Category Archives: Advent

Advent

Shameless Plug – a great idea!

by

A shameless plug for a timeless gift: get your gifts here.

The Now of Time and Passion

by

1

Jesus, You didn’t rush through the moments of Your Passion on the Way of the Cross.

You didn’t hurry through Your Suffering on the Cross on the way to Your Ressurrection.

Rather, You embrace the whole of each morsel of Time to sanctify the whole.

In Your steps along Your Way, may I walk embracing You,

In Your Passion, my passion,

In Your cross, my cross,

In Your Resurrection, my resurrection.

 

© 2011 Joann Nelander

Why did Disney block God? | Fox News

by

1

Why did Disney block God? | Fox News.

Why did Disney block God?

Todd Starnes
  • 450-Lilly-Disney.jpg

    Lilly Anderson (Courtesy Julie Anderson)

It turns out you can give thanks for a lot of different folks on the Disney Channel website – but you can’t thank God.

I received a Facebook message on Sunday from Julie Anderson, of Angier, North Carolina, a town located about 30 miles from Raleigh.  Julie was writing to tell me about her daughter, Lilly.

Lilly celebrated her 10th birthday on Sunday. After church and a delicious lunch at the Golden Corral, the Andersons headed home – and Lilly made a beeline for the computer.

I do wonder what sort of message the Disney Channel is sending when they tell children that mentioning God in public is bad manners.Now, Lilly loves the Disney Channel – and as she was browsing the channel’s website she noticed a question. The Disney Channel wanted to know what she was thankful for.  So Lilly typed in her answer.

“God, my family, my church and my friends,” the 10-year-old wrote.

Lilly pressed the return key and waited for her answer to appear on the website. But her response did not appear. Instead, a message written in red popped up on the screen.

“Please be nice!” the message read.

Lilly tried again and again with no luck – so she told her parents.

“It was Lilly’s idea alone to include God in her post,” Julie told me. “As a matter of fact she was in another room from me and she came and got me when it wouldn’t allow her to post.”

Julie retyped the message and the same red-lettered warning appeared.

“We together figured out that the word God was the problem,” Julie said.

Sure enough, when they removed the word “God” from the post – the Disney Channel approved Lilly’s message. And then – Julie contacted me.

So, I gave it a try, too. I tried posting what I was thankful for on the Disney Channel website.

And just like Lilly and Julie, Disney prevented me from posting any message that included the word “God.”

I reached out to Disney for an explanation. Their people tell me that God was not intentionally blocked from the channel’s website however at this point, they aren’t quite sure why it happened but they assured me they had a team working on it.

Julie is not very happy, though.

“I’m not at all anti-Disney but to shame a ten-year-old, to tell her to ‘please be nice’ for thanking god and sharing her faith with others is what is upsetting to me as a mother,” she said.

Disney certainly seems to be implying that thanking God is not nice. Well, neither is blocking the Almighty from a website.

Julie said her daughter is a very loving and accepting child who was raised to understand that not everyone believes in God.

“We’ve always told her that inevitably there would come a day when she would be discriminated against for her faith but we never thought Disney would be the source,” she said.

I do wonder what sort of message the Disney Channel is sending when they tell children that mentioning God in public is bad manners.

Prayer of St. Edmund of Canterbury – Prayer as We Begin the Day

by

“O Lord, into Your hands, and into the hands of Your holy angels,
I commit and entrust this day, myself, my relatives, my
benefactors, my friends and enemies, and all Your Christian people.
By the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and all Your saints, keep us this day from all evil and unruly desires,
from all sins and temptations of the devil, from sudden and unprovided death, and from the pains of hell. Enlighten my heart with the grace
of Your Holy Spirit. Grant that I may ever be obedient to Your commandments and never let me be separated from You. Amen.”

Advent Prayer in Waiting

by

2

Advent is upon my soul.
Divine gift of season,
I listen for the cry of a First Born Son,
Begotten before Time begun,
And enfleshed in the Virgin’s womb.

I come to her,
Who is the Ark,
Your Mercy Seat.
Kneeling beside her,
In these pregnant moments,
I lay my head upon her lap.

Her wonderment, and awe,
In steadfast contemplation,
Inspire angels’ songs.

I hear their reverent voices
In my night.
Their chorus bids me come.
Come to the stable of simplicity.

Leave the noisy city for a deserted place,
The Wilderness, whose hidden way
Leads to the waiting manger,
Now, in expectant readiness,
For the Food, that will feed
The hungry world.

My Advent prayer,
Come, O Holy Infant!
Come to my straw

 

©2010 Joann Nelander

 

The Lights of Advent Keep Vigil

by

Adventskranz Porzellan

Advent candles lit within my being,
Prayer like a torch,
Calling on the Spirit,
To light the lamp of vigil
And illuminate my soul.

Thanksgiving, a spotlight,
Setting blessings all aglow,
While praise as a million votives
Ring Your manger in the night.

Though my soul be steeped in sorrow,
For the sin that went before,
My tears You turn to shining crystal
As the sea before Your throne.

O, Sun of Justice,
In Heaven you replace the shining stars.
Banish all darkness here below,
As  once Your Star lit Earth’s long night

Alight all holiness,
As a rainbow green with Life,
Arches ’bout the celestial throne,
While incandescent angels
Sing with halo-headed saints.

Because You come,
This earthy life’s tomorrows
Are bedecked in Hope
As You knock at ready virgins’ door,

The Promise ever before me,
You stand, an open door.
I, now, Bold Abandonment,
Before the throne of grace,

Sainted souls gleaming like electrum
Flashing love’s arrows as lightning.
Advent becomes Christmas in my soul.

By Joann Nelander