Please tell me they meant to write "Santa!"

h/t Gerard

Is Christmas candy canes - or is it D-Day in the War Against Satan?

Msgr. Charles Pope writes in the National Catholic Register,

I, like you, love the beautiful Christmas season with all its sentimental appeal. And I wish you all of this in abundance. But as we know, the first Christmas was anything but sentimental and featured great hardships: Urgent travel to Bethlehem in the ninth month of pregnancy, no room at the inn, the subsequent flight to Egypt and the murder of the Holy Innocents. It is almost as though Satan, knowing that God was up to something good, tried to smoke out, prevent and pursue and destroy this great work of God.

...Sorry to get in the way of the tinsel and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. But there is a Satan, and he and his followers are to blame for most of the casualties you see in your family, in our culture and back through history.

... For the danger is that we have become too nice for our own good and that we fail to recognize the battle to which we are summoned and which was engaged that first Christmas. Jesus the King of the Universe entered the territory of the “prince of this world” and began to take back territory from him.

...And while the more paradoxical victory of the Cross cannot be forgotten, neither can the daring raid of Christmas night where the Lord advances against the foes, takes back territory, and inflicts on him the most serious blows. In the wailing of an infant can be heard a great war cry: “The long night of sin is over, the Light begins to shine, Arise O sleeper and Christ will give you light.”

And only in Christ can the angel’s song of “peace on earth” ever be truly found. Join him now in his great campaign of taking back territory from the terrible foe. An infant cries out; somewhere, a great Red Dragon is in terror, for he knows his time short.

Read more here.

Satan, your kingdom must come down!

thanks to Inherent Craige

Glad tidings of great joy

Though she rarely posts on Sunday, Ann Voskamp is out with her Advent video number three. Her first video was about Hope, which the presence of Christ brings. Number two was Peace, and the third, this week, is the Joy candle.

Ache is not the last word for those who believe God. Jesus is. Because of God's gift of Jesus, grace is now our oxygen.

Ann describes joy as an unstoppable reality for the Jesus follower.

When our lives are "large with Christ," our lives will birth joy.

Being a Jesus follower means more than just believing. The opposite of joy isn't unhappiness. The opposite of joy is unbelief!

Very real sacrifices turn into very real joy. Gospel = joy news. Eucharisteo = grace. We give thanks, and get joy. Joy is possible wherever you are, because Jesus is wherever you are.

The enemy of our soul is a prosecutor. He gets you to say that God and others are not doing enough, and you, yourself are not enough.

What stops joy? Ann says it is expectation. She asks, why deprive ourselves of joy's oxygen?

Joy is a flame that glimmers only in the palm of the open and humble hand. Flames need oxygen to light.

Hebrews: "For the joy that was set before Him, He went to the cross."

Do you see why I go to Ann's blog every single day?

Week two of Advent: Peace

Ann Voskamp presents thoughts about the second week of Advent. The theme is Peace. We are reconciled with God through Jesus. Jesus came to bring us absolute peace. Free of all accusation. Practical Peace on Earth.

The meaning of Satan's name is Prosecutor. Satan's purpose is to to prosecute you and get you to prosecute everyone else in your life. He prosecutes you with head talk and gets you to prosecute others with harsh talk. This is how he pummels the absolute peace you have with Christ. Chides you, jabs you, convinces you that you are not good enough.

Adam and Eve shattered the peace through their ingratitude. Christmas: God comes to us as a vulnerable Babe, that we would draw close, makes space in the peace of Christ. God is not about intimidation; He is about intimacy.