Advent @mwbh

I stole this Advent Wreath from Jeff "The Curt Jester" Miller, as well as his "Christmas Countdown" code. For the latter, I made it "more Catholic," by adding the word "fasting," and rendering the Christmas announcement in Latin. Jeff's a good sport; he doesn't mind. Click on his name for a piece of the action for yourselves.

There have been a number of ideas for alternate ways to celebrate the season authentically, but a comprehensive study by our Research Department indicates, that most Catholic blog readers prefer to bitch and moan about crass consumerism, and not enough "keeping Christ in Christmas" by everybody else. Our respondents, by and large, prefer to wait for "the Church" to do something about it, as soon as the American bishops finalize the latest proposal of mandatory x-ray scans and pat-downs for volunteer parish work.

Well, the laity are "the Church" in the public square, so guys, we've got a long wait.

But hey, no matter! We might be so moved as to dig into our archives for a few good nuggets anyway. Keep those readership stats up, kids, and we may devote a week in September next year to preparations (which in most parishes, do start that early). For now, we'll give the huddled masses, including the slew of new readers in the past year, a taste of what they've been missing. Stuff you will not find on any other Catholic blog.

Not even You Know Who! (gasp!)

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ADDENDUM: One of the common misconceptions is that, because Advent is a time of preparation (and traditionally, of self-mortification) in advance of the Great Feast, it is premature or otherwise improper to have "Christmas Parties" or otherwise enable a celebratory atmosphere. Stick around, dear reader, and you can learn about the real deal.

That's right, we're that good.
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