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Originally Posted by CherryBomb 
Today is Advent Sunday! I love Advent. Do any of you have any specials plans or traditions?
My plan is this: I made our Advent wreath and that's all we had for first week of Advent. I plan to put Christmas pictures in our frames and decorate our bar next week. Then I'll string some lights up around the house the 3rd week, and we'll put our tree up for the 4th week. I leave all decorations (except the Advent wreath) out through the end of the Christmas season (which means a pretty dry tree at the end, lol).
I received a copy of the Magnificat in the mail (I'm totally subscribing once we get on our feet money-wise) and wanted to say the Advent wreath blessing the first time we lit a candle, but my sister fussed about it and I didn't even try after that b/c I know my husband wouldn't have backed me up. I get a little embarrassed about doing too much Catholic stuff b/c I'm the only one that believes in it. (My husband did take DD to Mass Sunday even though I was sick and didn't go. I was so proud of him!)
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Originally Posted by
frugalmama I'm not sure what we're going to do this year for advent. I'm still struggling in my faith and wondering if I did the right thing when I converted to Catholicism, haven't been able to get DD {now 4} baptized, and dealing with family issues. I had everything lined up to get DD baptized with the priest who was doing the latin mass here, but the bishop removed him from his post and now I'm starting over again since the new priest who doesn't see a "sincere enough commitment" aka tithes and attending the classes, neither of which is possible right now with my family and financial issues. I'm debating taking DD to the Episcopal church down the street and having her baptized as they are more than willing and it should be accepted by the Catholic Parish.
The only thing I know we're doing for sure this year is not putting up the tree until Christmas eve and doing some sort of St. Nicholas Day stocking thing.
Please don't give up! I'll pray for you. I understand some of the stuff you're going through, and even if it's difficult, I know we made the right decision. I wouldn't advise going the Episcopal route. The Church may accept it, but do you really want to do something so important through another faith tradition?
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Originally Posted by
frugalmama Quote:
Originally Posted by
PatienceAndLove If the priest is not "seeing effort", then maybe you need to schedule a sit-down or phone conversation with him. Explain the issues keeping you from tithing and your classes. Remember that he is new, and has the whole parish to get used to, and to catch up on all the information passed to him from the previous priest.
And yes, you did the right then when you converted. Don't let Satan get under your skin and tell you that you were wrong. You are home, and we want you here! We love you!
I did meet with him to try to explain things and why I can't do classes, etc - but he still wants me to attend them. With no car and caring for a newly blind mother and a dad with dementia it's just not possible - I'm doing good to make it to Mass once a month right now. I don't think so much it's him, but the actual parish priest for the parish that is being a stickler on the classes - our TLM is held at a parish church as a kind of off-shoot, but everything is recorded through the actual parish priest that is not a fan of the TLM. The classes are a requirement of the main non-TLM parish for baptism.
I think mostly right now everything is up in the air in my diocese, lots of priests moved around and then we just got a new bishop that everyone is still trying to see where stands on things. We're not even sure right now that our TLM will be allowed to continue with this new bishop.
I feel your pain on the Baptism trouble. My parish has a lot of hoops we're having to jump through. First of all, I'm the only parent that is Catholic. And I had to do quite a bit of convincing to get DH to even agree to have the kids Baptised. The parish requires that not only do I have to attend two Baptism classes but my DH must as well. He works late and cannot attend, so we have to schedule a separate meeting to have DH educated regarding the Sacrament. AND, they want us to Convalidate our marriage. I don't think DH is going to go for it all. It was all I could do to convince him to stand up there with me and the kids during the Baptism. I don't know about all of this extra stuff. Some of it seems unreasonable. My sponsor/my kids' godmother says that they cannot deny you the Sacrament. She suggested I call other parishes in the area. Could you do the same?
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JMJ Our Advent traditions also include an Advent wreath and waiting for Christmas to celebrate Christmas. We make our own candles and use increasingly light colors of purple for the candles on our Advent wreath (except the pink one) to signify it getting closer to the Light of Christmas. We also set up our manger scene at the beginning of Advent. Mary and Joseph are positioned across the house from the stable and "travel to Bethlehem" during Advent. On Christmas eve, we read the Christmas story and then put Mary and Joseph in the stable and Jesus comes. The shepherds, originally positioned nearby the stable also arrive. The magi are then positioned across the house from the stable, and they travel throughout the 12 days of Christmas and arrive on Epiphany. It is exciting for me to plan a lot of our family traditions this year since it will be our first year at home on Christmas eve and Christmas day since we got married.
I've heard of this, and I really want to do it. But we don't have a Manger Scene. I think my mom may be looking for a good one to get us.
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Originally Posted by
PatienceAndLove We make Mary and Joseph, as well as the Wise Men, travel as well!
I am actually wanting the Las Posadas figurines. What can I say.... I am a bit OCD, LoL.
Those are nice figurines.
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