Advent 2022

It is being announced today on UU A Way Of Life that Advent, 2022 begins this coming Sunday, November 27th, 2022 and lasts for four Sundays before Christmas. The fourth Sunday of Advent in 2022 is December 24th, also known as Christmas eve.

Advent is a “season” in the Christian calendar that prepares for the birth of Jesus of Nazareth who came to be perceived as the long awaited Messiah of the Jewish people.

Jesus’ teachings expanded far beyond the Jewish people of his time and is now the basis for a worldwide religion and culture.

The season of Advent is characterized by hope for a better world and the coming of salvation for human beings captured through socialization and conditioning by the world of the ego at the expense of peace and bliss which many human beings have come to believe is their birthright.

All Saint's Day 2021

 Today, November 1, is All Saints' Day.

People forget that fact even though they make a big deal and take notice of Halloween, All Hallows Eve.

Who is your favorite saint?

In the Catholic Church there are seven sacraments with 3 being what are named "Sacraments of initiation: baptism, first holy communion, and confirmation.

At the sacrament of confirmation the applicant is asked to pick a saint's name. This is known as the person's "confirmation name." I chose Joseph.

St. Joseph is my patron saint. He was quite a guy. The husband of Mary and the Step-father of Jesus.

Who is your favorite saint?

Universalists believe in Sump'n Claus.

While most of the world believes in Santa Claus who knows if people are naughty or nice and only gives gifts to the nice people and coal to the naughty people, the Universalists believe in Sump'n Claus.

Real meaning of Halloween for Unitarian Universalists

Halloween is a day when we dress up in costumes, pretend we're somebody we're not, and go begging for candy and if we don't get any attack the person who is witholding.

Halloween is the day before All Saints Day which is the day the church honors and celebrates all the people who got into heaven. This celebration may not mean as much to Unitarian Universalists because we believe that not just some people get into heaven, but all people get into heaven.

The day after All Saints Day on November 1st, is All Souls Day which may be a more fitting holiday for Unitarian Universalists because All Souls Day is the day we celebrate all people not just the "good" ones.

The idea celebrated on All Saints Day that there are some good people who got into heaven and some bad people who were not admitted, while a big part of many religious theologies, is not a part of Unitarian Universalist theology which believes that we are all One and we all get into heaven or none of us do.

UUs believe in "all for one and one for all." Bad people get into heaven just like good people do. UUs don't believe that God is like Santa Claus who only gives presents for good little boys and girls. Jesus told us that we have to love our enemies and that to get to heaven we have to "love as He has loved."

So for UUs, Halloween is the day before All Saints Day and two days before All Souls Day, and we celebrate the enlightening idea that we all are going to heaven sooner or later. UUs believe that salvation is when everybody loves everybody all the time. At this time of year, we are reminded of that vision and goal.

Have fun on Halloween and remember the meaning of the season which is the celebration of our shared humanity and our shared destiny.

Spiritual Reading Discussion - Maturity by Osho, All of life should be a celebration

As your silence grows, your friendliness, your love grows; your life becomes a moment-to-moment dance, a joy, a celebration.

Have you ever thought about why, all over the world, in every culture, in every society, there are a few days in the year for celebration? These few days for celebration are just a compensation—because these societies have taken away all the celebration of your life, and if nothing is given to you in compensation your life can become a danger to the culture.

Every culture has to give some compensation to you so that you don’t feel completely lost in misery, in sadness. But these compensations are false.

Firecrackers and colored lights cannot make you rejoice. They are only for children—for you they are just a nuisance. But in your inner world there can be a continuity of lights, songs, joys.

Always remember that society compensates you when it feels that the repressed may explode into a dangerous situation if it is not compensated. The society finds some way of allowing you to let out the repressed—but this is not true celebration, and it cannot be true.

True celebration should come from your life, in your life.

And true celebration cannot be according to the calendar, that on the first of November you will celebrate. Strange, the whole year you are miserable and on the first of November suddenly you come out of misery, dancing? Either the misery was false or the first of November is false; both cannot be true. And once the first of November is gone you are back in your dark hole, everybody in his misery, everybody in his anxiety.

 Life should be a continuous celebration, a festival of lights the whole year round. Only then can you grow up, can you blossom.

Transform small things into celebration.

Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press.pp. xvii-xviii

Comment:

Do UUs say grace before meals? Do they practice mindful eating? I have done this with evangelical Christians but never with UUs. Why is that?

Do UUs say their prayers before they go to bed and when they awake in the morning? I was taught to do this as a child having been raised as a Roman Catholic, but I have never heard of this practice in Unitarian Universalism.

Do UUs pray five times a day directing their prayers towards Mecca as the Muslims do, or follow the practice of praying the hours as Christians do? I have never heard of such a thing in Unitarian Universalism.

There is some effort to be mindful and mindfulness practices have been encouraged by and for UUs, and these mindfulness practices take many forms such as mindful eating, mindful walking, mindful working.

The Buddhists have told us that prayer can be chopping wood and carrying water. It can be driving to work and home and doing our paperwork. Can running errands and taking the kids to their activities be a prayer? If so, Osho tells us, there is no need for holidays, for vacations, for celebrations. All of life is a celebration and every day is a holiday - a holy day.

Slow down and smell the roses and have a holy day today with several holy moments.

Nowruz is celebrated by 300 million Persians around the world to mark the new life of Spring

Today, January 26, 2019 is National Spouses Day

Celebrated annually on January 26th, National Spouses Day is an unofficial holiday which encourages couples to celebrate each other on this day. On this day, people are supposed to take time out of their busy schedule to show just how important their spouse is to them. After all, the love that isn’t tended is most likely the one that doesn’t thrive. This holiday shouldn’t be confused with Military Spouses Day – a holiday which falls on May 12th.

Interesting facts about marriage:

• The average married couple has sex once a week
• 20% of married couples have a sex-less marriage
• Over 300 couples marry in Las Vegas every single day
• Every hour, there are a 100 divorces in the United States. Couples who seriously dated at least two years or more before marriage have much lower divorce rates.
• The divorce rates for second marriages is higher than for first marriages. 
• The symtoms of marriage becoming toxic and breaking up are hurtful criticism, and the expression of contempt and disdain.
• Interracial marriage was banned in the U.S up until 1967. The number of mixed racial marriages has been rising since then.
• Gamophobia is the fear of commitment
• Wedding rings go back to Ancient Egypt
• Marriages and families are happier when there is at least a 5:1 ratio of compliments to criticisms.
• There are five love languages: physical touch, words of affirmation, spending quality time, acts of service, recieving gifts
• Most important thing people want from marriage is to know that their partner is going to be there for them.
• The best kind of marriage is one characterized by unconditional love. This kind of relationship is holy.

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