A good New Year’s resolution is to continue to work for peace. History has shown that helping to bring peace takes patience, prayer, and perseverance. Past human efforts to achieve peace have not been overly successful.
According to the June 1988 issue of Today in the Word, in 3,530 years of recorded history, only 286 years saw peace.
More than 8,000 peace treaties were made and then broken.
There are slightly different versions of the origin of the Christmas carol “Silent Night.”
My favorite version reveals that shortly before Christmas in 1818, Fr. Joseph Mohr discovered that the organ of St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria, was broken. He knew that his parishioners would be disappointed without Christmas music.
Advent is the liturgical season during which we await the Second Coming of Christ in glory. We also wait, pray, and listen for the coming of Jesus at Christmas.
In Living Life on Purpose, Greg Anderson tells of a mother and her little daughter who were eating breakfast in a restaurant. The little girl asked, “Mommy, why don’t we pray here before we eat like we do at home?”
The waitress overheard her and said, “Honey, it’s okay to pray here. Why don’t you say the prayer before meals for us now?” Then the waitress asked everyone in the restaurant to bow their heads.
Mother Teresa claimed that the greatest disease of the modern world is not leprosy or cancer. Rather it is feeling unloved and unwanted.
So she and her nuns went into India’s streets and picked up the dying and ministered to them. Though many died shortly, she wanted them to experience Christ’s love before they died.
Mother Teresa claimed that the greatest disease of the modern world is not leprosy or cancer. Rather it is feeling unloved and unwanted.
So she and her nuns went into India’s streets and picked up the dying and ministered to them. Though many died shortly, she wanted them to experience Christ’s love before they died.
Mark Twain, the writer, reportedly once earned five dollars per word. Someone playfully wrote him, “Mr. Twain, here is five dollars. Please send me your favorite word.” Mark Twain wrote back, “Thanks!”
Thanksgiving also is one of God’s favorite words. The word Eucharist, the center of Catholic life, means thanksgiving.
