Holiday Lights in front of Fourth Presbyterian Church along Michigan Avenue in Downtown Chicago.
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Good morning everyone. I wanted to share this commentary on today’s Gospel reading. It’s about the birth of John the Baptist, and the last few lines really impress me.
FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT
LUKE 1:57-66
Friends, today’s Gospel tells the story of the birth and naming of John the Baptist. John’s father Zechariah had been rendered speechless after his vision in the sanctuary, but we hear that “his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.”
What follows this passage is the wonderful Canticle of Zechariah, which puts Jesus and John in the context of the great story of Israel.
Once we grasp that Jesus was no ordinary teacher and healer, but Yahweh moving among his people, we can begin to understand his words and actions more clearly. If we survey the texts of the Old Testament—and the first Christians relentlessly read Jesus in light of these writings—we see that Yahweh was expected to do four great things: he would gather the scattered tribes of Israel; he would cleanse the holy temple in Jerusalem; he would definitively deal with the enemies of the nation; and finally, he would reign as Lord of the world.
The eschatological hope expressed especially in the prophets and the Psalms was that through these actions, Yahweh would purify Israel, and through the purified Israel bring salvation to all. What startled the first followers of Jesus is that he accomplished these four tasks, but in the most unexpected way.
Reflect: The first words Zechariah spoke after being mute for more than six months were in praise of God. How often do you praise God aloud and in the presence of other people?
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Mornin’ Menage!
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Morning Wee. Got a houseful of hungry people this morning. I told them I’m not cooking a crumb until I drink my coffee!
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Spread the sanity: give everyone a cup of coffee or chocolate!
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Good morning, Menage!
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Morning Stella.
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Morning Menagerie
Thanks for this commentary. I did not know all the detailed, deep meaning. It’s good to learn that. My friend’s mother (straight from the old country – Italy) would say ‘Thank God aloud with your face towards the ground’ (bowing). Her daughter, my friend, says it with her hands clasped & so do I. Maybe we both could start remembering to bow to Him who saved us and created us.
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Mornin’ kids!
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That is essentially what Biden said yesterday.
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Mornin’ Mom!
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Morning Wee
Ya, somehow they never accept the fact someday it will come to them as It does to us all. I guess they hope the alligator eats them last – how stupid.
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Afternoon G&C!
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Mornin’ All. It dipped down to 48* here this morning. Ok, it’s cold. If this keeps up I will have to put on long pants. Loki seemed fine with the cold since she is wearing a nice fur coat. And, the sun is out shining bright. And, it is pretty warm in the sun. Have fun finishing up your Christmas plans today.
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Mornin’ mom!
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Mornin Stella !
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Good afternoon G&C!
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“48* here this morning. Ok, it’s cold. If this keeps up I will have to put on long pants.” Hahaha! You’re too funny! 😉
Have a great day!
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Mornin’ all. Hopefully off work until next year. Coffee’s brewin’. Looking to see what level of stoopid happened in the swamp overnight!.
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That didn’t work quite right. Let’s try this again!
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Mornin’ T!
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I sent this meme to a Starbucks habituate back in Oregon …..She didn’t find it as amusing as I did…:0) :0) :0)
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I did too! 😉
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Mornin’, Miss Wee. I would concur with your thesis. Luckily, I have no idea what that thing is that is referred to, thus, I won’t likely ever order one by mistake! 😀 😀 😀
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Hmm, I do take my coffee one of those two ways. I bet y’all will never guess which one!
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Thanks for the coffee Tex! Can’t function in the AM without it.
Here’s a yummy, hot breakfast to go along with that.
Enough for everyone – dig in!
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Guess I need More Coffee!
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Manny Garcia’s!!
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Mornin’ Tex! Just think – Some day soon you won’t have to get up for work ever again.
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Aaarrrggh! My phone went haywire yesterday. It stopped holding a charge, and overheated when I had it on the charger in the car. Mind you, I’m 50 miles away in Covington, LA, going to meet a friend at a restaurant I’ve never been to, using the app to find it. After lunch she found a Verizon store, where they got 17% charge on it, backed up my contacts and photos and sent me off to my local Verizon store.
Today I’ll take Czar’s phone to have my account transferred to it. Then I’ll have to learn how to use a new phone – I HATE THAT!
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My sister-in-law is now using her husbands phone; now I get text messages from my brother, who died almost 3 years ago. Kinda nice, though, keeping his memory alive.
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That’s nice. I kept a small answering machine with a tiny tape recorder to hear my Mom’s voice. She died years ago. I should check it & see if I can get it transferred to a CD. I forgot old tapes eventually lose the sound. Thanks for reminding me.
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I have one like that of my best friend’s last message to me.
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I used to like to call my aunt because my father had put the message on her answer machine, so I got to hear his voice when I called her. I always liked that.
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Hope the rest of your day goes better!
A few years ago I noticed it was getting harder to find hard copy map books & fold out maps so I started buying a couple very year or so. My phone is an old flip phone, my maps are paper – what can I say – I’m old school.
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I have paper maps too. My new car has all the fancy maps etc.
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Morning All! 🙂
So here is my little story of the trip to Bethlehem of Mary & Joseph by donkey using 4 paintings daytime to nightime:
The 1st is by Margaret Tarrant as they travel during the day
The 2nd is by Unknown because I can’t read the signature in the lower right corner. It is sold by Advocate Art London, Seville & NY. It is as they travel and the sun is setting
In the 3rdpainting it is night, and Bethlehem is in site. This is by Richard De Wolfe
The last painting shows Mary & Joseph (and a most likely tired little donkey) within a short distance of Bethlehem. It is by Anton Pieck from a book illustration of 1949
…to be continued tomorrow!
Have a great day everyone! 😉
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Thank you for putting these together with the little narrative. Really is touching.
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Update: The home and garages have been demolished and what was hidden from my view was finally revealed. This is now the view that I have standing at my kitchen sink….
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Sorry, trying one more time
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That’s a beautiful view. Which mountain range? And that is just how I pictured your area.
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Looking across to the mountains, it seems as if they’re just a skip and a hop away, and yet, it’s a good two hour drive just to get to the edge of them. This is the edge of the small and isolated mountain range that locals call the Bear Paw Mountains.
:0) It is truly a beautiful place to live and I am very proud to call it my home.
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Oh, and how did you get the second image without the Imgur logo? Mine always look like your first one.
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So I copied the direct link the first time….and then I opened a new page and repasted that same link address into the url bar…..I realized that it ended in jpg?1, so I highlighted the?1 and deleted it. Then I recopied the new address from the url bar, opened a comment and pasted.
Probably an easier way to do it, but it worked :0)
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The links are the same in both comments – except for the ?1.
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That is correct.
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Thanks!
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That’s a pretty nice view. You will have to take another picture in the spring.
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:0) Green is always much prettier aus…I’ll try to remember.
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I am sure we will remind you. 🙂
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And it will be received with great appreciation :0)
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Beautiful! I hope they never build there again.
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:0) An unexpected Christmas present and I so agree, I think it’s a gorgeous view.
Rumor has it, that the guy bought the property only for the purpose of tearing down the buildings and cleaning up the lot and since he owns the entire block south of it, I am a little more confident that the lot will remain vacant.
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A beautiful Christmas gift was exactly my 1st thought! Previously I thought you said you can the sunrise in that direction, it’s going to be gorgeous. It looks there is a nice tree off to the right as well. Do you get up early enough for sunrise photos. I’ve done that in the past, but it is difficult, especially in the winter, because I have to go outside in often 0 degree weather to get good pics. You’re really lucky to get good picture from inside!!! Santa’s been good to you 😉
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Hey G&C….Santa’s been very good to me, because I hate taking taking photos and if I had to go outside in this weather to do it, well, it wouldn’t get done. :0) I will at some point attempt a photo of a sunrise and try to remember to post it.
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I would love to see it, & I’m sure everyone else would also!
Funny how people feel so differently about the same thing. I LOVE taking nature photos, and have thousands. I find it a real stress relief. It’s helped me through some tough times. I’ll remind you 😉
Stay warm in that cold! 🙂
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Maybe a spring or early summer sunrise…
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Good news!
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God made babies so adorable so we would want to take care of them even though they are a lot of work. 🙂
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And because it’s not Christmas without ’em!
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Makes me smile and laugh every time!
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😀
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I don’t know how I missed this one! Such a joy.
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