Category: Religion

Lent 2010

Lent is a 40-day time of prayer, fasting, self-denial, and almsgiving leading up to Easter. This year it begins Wednesday, February 17, 2010. (For Catholics, at least. Other Christians have other calendars.)

Lent is the most DIY Christian season–you have to pick a vice or luxury to “give up” for the season, and plan how to add more prayer and fasting to your life.

This is my tenth Lent as a vegan. Most Catholics abstain from eating mammals and birds on Fridays during Lent, but that’s my daily routine anyway, so once again I’ll have to devise some sort of food-related Friday absinence. Years ago Adam suggested vegans give up soy; I’ll try that again.

This is the first Lent in years that I had a good idea of what luxury to “give up” far in advance. Oh, it’s so obvious to me. (I’m not going to talk about it ahead of time.)

Two years ago I spent Lent working for an end to the Iraq War, and last year I lived in DC, working full-time to close the Guantanamo prison. This year I’m looking forward to a quieter observance.

What are your Lenten plans?

Merry Christmas!

Not long before he retired, Fr. Ed Bell began his Christmas homily by asking if anyone remembered any of his past Christmas homilies. After an embarrassed silence, he laughed and said he didn’t remember any of them, either. That’s OK–Christmas isn’t about homilies. (Or blog posts.)

From today’s homily by a different priest at the same parish:

I don’t care if Wal-Mart doesn’t have a nativity scene. I don’t care if K-Mart doesn’t have a nativity scene. I care if these pews are filled.

My Christmas wish is that your heart and home are filled today.

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
—John 1:14

Fourth Sunday of Advent

We’ve been using a booklet of Henri Nouwen meditations this Advent. He often counsels that we stay in the moment, and today, the fourth Sunday of Advent, Greyhound is doing their bit to keep me where I am both mentally and physically by cancelling bus service to Worcester due to snow. (I am in no hurry to ride on icy roads after my Christmas wreck last year.)

Christmas caroling

Today we celebrated the season by Christmas carolling at a local nursing home and at the homes of neighbors and friends.

Advent wreath Advent panel

I also wanted to share photos of a homemade Advent wreath and a sort of “Advent board” tracing the lineage of Jesus, based on a design by legendary Catholic Worker artist Ade Bethune.

Hope you all have a wonderful, safe week!

508 #96: The local green economy

This week: the 508 Christmas Spectacular! The panel is Julius Jones and Mr. Brendan Melican. Theme song: “If I Had One Christmas Wish.” Words by Bruce “Snow Ghost” Russell, music by Mike Benedetti.


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Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed

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508 contact info

Buddha Hut buffet Saturday; Stone Soup party Friday; Winter Mystery Band signups happening now.

The NYT is not selling the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Top suggestions for the T&G: stop running the internet poll on the front page, because you’re deceiving people who don’t realize it’s a phony poll, and you look bad to people who know what’s going on; create an RSS feed for Worcester news; make use of the <title> element so it will be easier to Google T&G articles; add features to the comment system to filter out noise.

Julius, who helps run the Regional Environmental Council’s gardening program, talks about the local green economy, or lack thereof.

Holiday gift guide:

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Nicole has posted an experimental Virtual Assignment Desk; Jeff Barnard highlights Bill Randell’s reporting on low-income housing financing.

You should wear a hat to stay warm! I’m told Lutheran Social Services has classes for recent immigrants to help them dress appropriately for the (bad) weather.

Advent 2009

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the four-week period of preparation for Christmas.

Advent isn’t as project-oriented as Lent, but there are many more popular rituals to mark this season. Notably, each Sunday you light candles around a wreath while praying. Today we light a purple candle, next week two, the next week we add a pink candle, then another purple, finally lighting all four plus a white candle for Christmas.

If there are children in the house, you probably have an Advent calendar with little pieces of candy attached to each day, a clever incentive for the children to remind you of the daily Advent prayer. The U.S. Bishops’ Advent website contains a simulated calendar with prayers instead of snacks.

Every year I also like caroling with friends and watching It’s a Wonderful Life with Bruce; one of my goals this Advent is to integrate them into these daily and weekly practices.

Most of all, this year I’m looking forward to sharing these traditions with a non-Catholic Christian friend who knows very little about this stuff, and hoping to gain a deeper appreciation of Advent in so sharing.

Scrooge and the Jobless Recovery

Engraving by C.E. BrockEbenezer Scrooge was a businessman whose single employee, Bob Cratchit, a married father of four, worked for starvation wages. In the opening pages of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, we learn that Scrooge believes he is overtaxed by the government and “cannot afford to make others merry.” He doesn’t see himself as a miser, but as a victim of a bad economy. When Cratchit makes even the most modest suggestion of better working conditions (an extra lump of coal on the fire, a single day off a year), Scrooge threatens him with unemployment.

On November 6, 2009, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the unemployment rate had climbed to 10.2%, representing 16.4 million Americans, double the number of jobless when the recession began in December 2007. The government also reported that an additional 808,000 people had become “discouraged workers,” those “not looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.” Perhaps most alarming in terms of race relations and future prospects, the unemployment rates for blacks was 15.4% and 25.7% for all teenagers.
Continue reading “Scrooge and the Jobless Recovery”

All-night Main South prayer vigil, Worcester

Prayer vigil for Main South

There’s a 12-hour prayer vigil for Main South at King & Main in Worcester tonight, organized by The Woo.

I stopped by tonight and joined about 15 others in a little silent prayer, a little spoken prayer, a lot of conversation, and the occasional psalm. As a Catholic, when I think “12-hour prayer vigil” I think of rosaries, litanies, and the Divine Office. This group is coming from a different place, and it’s interesting watching them figure out how they want to use this time. I’ll be back for more in the morning.

All-night prayer vigil, Worcester’s Main South, Aug 14

The Woo, a small “alternative Christian church” on Main Street, are planning an all-night prayer vigil at the corner of Main and King from 8pm Friday, Aug 14 to 8am Saturday, Aug 15. Several members of the congregation live in the neighborhood, and their hope is to “give God a foothold in the area” and pray for the brokenness they see there.

For more info, call Dan at 508-341-1103.