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Thursday 18 December 2014

Sunday (21/4/2014) Handmade Catholic - last sunday advent - in summary

Back ground:

Purpose of Advent:


Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ. In advent we reflect how to give birth of christ in our life. Birth of Jesus re-establish the Happiness to all human beings. God created all humans to be happy!


All 4 sundays in Advent we were directed as to how to plant Jesus in our life.

Today is the last (4th)Sunday

1 First sunday,

How to establish HAPPY MIND in you


 In order to lead our life with catholic principles,we should know  4 basic pillars of catholicism; our belief-creed,our worship-7 sacraments,our behaviour-10 commandments with pardoning and our spirituality-how to establish connection with God- Lords prayer and thru' intercessionary prayers with Mary and saints. In the end when you follow and practice, will lead to establish a happy mind in you.

2 Second sunday

PRINCIPLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JUDISM AND CATHOLISM!

(1) Earlier God was directly talking to human thru' various means, now God is indirect and  listen to Him,you should develop a Happy mind.
(2)earlier 10 commandments were practice with Eye to Eye principle, now it is practice with Pardoning principle!.

3. FROM WHICH DOCUMENTS THAT YOU CAN LEARN YOURSELF?

Third sunday we analysed further the importance of Gospel in comparison to old testaments.
To understand Gospel, one should get a view of Bible, which mainly consist of old and new testaments!

OLD TESTAMENT:
First 5 books of old testament has been written by Moses.
Hebrew Bible and christian bible consist of following parts:

GENESIS,EXODUS,LEVITICUS,NUMBERS,DEUTERONOMY.
HISTORY: Joshua/judges/Ruth/1& 2 Samuel/ 1& 2 kings/ 1&2 chronicals/Ezra/nehemia/esther.
POETRY & WISDOM LITERATURE: job/pslams/proverbs/ecclesiastes/song of songs/
THE PROPHETS-major prophets: Isaish/jeramiah/Lamentations/ezkiel/Daniel
MINOR PROPHETS: Hosea/joel/amos/obadiah/Jonah/micah/nahum/habakkuk/zephaniah/haggai/zechariah/malachi
THE APOCRYPHA: catholic & orthodox churches consider Apocrypha as apart of bible.
THE APOCRYPA:
TOBIT:prayer of Azariah & the song of the 3 jews. JUDITH: susanna. ADDITION TO ESTHER: bel and the dragon: WISDOM OF SOLOMON: 1&2 Maccabees,ECCLESIASTICUS- 1& 2 Esdras, BARUCH-Prayer of manasseh,
EASTERN ORTHODOX ADDITION TO THE APOCRYPHA: 3& 4 maccabees/psalm 151.

 THE NEW TESTAMENT:
The history of the new testament's composition is much briefer,it being written within a period of 50 to 75 years(as compared to 1000years for the old testament).
The new testament consist of histories of life of Jesus/a history of early church-ACT OF APOSTELS/ letters written by leaders of early church apostle Paul & various other 1st century christians/ final book of new testament,REVELATION-called apocalptic literature, referring to end time prophecies.

BY TRADITION THESE WORK WERE WRITTEN UNDER DIVINE INSPIRATION OF GOD.(Number of new testament books as at now is 27)

HISTORY- gospels(life of Jesus) MATTHEW/MARK/LUKE/JOHN; LIFE OF EARLY CHURCH- acts of apostles; letters PAUL'S LETTERS; Romans,1&2 corinthians,galatians,ephesians,philippians,colossians,1& 2 thessalonians,1&2 Timothy,Titus,philemon,
General letters: Hebrews,James,1&2 peter,1,2&3 John,Jude
APOCALYPSE(future events)- Revelations.

 4. VALUE OF NEW TESTAMENT


New testament, specially Gospel, allow you to reflect in many angles to resolve your own problems to find the purpose of creation of human individual to them!. Reflections on the readings of sunday mass(Gospel) and reciting daily rosary with reflecting the Gospel is the best method to gain knowledge of God and lead a happy life.

5.  YOUR WILL AND GOD'S WILL


If you are trained to follow God's will, then you are assured about Happy life both in this world and outside. How do we know whether my will is the God's Will. This is the most difficult part in christianity. Now God will not send angles or give you dreams, directly instructing about HIS WILL. You should first prepare your self to accept HIS instruction

Holy mary's whole life is an example of following the God's will

Today reading we were invited to follow Mary in order for us to understand the God's will, clearly showing the mary's humility:


6. Mary and Humility!

The great honour by the angel created a problem to Mary, who have vowed to give her body as well as her sole to God. Therefore she could never be a mother. As she put it"I know not man. I have willed not to know man". Mary did not say" I WILL NEVER MARRY,THEREFORE,I CANNOT BECOME THE MOTHER OF JESUS" that would have been disobedient to God. God was choosing her, not just because she was a virgin but because of her humility. Later mary herself declared this as the reason"HE LOOKED UPON THE LOWLINESS OF HIS HANDMAID". (luke:1:48).So Mary troubled. Nothing troubles a humble soul like praise, and here the praise comes from angel of God.:HAIL-(peace be with you/rejoice),FULL OF GRACE-(full of virtue).

7: Essential factor in catholicism

Catholism allows you to develop PEACEFUL mind, then worry free mind, then happy mind. The essential factor to develop up to happy mind is to avoid 7 Vices(Sloth,Anger,pride,Envy,lust,Gluttony,avarice). Mary had avoided all those in her life. One cannot do this without handing over his life to God. Any human in this world will develop a worried mind due to fear,sorrow and disagreements. If they try to clear worries by themselves, without spiritual support, it is going to be short lived solution. That is why catholicism has developed the concept of Holy Mary and communion of saints, your guardian angel etc, to handover such worries, and lead a Happy life. This is the only way that you can go for positive thinking!. Holy mary as a human,has practised that, and now she is assigned by God to assist us in clearing our worries!


 8. Today's reading:
Paul(Rm 16:25-27) reminds you to give glory to God. Samuel says(2 S 7:1-5.8-12.14.16)
Says THE LORD WILL MAKE YOU GREAT!.
Lk(1:26-38) .........I AM HANDMADE OF THE LORD, said Mary"LET WHAT YOU HAVE SAID TO BE DONE TO ME" reminds that you are also handmade of God, and we should be prepared to follow the God's will like Mary!.Mary did a great difficult request of God. As human, who also having earth bound desires, Mary set a good example for us to follow. Not only that she maintained throughout of earthly life, in following God's will. Sometimes in our life we start with God(mostly in trouble times) then forget about HIM, when we are well off!.(First will be last and last will be first!).


9. Aim of Advent

The last sunday of the advent, gives the final goal that we should achieve and practice to follow God's will. All sunday's reflections are aiming to reach this final Goal! One cannot think that he is following god's unless he is properly educated and vigilant about his life. Aristotle says"unaware life is not fit for living"

Pictorial summary of advent


10. Christmas season:

 

From december 25 th to next year January 6 th is the christmas season. At least 2 Sundays will fall into this. Advent season is always 4 sundays!. Liturgy year always start with Advent. Advent and christmas season is 6 sundays. Next important seasons are lent(6 sundays) and easter (6 sundays). Easter date is always changing. Easter date will be decided to the sunday, before march 21st (equinox), full moon poya day to the immediate before sunday to coincide with Judaism pass over. So every year it will change.
There are 52 sundays for a year. Hence around 52-18=34 sundays are allocated as ordinary season. These ordinary season segregated into 2. Ordinary
season 1- sundays in between january 6th to starting point of lent and (2) after easter to starting point of advent. Catholic church has beautifully organised the seasons and sunday readings to mould our life to happiness!. Many thanks to St pius V(1570) and Bl paul VI(1970).


In Christmas you are invited to reflect How Jesus came to this world, why God selected Mary and Joseph, characteristics of Holy family, finally Jesus divine and human qualities shown to us!











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