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Hundred Dollar Holiday :
The Case for a Joyful Christmas
by Bill McKibben

This brief, eloquently presented book offers a simple and inviting strategy for handling the most complicated holiday of our times--Christmas. Reacting to the commercialization and overspending that has come to define it, author Bill McKibben argues in favor of only spending a hundred dollars at Christmas.

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The History of Advent
Submitted by Dianne Miller

It cannot be determined with any degree of certainty when the celebration of Advent was first introduced into the Church. The preparation for the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord was not held before the feast itself existed.

One of the earliest references to Christmas being celebrated on December 25 appeared in Antioch in the middle of the second century. At that time, Christians were still persecuted. An official determination was made in the fourth century, when the Roman emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, thereby ensuring the legality of Christmas celebrations. The Council of Tours in 567 established the period of Advent as a time of fasting before Christmas. They also proclaimed the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany a sacred, festive season.

According to present usage [1910], Advent is a period beginning with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (30 November) and embracing four Sundays. The first Sunday may be as early as November 27th, and then Advent has twenty-eight days, or as late as December 3rd, giving the season only twenty-one days.

The popular idea that the four weeks of Advent symbolize the four thousand years of darkness in which the world was enveloped before the coming of Christ finds no confirmation in the Liturgy.

The familiar carol "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" belongs to the Advent season since it celebrates the expectation of Christ's coming rather than His actual birth.

Lesson on Tithing
A Note from Wanda Schamp

Well, today we made it official. I am now a stay at home wife. I am so excited to be able to focus on my husband and family now. Finances are a concern, so please keep us in your prayers.

I learn so much about God through children. I had a talk with myself this morning about tithing. I asked my self again 'why should we tithe?'

I then remembered something that happened one day last week when I had taken Katelyn, my granddaughter over to my dad's house. We were starting to leave and Pop asked Katelyn to come give him a kiss. She decided she didn't want to. Her mom and I were pleading with her to please go and give Pop a kiss. Pop said " Don't make her, I would rather her do it because she wants to." Well I realized God is not trying to "make" me do anything. He wants only an obedient and willing heart, and that's what I want to have.
I'll close now. See ya Sunday. LOL (Lots of Love), Wanda

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