When it comes to Christmas tunes, I am a sucker for the classic crooning of Bing Crosby and Nate King Cole. Today, however, I have been in the mood for a change of pace and have been loving Christmas a la Relient K and Sixpense None the Richer. Falalalala!
Category Archives: holidays
Christmas Tunes
Holiday Food Gifts from Catholic Monasteries
Speaking of the holidays, if you are looking for an edible Christmas gift, we heartily recommend two gifts that we have received and truly enjoyed.
![mystic-monk-coffee[2] (2)](http://revolutionoflove.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/mystic-monk-coffee2-2.jpg)
Mystic Monk Coffee is roasted by the Carmelite Monks, a Roman Catholic monastery in the silence and solitude of the Rocky Mountains of northern Wyoming. The monks live a hidden life of prayer and contemplation in the pursuit of God. The monastery is inundated with young men who seek to leave everything to pray for the world, in a tradition at least a thousand years old. It is the monks’ great joy and privilege to share the fruit of their life with you in every cup of Mystic Monk Coffee.
My sis bought Brian the Mystic Monk Coffee for his birthday and he LOVED it! Personally, I am not a coffee drinker but the smell of their hazelnut coffee makes you seriously consider converting! They also sell k-cups and fair trade organic coffee.
Since 1848, when 44 Trappist monks from the Abbey of Melleray in western France made themselves a new home in the hills of central Kentucky, Gethsemani has been a hardworking community. Supporting themselves at first by farming, the monks now depend on their mail-order sales of homemade fruitcake, cheese and bourbon fudge.
To a Trappist, work is a form of prayer. In fact, the cycle of public prayers the monks chant seven times daily is known as the Work of God, or Opus Dei in Latin. Trappists also pray privately at intervals throughout the day, encountering God through the ancient monastic discipline known as lectio divina, or sacred reading.
We have only tasted their cheese so far, but it was superb. Make sure to try the “smoked” one. Yum!
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Movie Night: Holiday Affair (1949)
I was excited to see that the movie Holiday Affair is finally out on DVD. Made in 1949 and starring Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum, it is the perfect marriage of Christmas cheer and romantic comedy. Check it out!
12/9/04 – Bringing Advent Home
Some of the local Catholic families were talking about how they are incorporating the Advent season into their home. One of our friends had an excellent idea so I thought I’d share it with you. She says:
In previous years I’ve waited until the last minute to decorate, cook, etc, but that puts a huge strain on the season in those final days of Advent. This year I wanted to keep Advent as a waiting period and a time of penance, but also try to avoid the last minute rush. This is what we’re doing this year.
Once “Pink week” comes this Sunday (the third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday) we will slowly begin to decorate (dragging it out for the next 2 weeks) since “pink week” invites us to recognize the hope and joy to come. But our biggest change is we have our tree up and decorated with wonderful PURPLE balls, silver garland, and PURPLE and PINK lights. I saw all these things at Target and now we have an “Advent tree!” This way our tree is up and ready to go and is getting the water it needs. Closer to Christmas we’ll take down the purple and put up the Christmas decorations.
We also have Advent calendars, Advent wreath, candles in the window as a sign of waiting, etc.
I love that idea and will keep it in mind next year. (This year we were so excited to have a real tree and house to decorate that we put up our Christmas decorations now along with our advent things.) For a refresher you can also read last year’s article Keeping Christ in Advent and Christmas. If you have an advent idea you’d like to share, let us know!