{"id":25146,"date":"2009-12-06T20:59:56","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T00:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/12\/dolan-calls-for-a-truce-dont-m\/"},"modified":"2009-12-06T20:59:56","modified_gmt":"2009-12-07T00:59:56","slug":"dolan-calls-for-a-truce-dont-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/12\/dolan-calls-for-a-truce-dont-m\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolan calls for a truce: don&#8217;t mall each other at Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/TMD.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"TMD.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/assets_c\/2009\/12\/TMD-thumb-200x133-5167.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;\" \/><\/a>Today the <i>NY Daily News<\/i> published <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/opinions\/2009\/12\/06\/2009-12-06_lets_not_mall_each_other_over_holiday.html\">a letter written by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan<\/a>, archbishop of New York. I am happy that the News published this letter because it is not only a message for Christians, but people of faith, and those looking for the gift of faith. The substance of the Archbishop&#8217;s letter can be summarized in this way: this is a time for peace among peoples; for love and reconciliation. And even though not all go about observing this season in the same way, we ought to respect one another!&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Christians, particularly, are preparing themselves to welcome the Prince of Peace, the Wonder-Counselor, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, into their whole being. Others will be observing Chanuka and still others will just try to live the best they now how.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>While faith-neural language like &#8220;holiday parties,&#8221; &#8220;Seasons Greetings,&#8221; or &#8220;holiday sale,&#8221; can get annoying, even ridiculous, our attention ought not to be exclusively on how &#8220;others&#8221; are removing Jesus Christ from view at this point of the calendar. Sure, some of our brothers and sisters are frustrated by this move away from our Christian roots. I am, too. However, I am not giving more power to those who agitate to rid the world of Advent &amp; Christmas.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So we need ask ourselves, is the frustration worth it? Is letting the secularization of our Christian culture &#8220;get to us&#8221; giving more power to the forces of the faith-neutral ideologues in our lives than need be? If so, they&#8217;ve won. Reasonable people of faith and good will won&#8217;t think of Christ being removed from our hearts <b>or<\/b> families <b>or<\/b> the work place by anyone <b>but<\/b> ourselves. We can&#8217;t blame others for everything. So, the Archbishop&#8217;s call for a truce on all that distracts from the real meaning of Advent and the forthcoming Christmastide is well-taken.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I, for one, am going to get back to listening to &#8220;Christmas at Ephesus,&#8221; the recent album of Christmas hymns recorded by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.benedictinesofmary.org\/\">Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles<\/a>. Perhaps I&#8217;ll pray the Joyful mysteries of the rosary.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today the NY Daily News published a letter written by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York. I am happy that the News published this letter because it is not only a message for Christians, but people of faith, and those looking for the gift of faith. The substance of the Archbishop&#8217;s letter can &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/12\/dolan-calls-for-a-truce-dont-m\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dolan calls for a truce: don&#8217;t mall each other at Christmas<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,64],"tags":[32101,1875,1978],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}