Advent Calendar 2010: Our Christmas Eve Prayer!

Christmas Eve Bread copyright Meady's Musings Production

Tonight on the Eve of Christmas 2010 as promised we have again been visited by our Brother in UCP-Deacon Greg Kirk to say for us a prayer! :)However technological difficulties made us lose the copy of the exact prayer and so he sent us a new one with renewed blessings just fresh from his Christmas Eve evening mass and is also in spirit with us tonight! So here it is along with what was our Christmas Prayer on the Advent calendar last year!

Tonight's Christmas Eve Prayer
by Deacon Greg Kirk

Gracious God,
You could not contain your love for your people. When your people did not or could not come to you, you came to us. A brilliant star is a symbol and reminder that your Son, Jesus, is the Light of the World. This Christmas may His Light and Love be born anew within us. Empower us to share this Light and Love with those around us. And may Peace finally reign in our world. Help us to share in the Divinity of Christ, the One who humbled Himself and came to share in our humanity.
Amen

THE CHRISTMAS PRAYER (first said in 2009)
By Deacon Greg Kirk

The Season of Light

Christmas is Light, the darkness has been overcome by one who came to love. Christmas is more than decorating trees, exchanging gifts and gathering with loved ones. Christmas is an opportunity to embrace the Light - to open to the power, bliss and peace the Light brings.

Jesus of Nazareth desired to know the Light and live within its embrace so deeply, he became one with the Light. He left a path, a way, for you and I to share in this bliss. "Love God with all your being and love your neighbor as you love yourself." Jesus assured us that we are loved completely, unconditionally. He encouraged us to root our lives in the hope and promise of this Love.

My prayer this Christmas is for people everywhere to experience the Light and Love within them, to know more deeply of their beauty and dignity, to experience the Essence or True Self within and to find the freedom to be the people they were created to be.

Darkness abounds in our world, in many circumstances and ways. Embracing the Light -being open to every person's truth, daring to love others, especially the vulnerable and marginalized, causes the darkness to recede and the Light to shine more brilliantly.

Dare to be Light, dare to be Love. Dare to be one with the One who is Light and Love as Jesus did. You will find new possibilities and power. You will find yourself. And you will find yourself within the heart of God.

Love, Greg

So here on UCP we wish you Merry Christmas and to all a good night and continue to catch the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse on our parent blog Meady's Musings.

Advent Calendar 2010: The Christ that is in Christmas..

No one knows for certain it seems really when Jesus Christ of Nazareth was born...in fact the 'old church' it seems never really celebrated his birth...his death and resurrection were seen as more important a celebration and we here at UCP have to say with agree with that! But regardless of not knowing the date for centuries Jesus Christ's birthday has been celebrated on the 25th of December and really all December long as the Advent.

Now don't get us wrong readers...there is actually a very good UCP reason to us saying all of this...you see really Christmas is already UCP at its finest because it is really already just a mis-mash of traditions from all over the world and really people from all over the world of all faiths and races and this and that celebrate it in their own special way. Yes at the centre of the montage for the festival is Jesus Christ of Nazareth who is a being of great importance here on UCP...on planet earth and Universe wide. But really he isn't doing much in Christmas except lending his name to as he is still a baby at the end of the Christmas story as most know it. And you see it is more than likely the case that most of the stuff about his birth that is celebrated for Christmas is fictionalized around some of these references in the Bible:

Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Luke 1:35
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God.

Matthew 1:23
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Luke 2:9-12
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. (10) And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. (11) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (12) And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:13-14
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, (14) “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Micah 5:2
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times. ”

Isaiah 9:6-7
(6) For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (7) Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

But what really is important is this:

Christmas is a time of good cheer...of sharing and giving...compassion and loving...
But we will let the writer that told Virginia that yes there was a Santa Claus tell you more here because really he did it so much better than we feel any of us on UCP can manage to chalk it up today so here he says it all...as he talks about the persona of one of the great fictionalized chracters associated with Christmas- Santa Claus who in spirit is Christ like and so in spirit for us here at UCP he does exist!


And really most of the goodness associated with Christmas is indeed behaviour that can be seen as Christ like...behaviour that Jesus Christ of Nazareth would have displayed throughout his life. Behaviour that we should follow as an example not just at Christmas time but all year true! So really we at Christmas time should not just celebrate his birth but his life and how he lived it and try to emulate it!

Advent Calendar 2010: The Four Sundays of Advent!

Image taken from this site.

We here at UCP apologise for not issuing a blog on every day of the calendar but we hope you've been catching The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse over on our parent blog Meady's Musings and hope to be regular from here on in...hopefully daily...and make sure to stay tuned for our special Christmas Eve prayer! :)

But on our posting today on Day 9 of the Advent calender we here at UCP would like to discuss the concept of the four Sundays of Advent! According to Christianity the Lord created the Heavens and Earth in six days and then on the seventh day he rested. This day in the Gregorian calendar is Sunday and traditionally for centuries and centuries is when Christians go to church. So just like there is the Advent Calendar all December long each Sunday in December is also an exciting countdown to Christmas and many churches mark the count down by lighting candles...I like how this site describes the whole ritual so here is an excerpt of it from the site Ken Collin's website:

"You light candles at the beginning of each service and snuff them out at the end.

* On the first Sunday in Advent, you light the first candle. Have your service, then snuff out the candle.
* On the second Sunday in Advent, you light two candles, first the one from the previous Sunday, then the second one. Have your service, then snuff out the candles.
* On the third Sunday in Advent, you light the two candles from the previous weeks, in the order you lit them before, then you add the third one. Have your service, then snuff out the candles.
* On the fourth Sunday in Advent, you light the three candles from the previous weeks, in the order you lit them before, then you light the fourth one. Have your service, then snuff out the candles. You should get a stair-step effect, since each candle is a different length by now.

If you have a fifth candle in the center, then on Christmas Day you light the four candles in the order you lit them before, and then you light the center candle. Have your service, then snuff out the candles.

You notice how I emphasize snuffing out the candles at the end of each service? This has absolutely no liturgical significance whatsoever, but it is vitally important and you must not leave it out. It prevents the candles from burning your house down."

I recommend that you snuff out the candles, rather than blowing them out. The reason is that if you blow them out, you might spray hot wax over everything.

And here is a lovely video of the ritual...the candles are usually part of a wreath called the Advent wreath:

A Prayer Declares Our Advent Calendar 2010 Open!

The Advent is again upon us
May your Divine light be our guide
As we Christmas plans contrive
The season should be festive
But yet also reflective

So come here to UCP
Share our Christmas treats
Filled with spirituality

We see the light in you
And you see the light in us
As we declare the Advent calendar 2010
Officially open!

Please read our parent blog Meady's Musings here for the details of how our calendar will unfold this year.

Kartik Nahan, Snaan or Snan 2010-The Cleansing!

Meady's Musings Production does not hold the rights to this picture and it is republished from this site.

Since UCP's existence we've explored the festival or Kartik year after year as you can see here:

1.Kartik Snan, Kartik Snaan or Kartik Nahan? Either Way an Ode to the Great Element Water!

2. A Pligrimage in the Month of Kartik

However just as ceremonial bathing on Kartik cleans us afresh to start anew...year after year on UCP we like to explore religious festivals from a new point of view...afresh...as if like babies we were exploring it for the first time...for as Jesus says you must make your heart like that of a child...then and only then can you enter the kingdom of his father! :)

So this year...2010...we've been exploring the Kartik Nahan again...looking at it this time from the point view of it being a ceremonial bath...for cleansing of sorts not really so much of the body but of the heart, soul and to some extent perhaps the mind...at least on the psychic level.

In one of the legends of Kartik it is said that when Lord Vishnu took the form of the Dwarf Brahmin Avatar or Vaman Avatar and then grew to large proportions after being granted three steps of land as dakshina with one step he then covered the whole earth and by the second step the entire material universe piercing the roof of the cosmos really with no where else for the third step to go so that King Mahabali in order to fulfill his promise offers up his head for the third step and is crushed by Lord Vishnu thus obtaining immortality for his benevolence in fulfilling his promise...as sides to this story if is said that through the hole in the universal roof Mata Ganga flowed finally entering the earthly plane! (See video below where the water that Bramha pours on the feet of Vaman Avatar can been seen as Ganga.)


So to touch her (Ganga) in her watery form is said to indeed be a very powerful thing for the devotee. Her water can cleanse devotees of all their sins...however even if you don't take this in the literal sense and only in the symbolic sense...let's still consider this today...if the water did have magical powers and so you could start over afresh and anew...freeing your mind of the past...how would you feel?...how would you be? Please consider this today as we here at UCP celebrate Kartik Nahan 2010!

Krishna and the Mountain...Govardhan Puja and Karma Yoga!

Meady's Musings Production does not own this picture or its rights and a re-print of it can be bought on this site.

It's the funniest thing...discussing the festival of Diwali and how it's celebrated world over with a friend...I came to thinking...well in many parts of the world Diwali is celebrated as a many days festival and as such on one of the days depending on the part of India you are in or from where in India your ancestors came Govardhan Puja is performed.

Now our point of raising this here on the prayers is to do with some of the series we have had on here before...in particular the God series where we explored God as water but we didn't explore however God as rain did we?...but it is interesting and it is why we are bringing this up on the prayers now...God as rain or rainfall in Hinduism is personified as the God Indra...he is also God of Gods or Deva hi Dev or God of the God Kingdom or God of Heaven or King of Heaven i.e. svargaloka.

Now we can see how rain or rainfall can be personified as a deity on its own i.e. deified especially by peoples of the past and rural peoples of today as in an agrarian society one needs rainfall to get those crops growing and flourishing...and it's how our stories here on the prayers begin and tie in....

Govardhan puja is done to celebrate the great mountain and the act of Krishna while incarnate on earth lifting it to shelter a village form the wrath of Indra...as he was pouring down his rain...because you see he had made it that the farmers at the time had to pray to him to get rainfall for their crops but the thing is when the farmers had to spend this whole chunk of time preparing and praying to him...well they couldn't tend their crops. And so Krishna said to them:

"Why do this? You people are farmers and should be spending your time tending to your crops not praying for rain! LOL! Are you people crazy! LOL!"

But the people said:

"Oh Krishna but we must as if we don't Indra will get mad! Really mad and we will either not have enough rain to nourish our crops or either he will rain down his wrath on us and flood out all our crops."

"So Krishna went on and on expounding his view of Karma yoga...recall this post here...and he told the people he would deal with Indra and they should tend their crops."

Now Indra got mad...he did get really mad! And he rained and rained his wrath down...but Krishna the supreme being that he is...lifted up Goverdhan hill with his finger and shelthered the entire village...crops, villagers, cows and all! So hence Krishna is seen to have defeated or humbled Indra...who came and asked for forgiveness...so the lessons learnt are that although the elements and nature can be worshipped they are just part of the whole. And the Universal or Supreme One himself, her or itself in this case personified by Krishna in the end is incharge. And such a being does not act on pride nor requires grand prayers and offerings onto to him,her or it to perform their roles. It's what they must do...in the same way so too we have roles that we should perform well...i.e. perform karma yoga...right action...that is each of us have our roles to act out...and we should act them out as well as we can! Indra, you, Krishna and me and all of us here on the prayers! :)Because even the Supreme One personified here as Krishna never asked to be glorified for what he did...he was just doing his karma to preach to the villagers and then to lift the mountain to protect them from the wrong actions of Indra as he Krishna is the Supreme One and as such his role is to do these things! LOL!

So Karma Yoga it is! :)

But we all in the end like to give praise even though it's not needed so when the farmers had done tending their crops and like us...when we are done with our daily chores...they did join in UCP:Universal Collective Prayers and although Krishna and the hill were just doing their jobs...the villagers honoured the great mountain for sheltering them and Krishna for lifting it and there you have it they performed Govardhan puja! :) Prayers from the heart...not extortion (you see because Indra was saying if you didn't pray to him he'd not do his role and that was just wrong man!)...and prayers not instead of your other work but after all your work is done!

Don't mind the accents of the Hare Krishnas from ISKCON here in the Youtube vid below showing the Govardhan puja as even if their mouths form the Sanskrit and Hindi words kinda badly their hearts are in the right place...and they're Bhaktivedantas after all so that's all good! And the beautiful picture at the top of the blog is also an original ISKCON print if I'm not mistaken!

Happy Diwali 2010 with Wonkie Cartoons!

UCP-Universal Collective Prayer has been on a kinda go slow...remember us saying so!

So we've decided to blatantly plagiarise a blog from another place to keep up with the Diwali celebs on the prayers...well with credit so it's legal...well not really plagiarise anyway seeing as it's really just a link back...but here is the cartoon from the top of the blog...



And since the cartoon speaks of Amitabh Bachchan we here at UCP thought we would just let you know of how he is in reality spending Diwali right now in India in his own words according to this article:

"Superstar Amitabh Bachchan when asked about his Diwali plans said, “”My father’s marked verse on the Ramayana shall be read, a gentle prayer shall go up for all, from all; sweets and bonuses shall be disbursed to staff by members of the family. There are now preparations on for Diwali, the lights for the house are being put up. The simple single toned white-yellow lights will be put all over the boundary and ceiling of the house and once up, they will be switched on when we shall finish our Diwali puja and light the first lamp.”

Well as far as we see Big B is going traditional way and we will definitely see the junior B with the Bachchan bahu celebrating Diwali."

And for sure in his own words with these twittering tweets from his Twitter account:

"# T175 -A united family is a model of unlimited strength ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -Just back from a family jamboree ! Nothing in the universe can ever be a bigger force than the coming together of family !! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -The greatest joy of life is to live up to commitment ! Give all to receive all ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 - सुख शांति आप सब के जीवन में सदा बनी रहे . मंगलम मंगलम मंगलम ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -लक्ष्मी माता देवी का स्वरुप आप सभी के घरों मे प्रवेश हो . यही इस्वर से प्रार्थना है . about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -दीपावली की अनेक अनेक शुभकामनाएं . ये वर्ष, हर वर्ष आप सब के जीवन में खुशियाँ ही खुशियाँ लाये . आप सब का जीवन मंगलमय हो . नमस्कार about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -A most prosperous Deepavali to all ..may all the Gods and Goddesses shower their unstinted bounty on you .. be environment conscious ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -It is remarkable how sufficient water intake can revive energy ... just did some gallons of it and feeling like conquering the world ! about 20 hours ago via web

# T175 -Up and about ... intake of water is minimal and need to improve that .. pooja in the house today ..and tomorrow .. love festivity about 20 hours ago via web "