Today we begin the holy season of Advent. As always on the first Sunday of Advent, our Mass readings somewhat echo those of the final weeks of the last liturgical year, with their references to Jesus Christ's second and glorious coming.

Advent is, of course, the season of preparation for Christmas, and Christmas is one of the great feasts (the other being the Annunciation) of the Incarnation of the Son. The Catechism reminds us of the reasons for the Incarnation, which are summarized in the words of the Nicene Creed: "for our salvation." Christ was born into our world in order to prepare us to meet him at our death, and when he comes again to judge all the living and the dead.

In our second reading, St. Paul refers to these two comings of Christ our Lord, and to the connection between them. Paul speaks of "the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus" - that is, on account of his Incarnation, his first coming. Paul then speaks of this grace as our preparation for "the day of our Lord" - that is, his second coming.

Clearly, in our Gospel reading, Jesus is speaking of the importance of our cooperation with him in being prepared for his second coming. What about our first reading, from the Prophet Isaiah? Is it a prayer for Lord's first coming, or for his second?

Simply on a historical level, the question is problematic. It is anachronistic. It does not seem that God had made known to his Old Testament people that he would come a first time and then a second time. In any case, the passage is applicable to both comings of Christ - as is fitting, given the connection between these comings. Most obviously, it refers to his second coming. It is then that we will see the heavens rent, the mountains quaking, and God's awesome deeds of judgment.

But invisible though the working of God's grace in Jesus Christ is, it is, we should perhaps say, no less awesome in its own way. It brings about our salvation from the power of Satan, of sin and death.

During this season of Advent, then, let us keep in mind the meaning of Christ's humble birth in Bethlehem a little more than two thousand years ago now. Let us keep in mind its connection with his second coming in glory on a future day that we will not know in advance. Let us prepare to celebrate Christmas by cooperating with God's grace in Jesus Christ, by growing in holiness.

Nov. 27--What can uplift the downtrodden? Offer hope in the face of despair? Give rise to happiness?

Gratitude.

"It's an attitude that transcends circumstances," said psychologist Robert A. Emmons, who has written Thanks! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier.

"It's hope. With gratitude, you have confidence, a trust in your own skills, trust in other people."

In good times, it is easy to find reason to give thanks. The challenge is staying grateful in times of trouble, in these times of financial failures, layoffs, foreclosures, wars.

"It is precisely in these crisis situations that there is the most to gain from a grateful attitude," said Emmons, a professor at the University of California at Davis. Then, gratefulness serves as a well of resilience, "a rudder of stability in the economic maelstrom."   MORE

"Judge Rules Against Florida Gay Adoption Ban"

You may have heard about the above news last week. Meanwhile, in suburban Milwaukee: A married couple tried to adopt their foster child. The baby was taken from them and given to his aunt as foster mother. She killed him. They tried to help pay for his funeral. The child welfare bureau is now investigating the wife's mental health, and billing them for money they were "overpaid" as foster parents.

Good thing the Milwaukee Soviet Socialist Republic is on the case! And clearly, we need "gay adoption" - there aren't any married couples willing to adopt kids.

"U.S. Bishops Offer Support to Mormons Targeted for Defending Marriage, Backing California's Proposition Eight"

Sounds like an excellent example of interreligious cooperation.

"The Marriage Juggernaut: Why Arizona flipped on gay nuptials."

And: the latest from the Vatican on the topic, apropos of a proposed UN resolution.

The NRLC's Dave Andrusko has word.

Among the strongest pillars upholding the continued viability of legalized abortion is the conclusion (as expressed recently by the pro-abortion American Psychological Association) that "There is no credible evidence that a single elective abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in and of itself causes mental health problems for adult women." That was never true, isn't true, and, judging by a raft of recent carefully constructed studies, has less support than ever. ...

A reader emails:

I'm writing you in hopes that you and the others on Heart, Mind, and Strength will spread the word about the financial needs of the Catholic Home Study Program. Below is an excerpt from their home page:

"We need donations to continue this program. Our expenses now exceed $300,000.00 per year, as we send more than 13,000 free courses to people everywhere in the world. We are low on funding, and we need your help. All donations go directly to Catholic Home Study Service, and all donors are remembered daily in Father Lukefahr's prayers and Masses."

This program is important to me because I am using it to learn about Catholicism. With the books and tests, I can work at my own pace and can refer back to the text if I have questions. The series breaks down aspects of the faith into smaller chunks of information so that the process is not overwhelming.

My income is small so my donations to the ministry are small, but I know there are people who can help this service. Would you please pass this information along to your readers?

They come from transubstantiation, of course. Gee, Greg, you wouldn't do very well on the intro theology exam I'm giving in a few days.

WSJ piece. Last few paragraphs are especially interesting:

... Even the habits that young people form with nonromantic companions can change the way they relate to their future spouses. It is very common, for instance, for 20-somethings to form close, long-lasting friendships with members of the opposite sex. ... While in the past it was clear that a platonic friendship between a single woman and a single man would end when one of them got married -- or at least would wind down -- today that is not the case, according to Ms. Sollee. Instead, she notes, young people say: "Just because I'm getting married doesn't mean things will change." But those friendships can, over time, develop into a source of temptation.

Even friendships with members of the same sex generally used to fall by the wayside when people got married or, again, change in scale or importance. Ms. Sollee, who is in her 60s, recalls her own generation's attitude toward them: "The idea that these friendships would take any priority over your husband was unheard of." But she cites a number of 20- and 30-something women she knows who still have "girls' nights out" at bars and even go on vacation with their friends and without their husbands.

Mr. Laumann notes that while not a lot of quantitative research has been done on these friendships, there is plenty of evidence that they are occupying a more significant place in the lives of young people today. He cites a book called "Urban Tribe," by Ethan Watters, a man in San Francisco who writes about the difficulty of finding a wife who fits in with his group of friends. Such groups of friends represent a new kind of family for young adults. And while a potential spouse might initially prefer them to the stereotypical overbearing in-laws, it's clear that these friends are bringing a whole new set of problems to the table.

I got back Sunday evening from Thanksgiving break with Kim. She spent a heroic amount of time and effort cooking, and the results were excellent. Unfortunately for both of us, I came down with a cold a week ago today, and was mostly out of it from Weds.-Fri. I wasn't able to help much, and wasn't much up for eating and/or socializing.

I'm now recovering from the cold, having croaked and coughed my way through class yesterday (no Tuesday classes this semester, and tomorrow is my last day of teaching for fall).

Blogging is going to continue to be light for a while - lots of end-of-semester, pre-Christmas, wedding-planning, etc., stuff to do here. Starting with grading and making up a test.

has been posted!

ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2008) — Research shows for the first time that a group-based psychological treatment, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), could be a viable alternative to prescription drugs for people suffering from long-term depression.

In a study, published December 1, 2008 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, MBCT proved as effective as maintenance anti-depressants in preventing a relapse and more effective in enhancing peoples' quality of life. The study also showed MBCT to be as cost-effective as prescription drugs in helping people with a history of depression stay well in the longer-term.  MORE

With Thanksgiving just passed and Christmas to come, it makes sense to focus on the thankfulness we are all called to have toward the gift of life, especially the gift of the life of Christ into the world.  With a president-elect who has vowed to stand for abortion and push for it's constitutional right for each person, and the agenda of many groups to do the same on a global level through the United Nations, it would be worth the brief time to sign a petition that is an International Call for the Rights and Dignity of the Human Person and the Family.  Here is the link to go to: http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.95/default.asp

Here's a neat little story about the company that makes communion wafers.  They've captured 80% of the marketshare and make 25 million hosts/week!  MORE

"Discordant Voices Among eHarmony's Customers"

Amanda Brophy and J.P. Duffy met on eHarmony.com in 2006. Each appreciated the dating site's dedication to facilitating long-term relationships -- and the Christian background of the founders. Mr. Duffy, media director at the Family Research Council in Washington, and Ms. Brophy, an art teacher from Annapolis, Md., married last fall.

But now the Duffys are disappointed with eHarmony.com because the Pasadena, Calif.-based company just capitulated to an anti-discrimination lawsuit and agreed to launch a separate site aimed at matching homosexuals with suitable partners. A gay match-seeker in New Jersey filed a complaint, and the state's attorney general found probable cause that eHarmony had violated New Jersey's nondiscrimination statute.

"EHarmony's success didn't come from its slick advertising campaigns," said Mr. Duffy. "It was their high moral standards, because they rose above the 'hook-up' mentality of their competitors, and because they were openly helping people find marriage partners." Mr. Duffy is hardly alone among Christian conservatives in his disappointment with eHarmony. ...

Researchers at the University of Houston report that partners who base their self-worth solely upon the outcomes of romantic interactions may experience depression and anxiety and ultimately undermine their relationships.

It supports the understanding that "Our hearts are restless, until they rest in Thee", as St. Augustine is quoted as having said.  If our hope, peace, joy, confidence, etc. rise and fall based on our relationship with another person, then we have idolized them and our focus is skewed.  Our internal compass needs to be our relationship with Christ, from there all other relationships are kept in balance and we are better apt to see them more clearly.  Build your house on the Rock ...

Here is more on the study: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/uoh-tmc120208.php

A reader emails:

The WSJ article you linked about the high rates of infidelity among twenty-somethings reminded me of a recent article by Kay Hymnowitz in City Journal. Earlier this year, she wrote an article about young men who are too happy to hang with the guys watching South Park or crude movies, or playing video games.

Based on an avalanche of feedback she got from that story, she wrote this most recent article:

Their argument, in effect, was that the SYM is putting off traditional markers of adulthood—one wife, two kids, three bathrooms—not because he’s immature but because he’s angry. He’s angry because he thinks that young women are dishonest, self-involved, slutty, manipulative, shallow, controlling, and gold-digging. He’s angry because he thinks that the culture disses all things male. He’s angry because he thinks that marriage these days is a raw deal for men. ...

As the disenchanted SYM sees it, then, resistance to settling down is a rational response to a dating environment designed and ruled by women with only their own interests in mind.

The article is very depressing, with claims such as "Losing all hope is freedom." Let us hope that the number of men subscribing to such views is smaller than Hymnowitz believes and that the number of women behaving as described is likewise overstated.

"Business Bookshelf Showroom Showdown: Car dealerships are a playing field: If you don't know the rules, you'll lose the game."

"Mr. Gelber's story about the sister-victimizing salesman is one of many caricatures that probably overstate the rapacious nature of the average salesman."

I'm not so sure that the rapacious nature of the average car salesman is capable of being overstated.

During this time of year when it is easy to become a sedentary home-slug, exercise has multiple benefits.  A recent study notes how exercise helps overweight children reduce anger expression.  Here's more:

  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081124130951.htm

Obama's Inauguaration committee says DON'T BRING YOUR KIDS to the ceremony.

Of course, it makes sense - it WILL be a very cold day, a very long wait, security concerns...I doubt that I would take MY kids under those circumstances (little as they are).  But after his comments about children being a PUNISHMENT, this little news item just brought to mind a bunch of , well, snarky thoughts.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, most empty-nesters' marriages are even more satisfying than when the kids were at home. 

Gorchoff is quick to point out that the results do not suggest that all children should be sent away to boarding school for the sake of their parents’ marriage.

Rather, she notes that “this research does suggest that women should not wait until their children leave home to schedule enjoyable time with their partners.”  MORE

Interesting WP piece this morning.

Happiness is contagious, spreading among friends, neighbors, siblings and spouses like the flu, according to a large study that for the first time shows how emotion can ripple through clusters of people who may not even know each other. ...

One person's happiness can affect another's for as much as a year, the researchers found, and while unhappiness can also spread from person to person, the "infectiousness" of that emotion appears to be far weaker. ...

Unlike Rusty, however, I have a pile of grading to work on.

Buy one for all your nursing-mother friends - or your favorite priest or seminarian!  Spread the word about God's plan for mothers and babies!!  On sale through Dec. 12 for $2 a copy!!

God has a plan for you and your baby, and it starts with breastfeeding. He wants you to use the gifts He gave you — physical and spiritual — to help your baby thrive and mold you into a loving Catholic mother. That’s why the Church has long promoted breastfeeding.

Today, many mothers know that the medical evidence in favor of breastfeeding is overwhelming: your milk nourishes your baby and boosts his immunity; your warm, reassuring maternal embrace fosters his early mental and emotional development.

But the spiritual reasons for breastfeeding are just as strong. Citing priests and popes, author Sheila Kippley here shows that nursing is not only the best way to ensure your baby’s health and proper psychological development; it’s an integral part of your vocation as a Catholic mother.

Nursing your baby is an act of Christian charity. Indeed, Pope John Paul II says that nursing mothers are “truly heroic.” Their selflessness is a boon to the family, the Church, and society. Breastfeeding creates the intimate bonds of love and trust on which all Christian communion is based. It awakens tenderness in you and a sense of wonder at creation, especially at the marvel you cradle in your arms, your tiny baby.

These pages show that breastfeeding is the best care you can give your baby, and it’s also good for you as a Catholic woman. Nursing will deepen your love and develop in you habits of meditation and prayer.

It's one of my favorite books and it's the foundational text for the Catholic Nursing Mothers League (yes, we're still around - check us out at CNMLChat@yahoogroups.com). 

A midwife pleads for more access to perinatal hospice for families whose babies in utero have been diagnosed with conditions "incompatible with life."   Here, here!

Here is one very moving video of a family whose baby was born with Trisomy 13 and lived only 17 hours, but whose life was cherished for every single moment. 

Our Mass readings for tomorrow, the second Sunday of Advent, contain what might at first seem to be contrasting messages. The first reading, from Isaiah - from which St. Mark's words about St. John the Baptist are taken - indicates that God's people had to wait, in exile in Babylon, for his coming to them in order that they might receive due punishment - and even more - for their sins. Only after this has happened does God come in power to free them from captivity and carry them, tenderly, back to their promised land. Or, understood in its spiritual sense, the reading tells us that God's people had to wait, centuries longer still, for the coming of the Anointed One and Savior in order that, again, they might first experience the consequences of their sins.

Our second reading, from St. Peter, however, speaks of God's patience with us sinners. The Lord's coming is "delayed" in order that we might first come to repentance - in order that his coming might be for us an occasion of life rather than death, reward rather than punishment.

The point, of course, is that the purposes of the Lord's first and second comings - of his humble birth, and of his glorious return - are somewhat different. There is continuity between them; they both have to do with God's loving and saving plan. But his first coming is the necessary preparation for the second.

God's people could not, on their own, turn from sin and death to life and holiness. We could not, on our own, do so. Even after experiencing some of the punishment due for our sins, we could not turn from sin to holiness. It is only the coming to us of God's grace in the incarnate Son, our Savior, that enables this conversion. The Lord comes to deliver us, first of all, from sin itself - and then also, therefore, from its consequences.

Furthermore, in God's loving plan, his grace does not have to do all its work in us instantaneously. The healing and transformation of nature by grace can take time - even a whole lifetime. God is, therefore, even after the life and death and resurrection and ascension of Christ and his sending of the Spirit, patient with us. At the Lord's return and the final judgment, he wants to be able to reward us with eternal life, rather than punish us with eternal death.

Baptized with the Holy Spirit, into Christ, as sons and daughters of the Father, may we cooperate with God's loving and saving plan for us, his plan for our repentance and holiness and eternal life. May this holy season of Advent especially be a time of renewed growth in God's grace and in holiness and life. May we thus prepare for our annual celebration of the birth of our Savior, and for his coming again in glory at the end of time.

From a leukemia parents list I am on - I have not verified the date of this appeal or checked it out with Snopes.com, but am posting it immediately because if it is reliable, the need is urgent. Our son Jonathan was in need of platelets last summer and due to a blood and platelet shortage he could not receive the whole amount his doctor asked for.  It was scary and very dangerous for him.  Please give blood and platelets regularly.  Platelets can be donated every 2 weeks - they have a very short shelf life but cancer patients of all ages need them desperately - but especially childhood leukemia patients.  Help - give to this boy below, but give wherever you are to help children in your area!

 There is a little boy that goes to Pulaski Academy and has just found out
> he has Leukemia.    He is in intensive care at Children's Hospital.  They
> are in need of AB negative platelets.  American Red Cross blood bank does
> not have any AB negative platelets right now.If you have AB negative blood
> or know someone who does, you can go to the local blood bank, Little Rock
> Donor Center, 401 South Monroe, Little Rock, AR  72205, (501) 614-4422 and
> donate platelets and please tell them they are for Patrick Rolliffson.
> The donation center recommends you call in advance to set up an
> appointment.  This need is UREGENT!    Doctors say that the chemo
> treatment needs to start within the next two days.Thanks so much for your
> attention regarding this.  It just breaks my heart.  He is just so little
> and only in 4th grade.  Please forward on to others who may be able to
> help.  His dad is a match but has given all platelets allowed and they
> still don?t have enough.Best regards,Kathy PerezMan!
> ager,
> Member DevelopmentLittle Rock Regional Chamber of
> Commercekperez@littlerockchamber.com

Be aware that it is not always possible for a family member to donate in time to save a child's life - processing of even a family member donation, even of a parent, can take days and is often not an option due to the paperwork involved.  Many people assume that a child can just receive blood from his or her parents, but even though both John and I were matches for Jonathan, our hospitals would not take our platelet donations directly for our own son because of policies that would make it take too long to work.