Month: November 2014

Advent: The Church’s New Year

Posted November 30, 2014 in Faith / 0 Comments

It is Advent again. Let me just share with you how much I adore Advent! The beautiful Advent when we await the coming of the Lord as an infant in a stable in Bethlehem. The season of Advent also contains some of my favorite feast days: the Immaculate Conception on December 8th, Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th, Saint Lucy on December 13th (Did you know she’s my Confirmation saint?), and the Holy Innocents on December 28th.

Advent is beautiful to me because it is preparation, in particular preparation for the birth of the Lord Jesus. This is the season when the Church puts up more decorations, when people clean up their houses and put up lights. But it isn’t just the physical preparations for the Nativity of the Lord but also the spiritual. During the season of Advent I turn more towards prayer, especially daily prayer. As it was said in the homily today, it is during Advent when we remember that we can always come before the Lord, He is always waiting for us. It does not matter what time or place we pray for we can talk to our God anywhere, at any time.

It is during Advent when, children in particular, open Advent calendars. As a child I always had those ones with the fake-tasting chocolate in them. Now, I try to visit xt3’s virtual Advent calendar every day. As a child I wanted the chocolate. I’m sure I didn’t think that much about how the Advent calendar could inspire daily prayer. Now, however, that is exactly what I do.

Advent, as the Church’s New Year, is a great time to remember all that God has provided us with and to pray daily. Prayer doesn’t have to be long and tedious. It just has to be real, to really mean something. God is our Father and He wants us to speak to him. Let us all try to remember to speak to God daily this advent.

amanda

As a footnote: I have been recovering from being sick for the past almost two weeks, therefore, NaNoWriMo had no possible way to be finished and life has seemed super stressful. Now, in Advent, I hope things will slow down so I can just be.

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Review: The Singer of All Songs

Posted November 29, 2014 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments

Review: The Singer of All SongsThe Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable
Series: The Chanters of Tremaris #1
Publisher: Scholastic (2002)
Paperback (297 pages)
Rating:
Reading Challenges: Read 2014

Synopsis

Calwyn has never been beyond the high ice wall that guards the sisters of Antaris from the world of Tremaris. She knows only the rounds of her life as a novice ice priestess, tending her bees, singing her ice chantments, and dreaming. But then Calwyn befriends Darrow, a mysterious Outlander who appears inside the Wall and warns of an approaching danger. to help Darrow, to see the world, and perhaps to save it, Calwyn will leave the safety of the Wall for a journey with a man she barely knows – and an adventure as beautiful and dangerous as the music of chantment itself.

Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository


This is a book I have had for quite a while. Actually, I have the entire series. Every once in a while I pull them our for a reread. It has been a good two years since I last read this book.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books to Read this Winter

Posted November 25, 2014 in Reading / 4 Comments

toptentuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
This week’s list is the Top Ten Books On My Winter To Be Read List.

It seems like it has been winter here for a month already with all the snow and these double digits below 0ºF. I know January and February will get worse so I’m going to need a curl up with a good book and don’t leave home list. Here that is for me.

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