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

 

First Sunday of Advent Year C, Art and Scripture Slide Show.
 
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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     

 

Previous OPQs may be found at: 

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

 

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.'"