PJBelfast

Today is the start of the liturgical calendar, the First Sunday of Advent.  Generally, the liturgical seasons in western Christianity are Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time (Time after Epiphany), Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time (Time after Pentecost). The four Sundays preceding Christmas, which is when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, are recognized for four virtues. The candles on the Advent wreath symbolize hope , love, joy and peace. The candles are lit in that order, beginning today. The first candle, which is purple, symbolizes hope . It is sometimes called the “Prophecy Candle” in remembrance of the prophets, especially Isaiah, who foretold the birth of Christ. It represents the expectation felt in anticipation of the coming Messiah Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. May your family be filled with hope during this Advent season

I do a deep clean of my aquarium about once every few months. This entails a total spring clean, replenishing one third of the water with fresh water and trimming back the plants. It involves vacuuming the substrate and cleaning the filter thoroughly, replacing the three dirty filter levels with clean ones. It takes me around three hours to complete. It's a labour of love,giving my fish a healthy environment.  However, the old filter head had unfortunately sprung a leak. Thankfully the floor the aquarium rests on is tiled, so I was able to mop up the puddle caused by the faulty filter head. I tried several things to fix the leak but the old head just needed replacing.  A quick visit to my favourite aquatics store and I was able to replace the faulty head unit with a new one. You've no idea how happy I was to get the old filter head replaced with a brand new one.  Christianity is just like that. It is a royal exchange by the Spirit - new for old . Don't try to fi

International Men's Day (IMD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on November 19 to recognize and celebrate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of men.  International Mens Day is founded upon 6 pillars In November 2009, the founder, Dr. Teelucksingh and other members of the IMD Coordination Committee (no longer in place) formally ratified the core objectives of International Men's Day. The Objectives were ratified to protect the central values of IMD and to offer a reliable reference point for future celebrants. These are considered to be the core objectives of IMD, namely: 1)To promote positive male role models; not just movie stars and sports men but everyday, working class men who are living decent, honest lives. 2)To celebrate men’s positive contributions to society, community, family, marriage, child care, and to the environment. 3)To focus on men’s health and wellbeing; social, emotional, physical and spiritual. 4)To highlight discrimin

I was reminded this morning of the really important stuff and the riches that money can't buy. In 1000 AD, 186 years after the death of Emperor Charlemagne, officials of the Emperor Otto re-opened Charlemagne’s large tomb. Otto's officials were toom raiders wanting to steal the crown. Before them was an extraordinary sight. In the midst of all the finery buried with him—the gold, the jewels, the priceless treasure—there was the skeleton of Charlemagne himself, still seated on his throne, still wearing his crown. In his lap, there lay a Bible, and a bony finger rested on Mark 8:36: “ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” The wealthy Charlemagne pointed to what he deemed truly important. He knew that spiritual riches were eternal, whereas riches in life were all but temporary. As they say " You can't take it with you. "  Naked you came and naked you will depart! Listen to the wise Solomon.   Here’s a piece of

We have been blessed with five senses. - Hearing - Touch - Smell - Taste and - Sight Mrs B. and I discussed the question " if you were denied one sense which could you do without?" We both agreed that we wouldn't miss hearing as much as loosing the others. That said, we'd hate to lose any. With Covid-19 many of those infected say part of the side-effects of the pandemic  that they loose their sense of taste .  Can you imagine this?  Tasting a succulent steak and not enjoying the flavoursome taste.  Tasting a strawberry ice cream and it tasting like ice.  Tasting a chicken burger and it tasting like chalk! Not a wonder the scriptures say " Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8a). People outside of faith are like those with Covid-19. They don't understand the wonderfully " good " taste that those of us with Christian faith experience. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow

It's that time of year again. The clocks have gone back an hour and the autumn leaves are all over roads and gardens. With the dark evenings my wife and I have succumbed to wearing (rather uncool) glow-lights strapped to each arm, warning oncoming motorists of our presence. In the spring I noticed  that the bald patches on my lawn were largely due to the fact that dead leaves that had smothered the grass. This baldness was aided by a pesky badger who likes to dig my lawn in the wee hours. So today was a good day. I decided to rake up all the fallen leaves on the lawn and flowerbeds. I then used a paver blade scraper to remove weeds and grass that had grown between the paving stones. This was followed by power hosing the paving stones on our path and patio. The grey paviors had actually gone green with algae. The power hose did a brilliant job, totally cleaning them (see photo above). This power hose cleaning is great analogy about the condition of our soul. When the

Three verses.  14 But Zion (Israel) said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me (Isaiah 49:14-16)  Sometimes we need reminded of that we are " unforgettable "  to the Lord. It is impossible for Him to forget us!  The illustration used in the scripture here, is that of the loving-compassion of a mother for her suckling baby.  As doting grandparents we look adoringly at our newborn grandkids and yet witness the even greater love of their mums.  The scripture reminds us that even a mothers love forgets at times, yet God's love never ever forgets us. Just as a stone mason inscribes names and dates on a headstone, so God has " engraved us on the palms of His hands. "  Maybe when we meet Jesus, as the Fanny Crosby s