Tag Archives: candles

Celebrate

Celebrate: (v) to acknowledge a significant or happy day or event with a social gathering

The reason needs to be larger than the plan.

I have often attended celebrations where the actual organization of the event overshadowed the purpose for us gathering.

I sometimes feel that way when I go to church. We forget that the real significance of clumping is to strengthen one another, build up our
confidence and share a common testimony of faith. Yet by the time we get done with candles, musicians, sound systems, bulletins, announcements and special music, the beauty of the conclave seems to get swallowed up.

What is it I’m celebrating?

I would agree with Kool and the Gang that I can celebrate good times.

Celebrate another day of living.

I love to celebrate that evil viciously appears to be dominant until it’s suddenly snuffed by its own greed.

I like to celebrate that something can be non-existent and because I’m alive, the creativity I’ve been granted can make freshness appear.

What are we celebrating?

Some of the holidays that hang around baffle me. I’m certainly grateful for the Armed Forces, but how many times are we going to salute them every year? And does every celebration in America have to be accompanied with a protracted exercise in gluttony?

I celebrate that even as I write this, all across the world there are people I will never know who read it–and out of their English grammar propriety, feel completely licensed to rip it apart.

What a wonderful world.

That’s what we can celebrate–with all its madness, diversity and pending doom and gloom, life still manages to give us a daily clean canvas, available for beautiful painting.

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Accoutrements

by J. R. Practix

dictionary with letter A

Accoutrement: (n.) additional items of dress or equipment, or items carried or worn for a particular activity: the accoutrements of religious activity.

Isn’t it fascinating that the definition of accoutrements immediately goes to religion?

  • What would we do if we didn’t have little knick-knacks to set on the table for our worship experience?
  • What if there weren’t special hats?
  • What if the robes were put into mothballs?
  • What if the bread and wine were not actually symbolistic of the body and blood of Christ?
  • What if for some reason there was a shortage of candles?
  • What if pews were exchanged for bean bags?

Is it possible to have an experience of faith without having an open souvenir stand at the park of religion, where we pick up our memorabilia to confirm that “we went on a brief vacation with God?”

What if faith was really about loving one another? Do you need a cross for that?

What if belief in a Divine Creator was accentuated and exemplified by the expressions on our faces? Would that be better portrayed with sackcloth and ashes?

What if our actions were deemed just as valuable as our prayers? Would we need a kneeling rail?

If we removed all the accoutrements from the experiences of our lives, would they still be experiences–or do the doo-dads make us believe that it’s real?

  • Could we have a God without the Bible?
  • Could we have brotherhood without using a collection plate?
  • And could we feel free from our sins without being immersed in water?

Symbolism is a wonderful process–IF it is a visual confirmation of what is obviously going on in our souls.

But it is just a lousy replacement for how we really feel.