Advent begins this Sunday. I realize in Christian practice today, Advent for most is no wheres near as relevant and as important as Christmas shopping...

The attached prayer/meditation is addressed to God...By your prayer and/or meditation you may become God's agent for one extension of Christmas or ten thousand extensions of Christmas...

There is not a scintilla of doubt here: "Ask and you shall receive." -Charlie

Prayer To Live Mercifully

O God,

Teach me

Not to envy,

 to hate,

 to justify,

 to imitate,

 to support,

 to ennoble,

 or to kill for,

 Those who take the food from the table of others and then teach contentment,

  Those for whom the taxes are destined, who demand sacrifice,

 Those who eat their fill, who speak to the hungry of good times to come,

 Those who lead humanity into the abyss, calling

 Hate, love,

 Unfaithfulness, faithfulness,

 Lies, truth,

 Slavery, freedom,

 Too much, not enough,

 Homicide, heroism,

 Evil, good.

 And, O God,

 Teach me

 when I have food, to remember the hungry;

 
when I have work, to remember the jobless; 


 when I have a home, to remember the homeless; 


 when I am free, to remember the imprisoned,

 when I am without pain, to remember the suffering,

 when I am loved, to remember the unloved,

 when I am living, to remember the dying,

 when I am dead, to remember the living.

 And remembering, help me to destroy

 my complacency; 
bestir my compassion, 
and thereby

 spend my time and my eternity

 doing good upon earth, helping

 by word and deed, by prayer and sacrifice of self

 those who cry out

 for what I take for granted.

 Amen.

June 2010: Why it is that "Everyone but Christians understands that Jesus was nonviolent?'-Gandhi 

Email from a Palestinian Christian and a shopping don't list from Sabeel:

The Need for a Wake up Call 

November 23, 2010

Dear Friends:

What is it going to take to shake the world awake?  Again and again it is the same old story, and when I wrote much earlier that it is a waste of time, money and energy to keep sending those envoys to our region so as to ensure that the peace process does not fall apart,  I was not exaggerating.  You have all seen, watched and heard the intransigence of the Israeli Prime Minister.

 Not only did he refuse to extend the freeze on the Israeli settlements after the direct negotiations had restarted in Washington, he literally challenged the USA president by announcing the building of 1300 settler units as he was on his way to Washington to meet the Vice President, Mr. Biden  and the Secretary of  State, Mrs. Clinton .  When he is met so warmly with smiles and hugs, no wonder he could not care less. Even the United Nations Secretary General received him with warm hospitality despite the fact that  Israel continues to flout all United Nations resolutions.

I was in Hawaii on November 11, 2004 when Yasser Arafat passed away, and I wrote my regular reflection for the Witness magazine from there at the time, “Arafat and the Mirage of Peace,”  http://www.thewitness.org/article.php?id=253  After six years that article is just as relevant as it was then.

What is amazing however is that the USA administration is now offering Israel so many incentives and guarantees for simply freezing the settlement building for three months so that the peace talks can be resumed.  On the other hand the Palestinian Authority is blackmailed should it refuse to get engaged in those peace talks.  So what happens after the three months are over.  More bribery, more aid money and more planes?  When does  this charade come to an  end?  It never will because Israel creates a new distraction and deviation from the core issue every day.  And today the headlines in the papers focus on the approval of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) of having a referendum regarding the Israeli withdrawal  from Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, as if there are no UN resolutions regarding those territories, or no international law to set the record straight.

Nothing can be said any more.    Absolutely nothing!!!   But there is plenty that can be done.  And we are challenging you my dear friends, churches, human rights organizations and mostly, the United Nations and the USA administration to start talking and planning for sanctions so as to put an end to this brutal occupation.  An occupation that has torn apart not only the Palestinian Territories into separate enclaves, but it has torn the people apart; with different identities in the different locations:    Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza.  Over and above the shameful conflict between  Fateh and  Hamas has become almost as hopeless as the Palestinian Israeli conflict itself.  And only the occupation is benefiting from that internal conflict, and it is because of the occupation that the rift is there in the first place.

But then nothing makes sense any more neither on the  international or local affairs.  Yesterday the US special envoy for North Korea said that Pyongyang’s claim of a new uranium enrichment facility is provocative and disappointing.  Ironically on the other hand,  we never heard one comment of disappointment from US envoys to the Middle about Israel not allowing its nuclear facilities to be inspected.  That is over and above the fact that Israel has not signed the nonproliferation treaty.

When Saddam Hussein did not abide by the United Nations resolution,  Iraq, a once upon a time flourishing country,  got destroyed completely physically and morally, and up to  this day innocent people are paying the price.  The democracy,   which was promised to the  Iraqis, turned into a devastating nightmare.  And the most recent attacks on worshipers in their churches have become a great concern for all Christians in the Middle East.  But neither Christians nor Muslims have been spared in that futile war, or the war in Afghanistan.   And all that Mr. Bush could do about it now is sit and write his memoirs.  History will one day reveal the whole sad truth.  I am sure Mr. Obama is  much wiser than to wage a war on Iran or to give the blessing to Israel to do so. 

Best wishes to all of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving over this coming  week end, and I hope the day will come when all people can genuinely celebrate when justice and peace prevail.  Samia