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Happy New Year!

For those who are not Catholic, I'll have to explain. Today is the first day of Advent, the four weeks of waiting for Christmas. If you have an Advent wreath, today is the day you bring it out of the closet. The first day of Advent is also the first day of the Liturgical year in the Catholic church, when we begin a new cycle of readings for the next year. In lay terms, Advent might be called the official start of the Christmas season. Why do we need someone to tell us that? Well, if more people followed it, we might not have to put up with neighbors having Christmas lights up on November 14th, as I observed recently (those folks had their tree up too! Argh!). It's a minor thing, true, but it is helpful in keeping the seasonal commercialism at bay, and keeping the focus on the gift that is at the heart of the season. It is also a time of cleaning house, and examining if we are doing everything we can to be worthy of that gift. From today's reading:
Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.
For those unfamiliar with Liturgical years, there are three (A,B, and C) each with suggested readings for each day. If you do them for all three years, you will have covered well over 90% of the Bible. Who says Catholicism is unbiblical?

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