Wreath and Five Candles

This past Sunday was the first day of advent, the first day of the liturgical year in Christian tradition for the new year. Our church is decorated with Christmas wreath with five candles representing one candle per week that we … Continue reading →

AHA Moment

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Where did the word adventurous come from? I woke up this morning with this thought. It is such an exciting word.  What brought this word into my thoughts? Do I dare to psychoanalyze myself first thing in the morning? Egad! I … Continue reading →

If this doesn’t make you happy, I don’t know what will.

Monks who have taken the oath of silence, sing the Hallelujah Chorus.

This is sooooo funny!! It’s a group of high school students playing silent monks and “singing” the Hallelujah Chorus.

Look at the feet of the monks also! And yes, you do need to turn the sound on to fully appreciate this. It’s a hoot! Plus, who doesn’t like to hear it, at any time of year.

 

Source: Email from a friend.

Finding Advent at the Inn

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Yesterday’s destination at the Quay is to attend a conference at the Inn. It’s a conference that most people would shy away from attending since the main focus is people with (dis)abilities. People with vision impairment and hard of hearing, with walking … Continue reading →

In Search of Advent at the Quay

This gallery contains 1 photo.

The parade just started when I got off the SkyTrain station at the Quay. Motorcades with signs ‘Season’s Greetings’, ‘Dream, Live, Celebrate’, ‘Merry Xmas’, ‘Only Santa delivers more’ drove carrying Gingerbread Man, Frosty the Snow Man, Rudolph the Red Nose … Continue reading →

Bringing back fond memories

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Today marks the first day of advent. A day of excitement filed with hope and grief. But hope trumps! It’s Not This Time of Year Without… a message of hope, everlasting hope. The message is to step out of our head … Continue reading →

The happiest table at home

This gallery contains 2 photos.

It is a gradual change of transition as we waited patiently with anticipation when the happiest table in our house is redecorated. The decoration then was pumpkin, Chinese lantern flowers and golden maple leaves on Thanksgiving Day. Now the table … Continue reading →

Waiting for us

This post resonates what is written in my “About” page. One cannot hurry up the waiting process. Trust in the slow process on waiting even though one is not religious. De Chardin has proven his point and Friar pointed it so well.

friarmusings

There are lots of different ways to wait. Scripture has over 162 verses that describe all sorts and manners of waiting. I suspect you are familiar with a good portion of the different kinds of waiting – after all, we all wait. In the military, the common experience was to “hurry up and wait.” We all wait. It is a common experience, and yet there are differences in waiting. There is a difference between expectant, on the edge-of-your-seat waiting; the patient “it will happen in its own good time and there is nothing I can do about it” waiting; and the waiting of dread, tedium, and despair. I think our “are we ever gonna’ get there waiting” because a flight to Europe can take 8+ hours, would fall on deaf ears for our ancestors who traveled months on boats to reach these distant shores. But things change, the world has…

View original post 487 more words

A Leap of Faith

Dec 22, 2013, Sunday.  Today, we will light up the fourth candle and it represents Love.

Hope, Peace and Joy lighted candles

“I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:34-35

With Love, Prayers and Blessings to you and yours.  Pax Tecum ~ Seeker.

Look! A Shooting Star

Look at everything and everyone around you and imagine how a creating and loving God would see what you see. Love the good; do what you can to change what needs to be changed.

— from Advent with St. Francis

Another day at the dental office and another 3.5 hours listening to Christmas music is highly not on the top of the list of having fun.  My mouth is still sore from the other day and here I go again feeling kind of masochist and the dentist a sadist.  I decided to turned off my mind, recited a mantra and went into the clouds of unknowing.  The next thing I knew, soft hands were caressing my face and waking me up gently every time my mouth gradually closes.  I really rather be sleeping and pretend that I am somewhere in outer space.

‘Humming a song with the dentist’s fingers, feeling the pain of the drill, feeling my mouth with plaster, feeling me softly with pain’, a song in my head that is not conducive to relieving the agony.  So I changed the mental song to ‘Catch a falling star and put in my pocket save it for a rainy day’. Perry Como`s song sounded much better.

Eventually, the session is over only to return next year to finish the job. Left the clinic and went to a floral shop to divert my attention.  Just looking, admiring  and savouring the scented flowers with no intention of buying until I saw a plant that has the most beautiful white flower.  It was a very unusual plant, a species of hydrangea called Shooting Star.  With no hesitation, I bought it,  took it home and gave the plant to the next door neighbour for no reason at all.  But of course, the neighbour always wants a reason and asks why.  Before I can give her a chance to ask why, I said: “Here, Merry Christmas.”

The first thing the neighbour exclaimed was “Shooting Star! I dreamt of Shooting Star last night!”  Was she ever excited and gave me a bear hug, a kiss on my forehead and never-ending gratitude.  Our stars must be aligned is all I can think of to dismiss the coincidence.  What I really think is that her angels must have whispered in my ears, the soft still voice that made me buy the plant and gave it to her.

Ain’t life grand?  It takes very little to make one happy in turn made me feel joyful.

Forgiveness and Love

 

 

Source: Advent Meditation and Prayers by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Ten more days before Christmas

Plan A and B failed me.  Now I have to shift the focus of this blog to Plan C.  C for Christmas and that means advent.

What to expect starting today until the end of the year from this site will be mostly meditations and daily wisdom taken from Facebook.  These are post from sites that I subscribed that help me shape my interior life.

Let’s meditate, cogitate, and vegetate: not necessarily in this order.

Pax Tecum:  seeker

What it’s all about

Two minutes will explain what Advent is all about.  Watch and enjoy.

 

“Be still:
There is no longer any need of comment.
It was a lucky wind
That blew away his halo with his cares,
A lucky sea that drowned his reputation.”
―     Thomas Merton

 

 

Source: Busted Halo

I believe ~ a different perspective

Halloween was not even over yet, the Christmas stockings are now on sale.  Just a minute, wait until we bury back the dead, the ghosts to return to ghost town and bring out the ghost of Christmas past on Christmas day, not on October 31^st.

Recently, a group of little green people accosted me insisting that Santa Claus is already in town.  Yah? Really?  And where he could be, I asked.  They responded in chorus line: Richmond Mall!  Hah, there you are, it’s all about going to the mall to entice me in spending money that I don’t have.  They even bribed me with candy canes and a button that says “I believe.”  No thanks, I still have yet to finish all the Halloween candies.

Passing by Metro Town Mall, look who’s there?  Santa Claus.  There’s no need for me to go to Richmond since Santa’s doppelganger is right here up my alley.

Seriously!  Before Christmas starts, this whole idea will wear out thin.  Come to think about it, the twelve day of Christmas does not start until December 25 and it ends on January 6.  And real gift giving is on the first Sunday of the following year when the Three Kings arrive to bring the gift of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Hearing Celine Dion sing “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” and Michael Buble’s rendition of “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” while I shop at Safeway makes me want to scream “Will somebody please turn off this music!”  I can’t concentrate what to buy for dinner on a rainy day and to come home in an apartment without fire-place.

I must admit Vancouver features many areas where one can go to be in the groove for Christmas.  The famous lights in St. Paul’s Hospital, the Christmas train at Stanley Park, the German Market at Queen Elizabeth, the dancing fountain at Van Dusen garden and the many homes that are fully decorated with Christmas lights.

And what do I really believe and celebrate during Christmas season?  My answer is one word:  Advent

What is Advent?

The word “Advent” comes from the Latin Adventus, which means “coming.” It is a time for quiet reflection, prayer and conversion in anticipation of the coming of Christ from two different perspectives. The readings and the liturgies during Advent prepare us for the birth of Jesus, but they also prepare us for the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the world. The season offers us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, and to be alert as we await his Second Coming. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas. It ends at sundown on Christmas Eve. Since Christmas falls on different days of the week, Advent can range in duration from 22 days when Christmas falls on a Monday to 28 days when Christmas falls on a Sunday. Advent marks the beginning of the Church year. Unlike the secular year, which marks the passage of time, the liturgical year celebrates the sacred mysteries of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The year begins during Advent in anticipation of the coming of Jesus with reflections on the Hebrew prophecies and the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah.

Christmas is not a holiday.  Please don’t greet me with Happy Holidays.  Christmas is merry.  I will joyfully greet you Merry Christmas.  I’m sure I’m not alone to wish you a Merry Christmas and won’t the last.

Merry Christmas.

Hello ~ Goodbye ~ Hello

Good things do come to an end.  

When the journey is over, we all have good intentions to keep in touch.  Parting words such as:

• Come and visit me in the island
• Let’s e-mail one another
• Here’s my phone number and let’s chin wag

The common response is “Sure, Lets”.  

Listening to all these parting words, maybe just maybe, I could be wrong.  Having been a pilgrim, experience dictates it’s not going to happen.  So I thought, give chance a chance. 

I did keep in touch via e-mail, group e-mail.  I sent out birthday wishes, prayer cards, and Advent reflection.  All good in the beginning and bit by bit, silence.  There is still hope for there was still one person who wants to remain.  I was asked if I’m still in touch with the group.  No, my response, you are the last person standing. 

Keeping a real friendship when one is a pilgrim, one has to be aware what the real motive is behind.  We may be brothers and sisters in Christ, there’s always an ulterior motive.  My motive is clear that I remain faithful to my pilgrim progress, no strings to bind but to my faith. 

In the end the last person standing found a better offer for I am waiting this to happen since I played cupid between them.  Ah, love.  I am so happy for both of them. 

So, how do you say Goodbye? Facetiously, I say see you in the next life.  In reality, say so long and let them go.  Knowing too well the price to pay for being fully human and alive when saying goodbye, it’s emotive.  And the real answer is blowing in the wind. 

There are questions and the common ones are what did you buy and did you take pictures.  Of course, I went shopping, that’s part of the itinerary.  Tourist is herded like cows and dropped them off to a shopping centre.  Pictures? Sure, faceless ones are great and photos that speak the divine but they are elusive.  

To keep the economy going, one has to buy the obligatory group picture.  The professional photographers work so hard for the tourist industry and I am very supportive of them, even I detest having to pose.  Besides, I only look at this picture once and stored away.  

So here goes, nothing.  If you can guess where this picture is taken and which post I mentioned this place, I will send you the original.  The first correct answer, wins. 

And YES. I am in the picture!

Pilgrims 2012

 

Related article:

• The guessing game is inspired by Hoof Beats and Foot Prints: Name That Raptor Contest

We have a winner:  My Life After Glow  please visit Michaels site and congratulate him.  Thank you for participating.