1st Vespers of Advent

I just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that Catholic TV is going to be airing the 1st vespers of Advent with Pope Benedict XVI from the Vatican on Sunday, November 29th at noon and 8pm. Here is their commercial for it:



The New Liturgical Movement already has pictures of the service on their site.

Tune in if you can to watch this beautiful beginning of Advent.

It's Christmas!!! - oh wait...its not even Thanksgiving yet.

I love Christmas. I just want to say that before I start complaining about so much of the stuff that comes with Christmas. To me Christmas is a very important day because it is the day we celebrate the birth of Christ. I love the beautiful music, visiting with family, and decorating the tree.

I also love Thanksgiving. And the season of Advent. That is why I am very bothered by the fact that I began seeing Christmas decorations on display in stores, Christmas advertisements on television, and Christmas lights on houses in October! I just saw a commerical on television yesterday advertising a Christmas program for kids that is going to be aired this week!

I think in some ways people think this early celebration of Christmas somehow enhances the holiday. I, however, think that it takes away from it very much, not to mention taking away almost completely the celebration of Thanksgiving and the preparation for Christmas that is the season of Advent. It seems that Christmas would be so much more meaningful if we waited in anticipation until the actual day to celebrate. What a celebration it would be! I must admit that in the last few years I am pretty much sick of Christmas by the time it even gets here. Even though I try to avoid Christmas as much as I can until we get close to December 25th, it is almost impossible. I am bombarded with commercials, advertisements, and music. It's everywhere!

So here is my suggestion: Wait for Christmas. Give thanks and celebrate on Thanksgiving, rather than spending the day planning your 18-hour shopping trip on "Black Friday." Spend the beautiful season of Advent preparing for and anticipating the coming of Our Lord. And finally, celebrate Christmas...on December 25th!

Television and Values

Last week, a cast member of Saturday Night Live said the F-word loud and clear on the air. This week David Letterman was applauded by his audience when he admitted that he had had sexual relationships with women who had worked for his show. This morning I was speaking with a good friend of mine who has two young children and who told me that it is difficult for him to have his children watch television because of the commericals that show images that he does not want his children seeing. The sisters pictured above would not be happy.

The values of our society have changed extremely rapidly and continue to, especially on TV, go down the tube (pun intended). Young people are using words regularly that if I would have used when I was a child, would have caused me to be in serious trouble. Anyone who denies that television, movies, the internet, and music is having a negative impact on our society is fooling themselves.

What can we do about this? Parents need to be responsible. Don't let the TV raise your children. Monitor what they watch and listen to. Talk to them about what they see. Counteract the negative stuff with positive stuff. We can bring values back to our society!

UPDATE:

The National Catholic Register has a good post about this topic here.