Second Sunday of Advent
Peace
… get ready, be prepared …
In
the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was
governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler
of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during
the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of
Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is
written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
"The voice of one crying out in
the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill
shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"
Luke 3:1-6
Please
click on the following link and scroll down:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/slides/Cx_SecondSundayofAdvent.pdf
The
first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls
of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe
and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells
the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each
of us.
~ Black
Elk
Peace is the only
battle
worth waging.
~ Albert Camus
Memories of Thanksgiving, 2018
Vidanta Riviera Maya
https://www.vidanta.com/documents/65216/76629/Riviera-Maya.pdf/49bef212-0e50-8f0f-508d-b445718ba350
Critters in Cancun
Crocodiles
Thrashing
crocodiles
Baby
crocodile at the entrance to our restaurant at the golf course.
Flamingos
Iguanas
The
coati, or coatimundi, is a member of the raccoon family.
This
one was throwing coconuts down for his dinner.
(Or
was he throwing them at us?)
Big
critters!
Dottie,
Jack, and Robin
Evergreen Rotary Holiday Party
Hiwan Country Club
Wednesday,
December 5, 2018
Eric
and Tera Gill with their children
Kids
are always welcome at our Holiday Event.
Mrs.
Santa Kimra greeted and read to them.
As
did her elves!
Most
of Mrs. Santa’s elves gathered around the Christmas tree.
PEO Christmas Luncheon
Mount Vernon Canyon Club
Friday,
December 7, 2018
Front
Row: Karen Phillipe, Sharron Leonard, Dottie Reeves, Isabel Shanahan
Back
Row: Carolyn Alexander, Danna Cuin
We
were all guests of Sharron Leonard.
Thank
you, SHARRON!
This
gingerbread house decorated our table.
It
was contructed by Jan Schoonveld.
All
twelve centerpieces were completely edible, except for the lights.
Even
the “glass panes” were edible.
This
one was constructed by Jennie Snyder and her daughter Ashley.
Mankind must remember
that peace is not
God’s gift to his creatures;
peace is our gift to
each other.
~ Elie Wiesel
December 9, 2018 Second Sunday
of Advent Year C
Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein
Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org
Malachi 3:1-4 or Baruch 5:1-9
Luke 1:68-79
Philippians
1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
Malachi
3:1-4
See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and
the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the
covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But
who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he
is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them
like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in
righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the
Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
Baruch
5:1-9
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
For God will give you evermore the name,
"Righteous Peace, Godly Glory."
Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look toward the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
For God has ordered that every high mountain
and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God's command.
For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness
that come from him.
Luke
1:68-79
[Zechariah said:]
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on
his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke through the mouth
of his holy prophets from of old,
that we would be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us.
Thus he has shown the mercy
promised to our ancestors,
and has remembered his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us that we, being rescued
from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called
the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord
to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation
to his people by the forgiveness
of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high
will break upon us,
to give light to those
who sit in darkness and
in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace."
Philippians
1:3-11
I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying
with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in
the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one
who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus
Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold
me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my
imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my
witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And
this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and
full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of
Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of
righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
Luke
3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when
Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his
brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias
ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of
God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the
region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet
Isaiah,
"The voice of one crying out in
the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill
shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"