D

Thanks be to God, today I was able to obtain a CD of traditional Advent hymns!

I hope that you are all set, or nearly all set with your outdoor manger scene, Shin.  I would love it if you'd post a picture of it for us to appreciate and admire!  God bless you!

Not finished yet. I was cutting out St. Joseph earlier tonight, after having finally fixed the jig saw enough for the work. :D

Yes I would like to take a picture when it is done!

Great!  :D

It's fun to do so far! With the jigsaw mostly fixed!

I am glad you are enjoying the traditional hymns!

I can't wait to see your nativity scene!  Enjoy working on it and let us know when you are finished, okay?  The hymns are great!  God bless you!

                 The hymn Creator of the Stars of Night would make a wonderful Advent prayer.     
                  The hymn speaks of a Savior to set the people free.         
                    It is also mentioned that when the Lord Jesus came, he came not in splendor bright.

I can't say that I am familiar with that hymn, CyrilSebastian.  Is it an old hymn or a new one?

I recommend that we all read the story of our Lord's Nativity in the Mystical City of God.  The Mystical City of God can be found on-line for those who do not have the book. 

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas!  

Merrry Christmas!!! :D :D :D :D :D

Let's keep the joy of Christmas alive all throughout the Christmas season and New Year!  God bless you, Shin and all my SDF friends!

Amen! And I pray you too! :D

Too many folks forget that Christmas lasts more than a day! :D

During the 12 days of Christmas I yearn to wish people a Merry Christmas.  One woman in my building is orthodox, so I wished her a Happy 6th Day of Christmas today, figuring she'd know what I was talking about.  To other people--but not many--I explain that there are 12 days of Christmas and then wish them a Merry Xth Day of Christmas.  One person was very surprised when I told him that there are 12 days of Christmas.  It's a pity that not many people know their catechism.  As you know, Shin, the Christmas season lasts until the Presentation, February 2nd.  Let's get as many graces from God during this Christmas season as possible.  God bless you!

I had to edit my last post.  I confused the Epiphany, Jan 6th, with the Presentation, Feb. 2nd.  

The great Advent meditations I'd been making, the ones from the SDF "Saints' Books" are followed by some great Christmas meditations.  Today's meditation is particularly good.  I recommend you all make these meditations.  Thanks, Shin, for posting this wonderful book!  It is making my Christmas a better one, for it has brought me closer to the Infant Jesus.  Everybody should meditate on the Infant Jesus, especially at Christmastime.  We should pity the Baby Jesus for having had to suffer in that very cold cave of Bethlehem.  Imagine how cold poor Baby Jesus must have been!  Let us be very grateful to Him for all that He suffered from His birth til His death for us.  Why he even shed blood for us at the age of only 8 days--how He suffered for us as an infant into His adult years.  Thank you, Infant Lord Jesus!  Thank you for everything, especially for You and Your Love!

I am still following the meditations, the ones from Saints' Books (Advent and Easter Meditations).  Today's (Jan. 8th's) mediation was especially good.  I do hope that some of you are able to have a look at it.  It is certainly worth having a look at!

                    The First Sunday of Advent can be from the 27th November to the 3rd December.

A Blessed Advent to all !

Great to see you Charles!

I hope you and everyone has an inspiring Advent!

'ADVENT, my dear daughters, is a time of recollection, of salvation; it is a season of grace of which we must profit. From December 17 the anthems of the Office begin with, "O" to express adoration and love. Such were the sentiments in which our Blessed Lady passed the days preceding the birth of Our Lord. How ardently must she have desired to see this little Child Who was Himself the author of her days. She was in continual contemplation. '

St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

                       Hope is the predominant theme of Advent.         
                         The Israelites hoped for a Messiah to come, and Christ entered the world.

'Oh, how I wish that everybody would apply himself to meditation and prayer!'

St. Paul of the Cross

                  During the Middle Ages, the Advent season became connected to Christ's first coming at Christmas.   
   
                   

               Advent is a road, a way, a symbol of the very heart of the meaning of the Christian life and vocation.   
 
             

                The matins is a Hungarian tradition which consists of a daily Mass every dawn from the first   
                  Sunday of Advent to the first day of Christmas. This Mass is called an angelic or golden Mass.

                                  Isaiah Chapter 40: Verse 3-4                   
                                  A voice cries, 'Prepare in the desert a way for Yahweh.     
                                  Make a straight highway for our God across the wastelands.   
                                  Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be levelled,   
                                  every cliff become a plateau, every escarpment a plain.'

What a wonderful inspiration Therese was, and is, as well as so many others here.  Her words share love and faith so powerfully and poignantly, they themselves have a mystical power.  They urged me into my cellar to find The Mystical City of God, which sadly hasn't seen fresh air in years.  I am at this moment holding both an abridged version by Rev George Blatter and the first book of the full version by Fiscar Marison.  I pray for continued motivation to keep reading, and wish you all an inspired Advent.

     
The hymn Creator of the Stars of Night by J. M. Neale, in the first edition of the Hymnal Noted, 1852

Thank you for these Advent posts my friend. :D

     
 

This is truly a great thread, and I am deeply annoyed with myself that I've come back to it so seldom.  But this thread is certainly a very good lesson, and I pray that all are having a blessed Advent.  Today I read in Magnificat Advent Companion that the practice of praying the seven O... Antiphons from 12/17-23 traces back to the 7th century in Europe.  It seems a striking complexity that the first letters in Latin from each of the seven antiphons in Divine Office Evening Prayer spell ero cras in reverse order, which translates, I will be with you tomorrow.

The Power of Hope, a quote from my Advent Companion: "...to be Christian is to be full of hope."
"...in hope we were saved.  Now hope that sees for itself is not hope.  For who hopes for what one sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance."
Romans 8.24-5

   

This is a very blessed thread, many thanks.  I have several times gone back into the middle and even the beginning of the thread as a review and also as an act of devotion to reflect on many of these comments.  My Magnificat Advent Companion provides seven Scripture, Prayer, and Meditations it refers to as Advent Stations.  Do you know how and when these were initiated?  Could they be new?